Tether | algorithm-free social
Tools for connection
Only for iPhone
Free
Tether is a set of social tools that help people build better real-world relationships, acting as a sort of digital connective tissue. With Tether, you can coordinate social events, message individual friends or friend groups, and stay-up-to date with each others' lives through a non-addictive social feed.
more This release is a small follow-up to 1.3, fixing a few things we found shortly after it released.
• Some accounts could see an empty Notifications tab even when they had notifications waiting.
• Event details no longer get reverted when a guest RSVPs while looking at an older version of the event.
• Reporting a post now tells you if it didn't go through, instead of showing a success message.
• Guests are no longer removed from an event if the guest list doesn't finish loading before you save.
• Opening someone's profile from a friend request no longer stutters on the way in.
1.3.2 Sep 5
This release is specifically focused on quality, including as many bug fixes and performance improvements as we could implement this week.
• Photos keep the order you arranged them in, and a failed upload now tells you instead of quietly disappearing.
• Posts show new likes and comments as they arrive, rather than in 5 minute intervals.
• Chat notifications group by conversation, and no longer appear for a conversation you already have open.
• Fixed multi-day all-day events showing up twice and truncated text in the events map view.
• Refined the friend search system.
• Improved battery use on the Events tab, plus a long list of smaller stability fixes.
1.3 Sep 4
This release includes all the improvements from 1.2, plus a fix for an issue with the profile card.
1.2.1 Aug 29
This release adds a bunch of quality-of-life improvements as well as entirely new features like profile cards, the ability to add your full name, and new notification management options in settings.
• We've added back the ability to add your full name to your profile.
• Notifications are better supported: Choose which push notification types you get with new controls in settings, chat notifications now include profile photos, and tapping a notification takes you to the right place, whether that's a post, a friend request, or a reply in a thread. Your unread badge count is also more accurate now.
• Cover photos on events can now be repositioned, so you can always get the framing right without cropping anything away.
• Posts got a few upgrades: You can now take photos while creating posts (versus adding from the gallery), there's a new "caught up" screen when you've reached the end of the feed, and browse without the swipe getting stuck on images that haven't finished loading.
• Added new profile cards with scannable QR codes.
• Group chats and starting new conversations feel better, with clearer avatars and a redesigned management screen.
• Various smaller bug fixes and improvements.
1.2 Aug 28
This release complements the last one, further incorporating design elements introduced in the previous update into more of the app's surface area.
• Redesigned the information panels in the Posts feature, incorporating Liquid Glass for devices that support it.
• The Posts tab and individual post pages now get the background gradient that Events and your profile have.
• Added typography updates for titles in each main feature area.
• Past events from years ago are now grouped by year instead of one long "Earlier" section.
• Added a pulsing live indicator to Happening Now events and updated their visual design.
• You can now un-RSVP to events by tapping your selected RSVP status again.
• Added a dedicated Account Details page in settings.
• General bug fixes and improvements.
1.1 Aug 21
This release introduces a tonne of improvements, including a better onboarding experience, support for iOS 16+, major visual redesigns, and faster performance!
• Added support for iPhone 8 and other older devices running iOS 16.
• Redesigned the event grid, event details, and photo gallery pages.
• Redesigned sign-in screen and username configuration flow for first-time users.
• Redesigned profile pages, with quicker ways to jump to a friend's profile from event guest lists, posts, comments, and likes.
• Added an events map view, showing when and where each future event is happening.
• Added support for device orientation switching when viewing photos.
• Tapping a Tether link from a calendar event now takes you straight back to that event.
• Improved app loading speed.
• Reduced memory, CPU, and battery usage, especially in chats and photo-heavy screens.
• Improved event photo uploads.
• More reliable content checks when posting photos, so nothing gets posted without being properly moderated first.
• General bug fixes and stability improvements.
1.0.4 Aug 13
• Added the ability to like posts (controversial!).
• Added the ability to block users from the Friends tab - previously you could only block users through posts.
• Removed labels from tab bar icons for a cleaner look.
• Fixed an issue where you couldn't upload photos to events while editing them.
1.0.3 Jul 17
• Resolved an issue where edits to posts wouldn’t appear immediately.
• Resolved an issue where notifications were shown out of order.
• Removed scroll indicators from Events, Messages, and Friends tabs.
• Removed the ‘Mark as Read’ button — notifications are now marked as read automatically.
1.0.2 Mar 17
• Invites code are no longer required to create a new account.
• Share links in the app point to this App Store page, rather than to the app website (tetherapp.xyz)
• We've added Liquid Glass updates for devices running iOS 26.
• Bug fixes and performance improvements.
1.0.1 Feb 18
This release is a small follow-up to 1.3, fixing a few things we found shortly after it released.
• Some accounts could see an empty Notifications tab even when they had notifications waiting.
• Event details no longer get reverted when a guest RSVPs while looking at an older version of the event.
• Reporting a post now tells you if it didn't go through, instead of showing a success message.
• Guests are no longer removed from an event if the guest list doesn't finish loading before you save.
• Opening someone's profile from a friend request no longer stutters on the way in.
more Version 1.3.2 Sep 5
Data Linked to You The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
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