An app to rate movies with friends has one job: compare your score with your people's, not with the average of a crowd you will never meet. Viewers does that for movies, series and books, inside a private group, for free.
What an app for rating movies with friends needs
Plenty of apps let you keep a list of what you have watched. Fewer let you argue about it. If the point is the argument, four things matter:
- One scale for everyone. 0 to 10, no half stars, no thumbs. Your 7 and your friend's 7 have to mean the same thing.
- A private group. Your scores are seen by your group and nobody else. Public ratings turn into a performance.
- Instant comparison. The moment you rate something, you see who agrees with you and who doesn't, title by title.
- A place to argue. One thread per movie, with spoiler warnings, so the conversation does not drown in the group chat.
Viewers is built around those four things. Here is how it works in practice.
How to rate movies with friends in Viewers, step by step
- Create a free account at viewers.app. Nothing to download: it runs in the browser and, if you like, sits on your home screen like any other app.
- Rate what you have already seen. The rating screen shows one poster after another. Swipe right if you have seen it and give it a score from 0 to 10, left if you are not interested, up to save it for later. A few minutes gets you dozens of rated titles, which is what the comparisons need to mean anything.
- Create a group and invite your friends. Groups are private: only the people you invite get in. A couple, the cinema crowd, the family, each can be its own group.
- Open the group ranking. For every title you see each member's score and the group average: who scores highest, who is the harshest, and where you all agree.
- Start the thread when there is something to say. One forum per movie, series or book, only for your group, with spoilers flagged.
What happens once your group rates the same titles
This is where a shared list stops and a group starts. Every score you give is compared with your group's the moment you give it, and three things come out of that:
- Affinity. Who you agree with and who you clash with, worked out from the titles you have both rated. Your best movie friend may not be your best friend.
- Your biggest clash. The title where you are furthest apart. Usually the best conversation of the night.
- Movie night. When nobody can decide, vote among the group's watchlist and let the majority win. Viewers also shows which platform has each title in your country.
One honest warning: affinity needs data. Five titles in common say little; thirty or forty start to be right. That is why the first step is rating what you have already seen, not waiting for the next film.
Series and books on the same scale
Most apps of this kind stop at movies. In Viewers, series and books are rated the same way, 0 to 10, in the same group and the same ranking. The catalogue has more than 26,000 titles: movies and series come from TMDB, books from Google Books, with poster, year and synopsis. If your group is the kind that argues about a series and the novel it came from, there is no second app to open.
Games for after the movie
Rating is where it starts. Viewers comes with seven games for after dinner: endless trivia, Millionaire, Quiz Party on the TV for up to 50 people, guess the movie, guess the score your friend gave, The Impostor and Timeline. Every round earns XP, XP moves you up the ranks (there are 32, from Chick to Diamond Scepter), and the group sees it.
When Viewers is not what you are looking for
- If you want to read reviews from thousands of strangers before picking a film. Viewers is not a review database: the scores that matter are your group's.
- If you will rate alone. It works, and you get your profile and your stats, but the good part starts with two or three friends inside.
- If you are looking for somewhere to watch a movie for free. Viewers tells you which platform has it in your country; it does not host or stream anything.
Free, no ads, nothing to download
Rating, groups, the forum and the seven games cost nothing, and there are no ads and no subscription. Viewers runs in the browser: on iPhone and iPad you add it to the home screen from Safari, on Android Chrome offers "Install", and on a computer it opens in its own window. Your scores are only seen by the groups you choose, and you can delete your account, with everything in it, whenever you want.
Start for free and, once the movies you remember are rated, invite the first friend. The first argument takes care of itself.
Is Viewers really free?
Yes. Rating, groups, the forum and the seven games cost nothing. There is no subscription, there are no ads and there are no in-app purchases.
Do I need to install an app?
No. Viewers runs in the browser. If you want it as an app, add it to your home screen: on iPhone from Safari with "Add to Home Screen", on Android with Chrome's "Install" button.
Are my scores public?
No. Your scores are only seen by the groups you choose. Nobody outside your group sees what you have rated.
How many friends does it take to make sense?
Two is enough for a ranking, affinity and a forum. With four or five, movie nights and the games on the TV work better. Quiz Party takes up to 50 players.
Can I rate series and books as well as movies?
Yes, all three, on the same 0 to 10 scale and in the same group.