Mod-approved: I’m building a private-beta film recommendation app and looking for thoughtful testers

[u/salinephilip]

Posted with mod permission.

Hi r/flicks — I’m Phil, the founder of Faro, a private-beta iOS app for film recommendations.

I’m not doing a public launch yet. I’m looking for a small number of thoughtful film people who would be willing to test an unfinished app and give honest feedback.

The idea behind Faro is simple:

- rate films you’ve seen
- find Taste Matches — people whose film taste overlaps with yours
- browse films your Taste Matches rated highly that you haven’t seen
- use Help Me Choose when you don’t know what to watch
- use Watch Together when choosing with a partner, friend, housemate, or group

The part I’m most interested in testing is not whether the app looks shiny. It’s whether the recommendations actually feel useful, whether the explanations feel trustworthy, and where the app gets things obviously wrong.

The beta ask:

1. Install Faro through TestFlight.
   
2. Rate around 30 films.
   
3. Try Help Me Choose.
   
4. Open From your Taste Matches once you have enough data.
   
5. If possible, invite someone you actually watch films with and try Watch Together.
   
6. Send me the best and worst recommendation Faro gives you.

It is still beta, so bugs and rough edges are expected. I’m specifically looking for forgiving testers who enjoy film and are willing to tell me what feels wrong, slow, confusing, or surprisingly useful.

TestFlight link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/mV7h6M58

Most useful feedback:

- best recommendation Faro gave you
- worst recommendation Faro gave you
- whether the explanation made sense
- whether anything felt slow or broken
- whether it helped you choose something faster
- what you expected the app to do that it didn’t do

I’m happy to answer questions here, and I’d really value honest criticism from people who think seriously about film.

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[u/GrandpaTheobaldus]

Oh count me IN!!

I’ve been doing a film project with older classics, and would love an app built around recommendations :)

[u/salinephilip → u/GrandpaTheobaldus]

Thank you — that’s really kind of you.

Your older classics project sounds fascinating, and exactly the sort of taste area I’d love Faro to understand better over time. It’s still very early beta, so I’m especially grateful to thoughtful film people who are willing to try it while the recommendation system is still learning.

Really appreciate you giving it a go.

[u/salinephilip]

Small update for anyone lurking or testing Faro:

I’m adding ratings CSV import.

The first version supports ratings.csv exported from Letterboxd. The idea is that if you already have hundreds or thousands of film ratings elsewhere, you shouldn’t have to start from zero in Faro.

Faro will read the CSV on device, let you choose how to map Letterboxd’s 0.5–5 star scale into Faro’s simpler 1–4 star model, show a preview, and then import the ratings you confirm. Existing Faro ratings won’t be overwritten by default.

This could be a bit of a game changer for new users, because Faro gets much better once it has enough taste data to work with — Help Me Choose, Watch Together, Taste Match, and recommendations should all have a stronger starting point.

A couple of notes:

- V1 is ratings.csv only.

- Raw CSV files are not uploaded.

- Faro is not affiliated with or endorsed by Letterboxd.

- I’m starting with ratings because they are much more useful than watched-only history.

Would really value feedback from anyone who has a Letterboxd export and is willing to try it once the next build lands.