What people use instead of the feed.
Every social media alternative promises the same thing: less noise, more of your friends. Most of them are the same feed with a different logo. Looped goes at it from the other end. Nothing to scroll, two questions a week, and the only people in it are the ones you put there.
A social media alternative that isn't another feed
Looped is an invite-only recommendation network. Twice a week, one question goes to every member at the same moment. The one app you open when you're bored. The thing you cook when you can't be bothered. You answer, and when the next question lands you see what the people you're connected to said.
There's no feed, no follower count, and nowhere for a post to travel. What builds up instead is a library: everything your people have vouched for, kept, and there to try when you need it.
A group chat alternative for the stuff worth keeping
Group chats are where recommendations already happen, and where they die. Somebody drops the name of a show at 11 PM, forty messages land on top of it, and by the weekend nobody can find it. Looped asks the group the question on purpose, everyone answers before seeing the others, and the answer stays filed under the question.
It doesn't replace the chat. It's the part of the chat you wish you'd screenshotted.
An app to share recommendations with friends, not with the internet
Most recommendation apps take recommendations from strangers and rank them by an algorithm or a star average. Looped only ever shows you people you picked, and every connection goes both ways. A pick from your sister who has known you for thirty years and a pick from a stranger with a five-star average are not the same thing, and Looped is built on that difference.
If the recommendations you are after are books, there is a page on how Looped compares with Goodreads. For everything else, the questions it asks are public.
The feed, the group chat, and Looped, side by side
| The feed | The group chat | Looped | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What arrives | Whatever the algorithm picks, mostly strangers | Whatever somebody typed last | One question, written by a person, to everyone at once |
| When | All day, forever | Whenever it buzzes | Sunday and Wednesday, 8:00 AM Eastern |
| Who sees your answer | Whoever the algorithm shows it to | Everyone in the chat, if they scroll back | Your connections only, after they've answered too |
| What you have after a month | Nothing you could find again | A scroll-back nobody does | A library of what your people vouched for |
If you came here looking for a BeReal alternative
BeReal proved something worth keeping: when everybody posts at the same moment, nobody performs. Looped keeps that and drops the camera. The shared moment is a question about taste instead of a selfie, it comes twice a week instead of daily, and what it leaves behind is a list of things your friends swear by rather than a grid of photos.
If the daily picture stopped being fun but the honesty was the point, this is the same honesty aimed at something you can use.
What invite-only means here
Every member gets ten invites, total, and most people spend them slowly, on the few whose taste they would vouch for. That is the entire growth strategy. It keeps the network small enough that an answer is written for people who know you, which is the thing that makes it worth reading.
What there isn't
There are no ads and no brand accounts, and nobody is paid for a pick. There are no follower counts, so nobody is winning. And there is no algorithm, so the quiet friend with great taste gets read exactly as often as the loud one.
The longer answer to why it is built this way is the founder’s note.
No invite? The waitlist is one field. When a spot opens, we write to you once.
What people ask on the way in
- Is Looped a social media alternative?
- Yes, if what you want to leave is the feed rather than your friends. There is no timeline, no follower count and no algorithm deciding what you see. Two questions a week go to everyone you're connected to, you answer, and the reveal shows only their picks. Less to check, more of the people you know.
- Is Looped a group chat alternative?
- It's the part of the group chat worth keeping. The chat is great at the moment and terrible at memory: a good recommendation is forty messages deep by morning. Looped asks the question on purpose, collects every answer, and files them under the question. Keep the chat for jokes. Use this for the stuff you'll want back.
- Is there an app to share recommendations with friends, without strangers?
- Looped is one. You connect only with people you both chose, your answers are visible to those people alone, and there's no public surface at all. No star ratings from people you've never met, no sponsored picks. A recommendation from someone who knows you is a different thing from a review, and that's the whole product.
- What makes a social network private?
- Structure, not a settings toggle. Looped is private because of how it is built: you connect only with people you both chose, your answers are visible to those people alone, and there is no public surface at all. A lock icon on a broadcast platform protects a post. A small network protects the whole conversation.
- How do you join an invite-only social network like Looped?
- Two doors. An invite code from a current member gets you straight in. Every member holds ten and chooses who gets them. Without a code, join the waitlist: leave your email and we write once when a spot opens, with a code and nothing else. No account setup ahead of time.
- Is there a social network without ads or an algorithm?
- Looped is one, and the two absences are connected. Ads need an algorithm to hold your attention, and an algorithm needs strangers to fill the feed. Take the ads away and the rest can go too: your reveal is just the people you chose and what they said, with nobody deciding for you what is worth reading.