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Made for · Friend groups

For friend groups and food trips with friends.

Every friend group has a place. The Korean barbecue spot after payday, the pizza place where Dom pitched his worst business idea, the night the bill came to more than anyone expected. Here is how to keep the group’s food memories, and plan a better food trip next time.

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Free on iPhone and Android. No account, and it works with no signal.

In short

For friend groups, PlateDiary is a memory of every meal out together: who was at the table, what you ordered, what the bill came to, and where you always end up. Each friend gets a page that fills itself in, and any night can be exported as a picture for the group chat.

Checked

Companions

Who was there, every time.

Tag who came and each friend gets a page: times together, your usual together, your spots, and every time together, newest first. The Companions view puts the people most at your table around a round table, up to six of them. Carlo, Iya, Dom and Trish, in order of how often they turn up.

The group

“Often joined by.”

Each friend’s page shows who else usually comes when they do, which is how you find out your friend group is actually two friend groups. Each place page shows who you usually go there with — the ramen place is a Trish place; the karaoke-then-noodles place is everyone.

The bill

What the table came to.

Add the bill to a moment, or prices to each save and let PlateDiary add up the table total. Receipt scan reads a paper receipt on the phone and deletes the photo right after. PlateDiary doesn’t split bills — that part is still up to the table — but here are the four ways groups usually do it:

Four common ways a group splits a restaurant bill
How it worksWorks best when
Even splitTotal divided by headsEveryone shared everything
Own orderEach pays for their dishesOrders were very different
Shared plus ownShared plates split evenly, drinks paid by eachSome drink, some don’t
Rotating payerOne person pays, next time someone elseThe same group eats out often

One page

One page per food trip.

A food trip with friends is five or six stops in an afternoon, and each stop becomes its own moment by place and time. Heart the best saves into Favorites for free, or, with Premium, gather the whole trip into a collection with its own backdrop.

Sharing

A picture for the group chat.

The free share sheet exports any moment as a picture in Story, 4:3 or 3:4. With Premium, Share Studio has Party and Picnic layouts and a companions tag that prints who was there, and it can export a looping 6-second video for the chat.

Ideas

Ideas for the next food trip with friends.

Need words for the post afterwards? Try our food trip captions.

  • Everyone picks one stop. No vetoes. Order of stops is decided by who arrives last.
  • The cheap eats crawl. Street food only, and the one who finds the best bite picks the next trip.
  • Same dish, four places. Fried chicken, dumplings or tacos — vote at the end.
  • Blind order. Each person orders for the person on their left.
  • Never been. A rule that every stop is new to at least half the group.
  • Take-out picnic. Each person brings one dish from a different place to the park.

Questions

Questions people ask.

Do my friends need the app?

No. You add them as companions by name. Nothing is shared with them and no contacts are read.

Can PlateDiary split the bill?

No. It keeps the bill total and each dish’s price, and can read a receipt on your phone, but the splitting is up to the table.

Can I share a night to the group chat?

Yes. Export any moment as a picture with the free share sheet. Share Studio, in Premium, adds designed layouts and a 6-second video.

Can I see who I eat out with most?

Yes. The Companions view sits the people most at your table around one round table, and each person’s page counts your times together.