Privacy Policy
Effective September 19, 2026
merenda (formerly Friendli) is a social app for making plans with people you actually want to see. This policy explains what we collect, why, and what we never do with it.
What we collect
- Phone number — used to create and secure your account (verified by a one-time SMS code) and to let friends who already have your number find you. Never shown to other users.
- Profile — your name, photo, short bio, and interests. Visible to other users per the app's visibility rules.
- Connections and circles — who you're connected to, and which circle tier you place each person in. Tier assignments are private: no one ever sees which tier you put them in.
- Contacts (optional) — if you grant access, the names and phone numbers in your address book are sent to our servers once per lookup, solely to show you which contacts are already on merenda and let you invite the rest. We don't store your address book. We keep only the phone numbers you've explicitly sent an invite to, so the same person is never invited twice.
- Plan invites by text — if you invite a contact to a specific plan by text, we keep that contact's phone number and the name from your address book, linked to that plan, so their invite is waiting if they join merenda. This is visible only to you, never to other guests. The record is deleted as soon as they join, when the plan is cancelled, or shortly after the plan's date passes — whichever comes first.
- Plans, availability, and messages — plans you create or join, your "Open to Plans" windows, and messages, photos, and videos you send in plan chats. Visible only to the people the app's rules say can see them.
- Hangout reflections — after a hangout you can privately note how it felt. These reflections, and any scores derived from them, are never shown to anyone — not the people you met, not anyone. They only tune your own recommendations.
- Push tokens — so we can send notifications you've enabled. You control every category in Settings, and can turn them all off.
- Weather & travel time (optional) — merenda can show the forecast on your plans and how long it takes to get there. To do that, a plan's venue (or, only if you enable it in Settings, your approximate device location) is converted to map coordinates using Apple's geocoding service; those coordinates plus the plan's time are sent to Open-Meteo, a weather service, to fetch the forecast, and to Apple Maps to estimate travel time. Coordinates are used only for those lookups and are not stored on our servers. Both are optional and can be turned off in Settings.
- Dropping a pin (optional, per tap) — on the day of a plan, after you tap "Here", you can choose to drop a pin so the others can find you. Only when you tap it is your location taken, once, and posted into that plan's chat — the point and, looked up on your phone using Apple's geocoding service, the nearest street address — where the people on the plan can see it, like any message you send. It is a single point at that moment, never continuous tracking, and merenda has no background location access. The pin stays in the chat like a message and is deleted with the plan or your account.
- Calendar (optional) — merenda can add your plans to your device calendar. This uses your phone's calendar directly: nothing from your calendar is ever uploaded or leaves your device.
What we never do
- No ads, no selling or renting your data, no data brokers.
- No posting or contacting anyone on your behalf. Invites are sent from your own Messages app, by you.
- Silent rejections stay silent — declining a request is never announced to the other person.
Service providers
We use Supabase (database, authentication, storage), Twilio (delivery of SMS verification codes), OneSignal (push notification delivery), Apple (geocoding of plan venues, travel-time estimates and the maps on your device, and calendar on your device), and Open-Meteo (weather forecasts, receiving only coordinates and a time — never your identity). Each receives only what's needed to provide its service.
Deleting your data
Settings → Delete account permanently removes your profile, connections, plans, messages, reflections, and photos. This is immediate and cannot be undone. You can also just email us and we'll do it for you.
Age
merenda is for adults 18 and up.
Changes & contact
If this policy changes materially, we'll note it in the app. Questions or requests: merendahq@gmail.com.