Most review apps are built for strangers. The ratings average out to a four, everyone’s optimising for visibility, and you still don’t know whether you’ll like the place.
Bytly is the opposite bet: reviews that only your friends see. A small, closed graph where the signal is high because the people in it actually know your taste.
What I own
Two developers. I built most of the app: the map and navigation, the review screens, collections, notifications, Apple Sign-In, and the App Store and over-the-air update setup. My collaborator built the Supabase and sign-in setup, place search, cuisine voting, blocking and photo storage.
The map is the interface
Discovery is a map rather than a list, with restaurant details and directions on top: the route shows on the map with distance and time, then hands off to Apple or Google Maps for turn-by-turn. Food discovery is inherently spatial: you don’t want the best restaurant, you want the best restaurant near where you’re standing.
Markers are typed, so the map answers two questions at once: where the food is, and whose opinion is attached to it. A friend’s review, something on your own list, and a place neither of you has tried are three different things, and they don’t look alike. You can switch any of those layers off when the map gets busy.
Reviews people will actually finish
The review form is a short wizard: cuisines, vibe and dietary tags, the bill, remarks, recommended dishes and photos, then a rating.
Tags that argue with themselves
Cuisine labels come out of place data first, but that data is generic: half of everything is tagged “Restaurant” or “Food”, which tells you nothing. So those get filtered out, users can add their own tags, and everyone votes. Net votes decide what a place is actually known for.
It’s the one part of the app where the closed friend graph opens up: taste is private, but whether somewhere is a ramen place is not.
Collections
Saved spots go into named collections, each with its own icon.
The wishlist turned out to matter more than expected. Reviews only get written after you’ve eaten somewhere, so an app made of reviews alone has nothing to say until you’re already out. The wishlist is what gives it a reason to be opened on a Tuesday afternoon.
Privacy
Reviews are friends-only. Friends are added by username rather than by scraping contacts. Blocking someone removes the friendship with it, and an account can be deleted from inside the app without emailing anyone.
A closed friend graph only works if people trust that it’s closed, so these are core features.
Also in the app
Apple Sign-In, push notifications, onboarding and a guided tour, light and dark themes, and a tablet layout.
Where it is now
Built with React Native and Expo on top of Supabase, iOS first, with updates shipped over the air between store builds. It reached TestFlight in May 2026. Development is on hold for now.