Real Friends App
Private social for friends
Only for iPhone
Free · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
Real Friends is a private social network for the people you actually know: close friends, neighbors, school families, teammates, and the group chat people you already make plans with.
1. Start with the feed.
• See photos and updates from your circle.
2. Discover and plan activities for your kids.
• Invite a few friends to the park. People can RSVP in the app or from a simple web invite.
3. Seamless integration with your calendar.
• Add events to and from your calendar from the app.
4. Keep the photos.
• After the activity, everyone can add photos and comments to one shared album.
5. Recommendations you can trust
• Request recommendations from your network for people (babysitters) or places (summer camps)
Real Friends is a private social network built for small circles, everyday plans, and more time together in person.
more Inviting a friend is one tap again.
• Friends has its own spot in the bottom bar, with Invite friends right at the top
• Profile is back in the bar too, so the top of your feed is just your feed
• One heart. Tap to heart a post, tap again to take it back
• Double-tap any photo to heart it
• Tidier post footers: hearts, comments, and stars finally line up
2.29 Oct 17
This update fixes a bug where the bottom navigation could disappear after tapping a notification from an event page. Thanks for the reports, and sorry for the trouble.
2.28 Aug 9
This update makes Real Friends feel faster and friendlier everywhere.
• The app now opens instantly to your feed, even on a fresh launch
• Likes, comments, and RSVPs respond the moment you tap
• Gentle taps and clicks throughout, so the app answers your touch
• New message and notification badges you can see from any tab
• Plan pages show the full title and the full date, no more guessing
• Answering an RSVP now tucks the bar away so the plan takes the stage
• Add a photo to a plan and frame it just right with the new crop and zoom
• Cleaner onboarding with a progress bar that keeps its promises
• Dozens of small fixes and polish touches across the app
2.27 Aug 3
Sharing moments just got a big upgrade:
• Post up to 10 photos in one post (reorder them and pick your cover photo)
• Video posts: share clips up to 30 seconds and play them right from the feed
• Tag friends in captions with @mentions
• Take a photo with the camera and crop it without leaving the composer
• Share links and they'll show a preview on the feed
• Recommending a place is one step quicker
• Smoother posting with clearer progress, caption improvements, and plenty of polish
2.26 Aug 2
Update to the overall design. Lots of changes to the recommendations, plans, and places! Same great app you love for sharing photos with friends.
2.25 Jul 30
Real Friends has a whole new look.
The redesigned feed puts your people first. A new composer turns an idea into a plan in a few taps, Plans keeps details and RSVPs together, shared Memories keep everyone's photos with the moment, and Recommendations make trusted referrals easy to save and share.
We also polished navigation and tightened up reliability throughout the app.
2.24 Jul 15
• Notifications now live right in your Feed — tap the bell in the top-right.
• Add a location to your posts, shown right on the feed.
• Answering a photo request? Share it to your feed for everyone, or send it privately to just the person who asked.
• Tag a friend in a caption and tap their name to open their profile.
• Adding a photo now opens your camera roll instantly, with a cleaner caption step before you post.
• Long captions now show "See more" so you can expand them.
• Plus polish and bug fixes throughout.
2.23 Jun 26
Post pictures with locations! Fixed a few flows as well.
2.22 Jun 25
The plans you make with your people now live right on your calendar. Connect once, and everything you're going to stays up to date on its own — no copying, no forgetting. You can even turn something already on your calendar into a plan and share it. We also gave the first run a warmer, simpler welcome.
2.21 Jun 23
This is our biggest update yet: a warmer Real Friends with the new look, better plans and RSVPs, shared albums after activities, friend-powered recommendations, and a cleaner privacy setup with no ad tracking.
2.2 Jun 19
Updates and some bug fixes.
1.28 May 23
Minor bug fixes.
1.27 May 18
Small update with some bug fixes.
1.26 May 14
Smoother Onboarding
The entire sign-up flow has been redesigned for clarity. Every step now shows your progress (1 of 7), buttons are always in the same place, and the screens feel consistent from start to finish.
Find More Friends
The friend selection step now shows all of your contacts — not just the first hundred. Finding your people just got a lot easier.
Better First Actions
After picking your friends, you can send a photo request or post a photo. The action button is now always visible at the bottom of the screen instead of hidden inside a card.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where inviting friends during onboarding didn't work correctly
- Improved button styling on the phone number screen
- General stability improvements
1.25 May 14
Real Friends Only just got three big updates.
-Today's Question drops a daily poll in your feed: vote, see your friends' answers, and spark real conversations.
-Ready to Share uses on-device AI to find your best photos from the week and makes sharing them one tap away (nothing ever leaves your phone).
-And Photo Requests let you challenge friends to share something specific like "Make me hungry" or "your view." All of it designed for the people you know.
1.24 May 7
Polls to Ask Your Friends Anything: Create polls from the composer (chart icon), write a question with 2-4 options, post to friends. Animated results show who voted for what. Shareable outside the app.
Today's Question a Daily Global Poll: A card at the top of everyone's feed with a daily question. Vote-then-reveal: you commit before seeing results. Friend votes show by name, everyone else is aggregated.
1.23 May 6
Ready to Share your best moments? This update makes it easier than ever.
Ready to Share — Your best recent photos now appear at the top of your feed — just tap to post. We use on-device AI to find great shots from your camera roll. Everything stays on your phone;
nothing is uploaded.
Better Photos in Your Feed — All photos now display in 4:5 portrait format for a cleaner, more consistent look. You can adjust the crop before posting.
Smoother Scrolling — Swiping through album posts no longer causes the feed to jump. We also reduced accidental tab switches when scrolling horizontally.
Smarter Friend Suggestions — We now prioritize people who actually have your number — no more random suggestions.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Feed refreshes automatically when you return to the app
- Better error messages when things go wrong
- Push notifications now open the right post every time
- Fixed a crash when creating posts
- General stability improvements
1.22 Apr 22
Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed an issue where notification preferences wouldn't save correctly. If you previously had trouble toggling notification settings, it should now work reliably.
- Improved app resume speed. The app loads content faster when switching back from the background.
- Fixed post deletion so you'll see clear feedback if something goes wrong instead of the post silently disappearing.
- Notification toggles now properly revert if the save fails, so your settings always reflect what's actually saved.
- Edit Profile now waits for your changes to save before closing, so you'll know for sure your updates went through.
- General stability and performance improvements.
1.21 Apr 11
What's New in v1.2
Photo Messages
-Send photos in your DMs! Tap the camera icon to pick a photo from your gallery, add an optional caption, and send. Photos appear as image bubbles in the conversation then tap to view fullscreen.
Richer Notifications
-When a friend posts, the push notification now shows a preview of their photo right in the notification.
Comment emoji reactions
-Long-press any comment to react with one of 6 emojis. Reactions display as pill badges below comments with counts.
See who liked/starred your post
-Tap the like or star count to see the full list of people who engaged.
@mention tagging in comments
-Type @ to tag friends in comments. Tagged users receive a push notification linking to the post.
Comment input improvements
-Comments now wrap to multiple lines (up to 5) with a 360-character limit and live counter.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed an issue where the app could sign you out when resuming from the background
- Improved image quality in the profile post browser
- Comment text field no longer loses focus when tapping inside it.
- DM Reaction picker no longer clips behind the header for messages near the top of a thread.
- Tapping the comment button now reliably focuses the input, even right after dismissing a list.
- Star confirmation sheet now shows your real remaining count, not the default "10."
- Added X button at top-left of camera view for easy dismissal.
1.2 Apr 6
Real Friends 1.1 — What's New
Swipe around
-Swipe left and right between tabs like you'd expect. Swipe down on a post to close it. Small thing, big difference.
Messages got smoother
-Tap someone's name in a message thread to visit their profile. The message badge actually updates when you come back to the app now. And your invite texts include the App Store link so your friends can actually find you.
Better photos everywhere
-Photos in profile browsing are now full quality, no more blurry previews. What you see in the feed is what you see everywhere.
Stayed signed in (finally)
-The app could sign you out if you left it in the background for a while. If this still isn't working for you, drop me a note with the support microphone on the feed screen in the top right corner
Little things that add up
- Search your contacts when inviting friends
- Emoji reactions work properly on back-to-back messages
- Profile stats are consistent everywhere
- Friend count just shows the number (no more weird "/50")
- Report posts and users if something's off
1.1 Mar 30
Inviting a friend is one tap again.
• Friends has its own spot in the bottom bar, with Invite friends right at the top
• Profile is back in the bar too, so the top of your feed is just your feed
• One heart. Tap to heart a post, tap again to take it back
• Double-tap any photo to heart it
• Tidier post footers: hearts, comments, and stars finally line up
more Version 2.29 Oct 17
Data Linked to You The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Location Contact Info Contacts User Content Identifiers Usage Data Diagnostics Data Not Linked to You The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
