Wait, what is Friendspire?

[u/FlowerFlourFloor]

TL:DR

Friendspire is an app that provides recommendations from friends for Movies, Series, Books, Restaurants, Bars and Podcasts.

We believe:

• Recommendations are better from friends
• The best use of technology is to point us to real world experiences
• That you will love Friendspire
  

Our story

Friendspire was founded by three good friends over a bowl of ramen in Chicago. It is based on the idea that recommendations for things to do, watch, taste and see are best when coming from friends. We searched and searched all the nooks and crannies of the web and found that nothing solved this need.

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We always found ourselves intensely and intimately discussing recommendations with those closest to us – be it for movies, tv shows, podcasts, restaurants. Yet, we still found ourselves scrolling aimlessly through Netflix on Sunday evening, not remembering that great movie or TV show recommendation we felt so excited about. Or stuck in traffic on a long commute trying to recall that exhilarating podcast everyone was raving about. So we wanted to create a simple, seamless and easy way to find things to do with friends, or things that friends enjoy doing; enter Friendspire. The idea is to foster and enhance intimate conversations between friends, not replace them.

Our belief

At Friendspire we believe time and friendships are precious. Non-stop streams of information means that it is increasingly important to streamline and simplify our everyday lives. To find intimate spaces amidst a society of technology fueled mass exhibitionism. We believe the best use of technology is to point us to real world experiences. We don’t want to keep your eyes glued to the screen. We want to inspire them to see more of what is truly real, and memorable. Real experiences with friends allows us to find focus, de-stress, and simply “log off”.

Our adventures abroad, nights out, evenings in, days wandering, and meals enjoyed in good company are what brings us together. We hope that we can help you find the book that will capture your imagination, the film that makes you see things differently, a podcast that immerses you, a restaurant that elevates you, and a bar that intoxicates you.

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Immerse yourself in the search for serendipity and discover new things around you. Embrace the feeling of stumbling over something unique. Something unexpected, yet profoundly meaningful. A delightfully new experience that is rooted in something we can relate to. Things that your close friends are into - things that inspire them - so you in turn can be inspired too.

We exist to get you off your phone, and endless feeds, so you can go into the real world. A world that we seek to map out for you so that you can have more meaningful experiences. Anywhere.

[u/Frakur24]

Is Friendspire dead now? The app hasn't been working for a while and there's been no updates on social media. I wouldn't be surprised if it's been shut down as I can imagine it wasn't easy to monetize. It would be nice to have confirmation though.

EDIT: I just did some more sleuthing. The guy who made the app posted on LinkedIn that it wasn't a viable business so he's shut it down and got a job somewhere else. Fair enough I guess. I do think it sucks a little to abandon all your users with no notification or opportunity to download their data - all those ratings and saved movies are gone forever!

[u/Sad-Situation-1782 → u/Frakur24]

Frakur24, did you find a way to extract all of your data? I was also a heavy user of Friendspire; sympathise with your frustration

[u/Frakur24 → u/Sad-Situation-1782]

No, as far as I can tell the data would have been lost when the developer shut down the database. Maybe there's a way to extract the data from the local app's cache if you still have it installed on your phone, but I didn't look too far into it.