Texting created its own shorthand. In a chat, what does 'BRB' mean?

"BRB" stands for "be right back," a quick way to tell someone in a chat that you're stepping away briefly but will return shortly. It emerged from early internet chatrooms and instant messaging, where typing speed mattered and abbreviations let people signal a pause without dropping the conversation entirely.

"Happy birthday" and "good night" are unrelated phrases with their own separate meanings and don't fit the letters B-R-B at all — mixing them up would confuse the message rather than clarify it.

BRB is part of a whole ecosystem of chat shorthand born from 1990s messaging culture, alongside LOL (laughing out loud), TBH (to be honest), and IMO (in my opinion), many of which have since become common enough to appear in spoken conversation too.