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Queer youth seek community and safe spaces online. Instead, they face a surge in online hate. And this surge in hate is as disturbing offline, with a 388% increase in police-reported hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation from 2016 to 2023, according to recent data made available by the Government of Canada.
It Gets Better Canada (IGBC), a registered charity that helps build a world where all 2SLGBTQ+ youth are free to live equally and know their worthiness and power as individuals, decided to take action.
Together with its Youth Network, we created Glo: a queer app to navigate cyberbullying, misinformation and digital wellbeing.
10
months from kickoff to launch
100 %
privacy-first architecture with all data stored locally and 100% free with zero ads or in-app purchases
55 %
progressed within a content journey
6 +
minutes of engagement time on average
REF transformed our expert educational content into an engaging, gamified mental health tool for 2SLGBTQ+ youth. It competes with social platforms ethically, empowering users to build resilience while ensuring complete data privacy and security.
Omid Razavi, Executive Director, It Gets Better Canada (IGB-CSA Canada)
Glo, a companion creature introduced during onboarding, acts as an emotional anchor. It evolves as users complete educational journeys (stress management, communication, digital literacy), creating a powerful growth feedback loop.
Glo also provides personalized micro-moments such as affirmations, 2SLGBTQ+ celebrations, education and check-ins, establishing a gentle habit loop for regular, non-overwhelming engagement via the app and push notifications.
The app’s core is built on Journeys, which are themed learning paths. Developed in partnership with expert academics and IGBC teams, these paths tackle real-world challenges faced by 2SLGBTQ+ youth. Topics include navigating social media, identifying misinformation, managing stress and practicing healthy communication.
To accommodate different learning styles and prevent boredom, content is delivered in varied, bite-sized, mobile-first formats such as short videos, quizzes and story-based modules.
New users start with an introductory Journey that acts as a tutorial for both app mechanics and foundational concepts before accessing the full content.
Completing a Journey rewards users with Glo’s evolution and unlocks access to customization options, turning aesthetic choices into affirmations of individuality.
Glo’s appearance evolves with engagement, unlocking exclusive accessories and skins as users complete learning journeys.
The customization options are virtually limitless, built upon a wide array of combinations that incorporate cultural signifiers identified through co-creation and user research.
In an era where most platforms exploit user data, Glo takes a radically different approach. Privacy isn’t a selling point or a checkbox – it’s the principle that shaped every decision we made.
All user data is stored locally on-device. This eliminates user accounts, cloud storage and server-side tracking, offering profound safety and respect for vulnerable users, especially minors navigating sensitive topics such as cyberbullying and mental health.
The app genuinely protects users, rather than surveilling them.
Ethics is foundational to every design choice. The push notification system encourages users’ autonomous choices without using FOMO or guilt-tripping tactics, and users retain full control over notification preferences.
Glo is 100% free, with no ads or in-app purchases, removing the financial incentives for exploitative design patterns such as dark patterns, paywalled content or attention-extracting algorithms. Public funding enabled the team to prioritize pure user benefit over business-driven retention metrics.
The IGBC team, along with its Youth Network, played a vital role from the outset, offering crucial input that shaped the project. Their participation involved user research sessions, including lean prototyping and the evaluation of potential content and features. The voices of 2SLGBTQ+ youth were particularly influential, directly impacting not only the user experience but also the fundamental privacy principles of the project.
This deep integration of user perspective resulted in an application that demonstrates technology can be both ethical and effective for vulnerable populations. By treating privacy as the foundation – rather than an optional feature – the app fosters the necessary trust for young people to engage with difficult subjects, confident that their data, identity and personal journey are completely protected and remain their own.
