BRB

People commonly send "BRB" when messaging online or texting and need to leave a conversation but will return shortly. It communicates that their absence is momentary, instead of an extended period, like CUL or gb.

BRB became prominent in the early-2000s when people began texting on mobile phones and messaging online, whether when gaming or DMing on Twitter. Many use it when their absence is several minutes to an hour long.

People often use BRB when going to the bathroom, pausing a conversation to talk to someone else, or running a quick errand. For example, a guy may message a friend, "BRB, I gotta hit up the br."

When someone's G2PB, they might use BRB to mean "bathroom break." This use of BRB is far less common than "be right back" - but thankfully, someone who is taking a bathroom break will likely also BBS.

You'll know BRB means bathroom break if it's included in a message like "gotta take a BRB" or "need a quick BRB," in which it wouldn't make sense for BRB to mean be right back. Expert chatters may combine both BRBs into one acronym, BRBRB, which stands for "bathroom, be right back."