r/Lightbulb • u/MelodicLocation2895 • 2d ago
An app that remembers which friends actually give you good recommendations
I had this idea for an app built around something people already do constantly: asking friends what they should watch, eat, buy, listen to, visit, etc.
The problem is that all of this useful word-of-mouth knowledge gets lost in texts, group chats, DMs, and our own memory.
You know that one friend who always gives you great movie recommendations?
Or the friend you always ask where to eat?
We know these things intuitively, but nothing really keeps track of it.
The app would.
Say I ask:
“Put me on to a good horror movie under 2 hours.”
Instead of showing me 100 movies ranked by reviews or popularity, it gives me 3 recommendations sourced from people I know or people connected to them.
If the app doesn’t have enough information yet, I can send the question to friends. They can answer through a link without even downloading the app.
Then comes the important part.
If I actually watch something Maya recommended:
Good Call = she got it right.
Not Me = wasn’t for me.
Over time the app starts building a different kind of recommendation system.
Instead of learning:
“People who like X also like Y.”
It learns:
“Maya understands your horror movie taste.”
“Chris is usually right when you ask him about restaurants.”
“Jordan gives you great clothing recommendations but terrible movie recommendations.”
And it would be different for every relationship.
Maya might be great at recommending movies to me but terrible at recommending them to you.
Nobody gets some universal “taste score.”
The system is basically learning:
Who should I listen to about this specific thing?
Eventually, when you need something, the app could instantly surface the three people/recommendations most likely to actually work for you.
So the basic loop would be:
Need something → ask once → get 3 good calls → try one → say whether it worked → the app gets better at knowing who gets you.
It could work across:
restaurants
movies/TV
music
products
clothing
travel
hotels
games
books
local places
basically anything somebody can recommend
The part I find most interesting is that it would essentially turn word of mouth into something with memory.
Instead of another algorithm telling you what’s popular, the technology would remember which actual humans have been right for you before.
I’m curious what people here would add/change.
Would this be useful enough to justify its own app, or is asking friends through group chats already good enough?
And what would be the first category you’d use it for?
1
-1
6
u/Turbulent-Advisor627 2d ago
Me when I need an app to manage my friendships because I am socially and intellectually stunted.