Set up BuddyBoss Platform

BuddyBoss Platform is a free plugin that replaces BuddyPress rather than running alongside it. Reign detects which one you have installed and adjusts itself automatically. Most of what applies to a plain BuddyPress site also applies here, so start with set up BuddyPress for the shared steps (components, page assignment, the Community Settings panel and tabs) and treat this page as the differences.

Install and activate

Go to Plugins > Add New, search for “BuddyBoss Platform”, then Install Now and Activate. Assign its component pages the same way you would for BuddyPress, under its own settings screen.

Reign detects it automatically

There is no switch to flip. Reign checks whether the active platform is BuddyBoss and, if so, swaps in a separate set of template files it ships specifically for BuddyBoss: activity entries, group and member directory loops, group and member single-page headers, group and member “home” wrappers, notifications, the friend-requests list, member settings, and the registration form. On plain BuddyPress, Reign uses its BP Nouveau template set instead. You will not see a setting for this either way; it follows whichever plugin is active.

The same detection also changes what appears in the Customizer’s Community Settings panel and in Reign Settings, described below.

What differs in Reign Settings > Community

Open Reign Settings > Community > Community Settings > Member/Group Cover Header Layout. On a BuddyBoss site:

• The Avatar Settings tab is not shown. BuddyBoss Platform manages its own avatars, so Reign’s default-avatar-image controls step aside rather than fight it.
• If BuddyBoss Platform Pro is active, each of the Member and Group Cover Header Layout options gains an Override Member/Group Cover Header Layout checkbox. Turn it on to make Reign’s own layout choice win over BuddyBoss Platform Pro’s “Header Style” setting, rather than the other way around.

In Advanced Settings, the Enable Activity Like Avatars toggle is hidden on BuddyBoss sites, since BuddyBoss has its own reactions feature covering the same ground.

What stays the same

The Customizer’s Community Settings panel (directory sidebar layouts, single member and group navigation style, and the main/sub navigation display style) works the same way on BuddyBoss as it does on BuddyPress, because BuddyBoss Platform still answers to the same version checks Reign uses to register those sections. See member and group directories for what those settings actually change.

Then check it

Load a member profile, a group, and their directories. Confirm the header layout and directory grid match what you chose, and that switching to a default WordPress theme is your fallback test if something looks wrong: if the same page still misbehaves there, the cause is in BuddyBoss Platform or WordPress, not Reign. See member or group pages return 404 for URL-level problems.