You
You · 2h · Public
Does anyone know someone who can watch the kids tonight? Bit of an emergency.
Invite-only · opening one community at a time
Someone is a private app for asking the people you trust for help. Your Ask goes to your Circle and nowhere else — no feed, no strangers, no likes. Whoever says yes gives you their Word.
- No feed
- No public profiles
- No ads, ever
The opposite of posting into the void
You don’t need an audience. You need one person who’ll show up.
Post “does anyone know someone who…” to a feed and you get reactions, opinions and strangers, ranked by an algorithm that wants you scrolling, not sorted. Someone sends your Ask to the people you’d actually call, and to nobody else.
Posting into the voidAny feed, any app
38 reactions14 comments3 shares
Seen by: whoever the algorithm pickedSitters found: none
Asking your CircleOn Someone
Your askYour Circle · Close & Trusted
Can someone watch the kids tonight? Bit of an emergency.
Tonight, 7–10pm
MC
Maya raised her hand
“I can do it. I’ll bring dinner for them.”
You accepted Maya’s hand
Word given
Seen by: the people you trustSitters found: Maya, 6 minutes later
Illustration. Names and timings are examples, not real people on Someone.
How it works
Ask. Hand. Word. Kept.
Four steps, and none of them is a like. No feed, no algorithm, nothing that scrolls away before someone answers.
01Post an ask
Ask
Say what you need and when. Choose who sees it: your Circle, friends of friends, or one of your private Lists. It goes nowhere else.
02Raise your hand
Hand
Someone who can help raises a Hand. That’s a promise, not a “maybe.” Hands are blind: helpers never see who else offered.
03Word given
Word
Accept a Hand and it becomes a Word — a commitment between the two of you. Sort out the details in a private message.
04Word kept
Kept
When it’s done, the Word is Kept. You each leave a Vouch, or a Flag if it went wrong. Neither of you sees the other’s until you’ve both answered, or a week has passed.
Already know exactly who to ask?Assign an Ask straight to them. It lands in their “Asked of you” — no broadcast, and nobody else is told who you asked.
Need more than one pair of hands?Ask for several helpers. They stay anonymous to each other unless each of them chooses to be introduced.
Who sees what
You decide who’s close enough to ask.
Everyone in your Circle sits at a trust tier you choose — not a follower count, not a “people you may know” guess. Then, for every single Ask, you decide how far it travels.
Close
The people you’d call at 2am.Family, best friends, the ones with a spare key.
Trusted
The people you count on.Good friends, good neighbours, the colleague who always comes through.
Known
Real connections, at a respectful distance.People you know by name, and who know you.
Then pick how far each Ask can go
Tier is who someone is to you. Reach is how far one Ask travels. Two separate dials, both yours, every time.
Your Circle onlyThe people you’ve added and connected with. Nobody else.
Your Circle + friends of friendsOne step out, never further. They see only that you’re “Known by” their friend — never an endorsement nobody gave.
One of your ListsYour own private sets of people, like “the climbing crew.” Nobody on a List knows it exists, what it’s called, or who else is on it.
House rules
We can’t show you a busy feed. So here are the rules.
Someone is private by design: there’s no activity to show off and no user count to brag about, and we wouldn’t publish one if we could. What we can show you is how it works. These aren’t settings. They’re how Someone is built.
01
No feed.
Asks go to people, not into a scroll ranked by an algorithm.
02
No audience.
No followers, no likes, no reach to grow. Nobody here is performing.
03
No strangers.
You see Asks from your own Circle — and from friends of friends only when someone chooses that reach.
04
No public profiles.
Nobody can look you up. There’s no directory, no network search, no “people you may know.”
05
Hands are blind.
Helpers never see who else raised a Hand. Only the person who asked sees the full picture.
06
Reviews are earned.
You can only Vouch for or Flag someone after a Word between you — and neither of you sees the other’s review until both are in.
07
No ads. No data sales.
Not now, not later, not “anonymised.” A web of relationships can’t really be anonymised.
08
No referral games.
No “invite five friends to skip the line.” An Invite is a personal act, not a growth funnel.
Why not just…
Not a feed. Not a marketplace. Not another group chat.
Every other way of asking for help hands your request to an audience, a stranger, or a silent thread. Someone hands it to someone who knows your name.
| Question | Someone | Social feeds | Neighbourhood apps | Gig platforms | Group chats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who sees your request | Only the people you choose | Whoever the algorithm shows it to | Anyone who lives nearby | Strangers looking for work | Everyone in the chat |
| Who answers | Someone who knows you | Whoever’s scrolling | Whoever’s nearby | Whoever’s available | Often nobody |
| What a “yes” is | A Word you can count on | A comment | A reply | A paid booking | A thumbs-up |
| What it runs on | No ads, no data sales | Advertising | Usually advertising | Fees on every job | Depends on the app |
Typical patterns for each category, not claims about any specific product.
Also: your phonebook
The phonebook you never got around to keeping.
Bring in your contacts, sort people into Close, Trusted and Known, and write down what you’d otherwise forget. Your notes are yours alone — nobody else ever sees them.
- What they’re good at. The electrician, the one who’s good with cars, the one who always knows a lawyer.
- Where they are. So “who’s near the airport?” finally has an answer.
- How you know them. Your building, Sara’s wedding, your sister’s old roommate.
- Reminders to reach out. Set by you, kept on your phone, and only when you ask for one.
Circle
34 contactsAC
Ana Costa
DP
Devon Park
IF
Inés Ferreira
MC
Maya Chen
MR
Marco Russo
Private note Has a van. Happy to help with moves, just ask early.
Opaque by design
Your Circle is nobody’s business.
Other people on Someone can’t browse your Circle, search it, or work out who you know. On our side, there’s no tool for browsing anyone’s Circle or phonebook, nothing analysing your relationships, and nothing to sell. The only staff tools we have are for safety: handling reports and stopping abuse.
What you see
AC
Ana Costa
What anyone else sees
Nobody redacted this. It was never shown to anyone else in the first place.
No one browses your Circle.
No directory, no search by network, no “people you may know.”
Your notes stay yours.
What you write about a Contact is visible to you, and only you.
You choose what each tier sees.
Your phone number, bio and other details can be shown or hidden, tier by tier.
Delete means delete.
Deleting your account removes your data right away — no grace period, nothing to restore.
The ethos
Trust is not a business model.
We don’t run ads. We don’t sell your data, not even “anonymised.” There’s no feed to optimise, because nothing here is meant to keep you scrolling. Someone is meant to be opened when you need someone, and closed once you’ve found them.
“The favour economy is older than the internet, and it works because everyone in it knows everyone else’s name.”— from the founders’ note
Getting in
You don’t apply. You’re asked.
Someone only works when the people you’d actually call are on it. So we’re not opening everywhere at once. We open one community at a time, and let it grow person to person, through Invites.
Know someone on Someone? Ask them for an Invite. You’ll arrive already connected to them.
Nobody yet? Request access. We’ll email you when Someone opens in your community.
Request access
Leave your email and we’ll let you know when it’s your turn. No way to pay to skip ahead, and no queue numbers.
We’ll email you when it’s your turn. No spam, and you can unsubscribe any time. Privacy policy
FAQ
Fair questions.
If yours isn’t here, write to hello@needsomeone.app. A person reads every message.
Why can’t I just sign up?
Because a trust network filled by strangers signing themselves up isn’t a trust network. And because Someone is only useful once the people you’d actually ask are on it. Opening one community at a time, through Invites, is how we make sure your Circle isn’t empty on day one. It’s not a growth trick. It’s how the product works.
How do I get in?
Two ways. Someone already on Someone sends you an Invite, and you arrive already connected to them. Or you request access on this page, and we email you when Someone opens in your community. There’s no way to pay to skip ahead.
Can other people see who’s in my Circle?
No. There’s no way to browse, search, or work out who’s connected to whom. The most a friend of a friend ever learns is that you’re “Known by” someone they know, and only when you’ve chosen that reach for an Ask.
Can you, the company, see my Circle?
Your Circle is stored on our servers, because that’s how your Asks reach the right people. But we don’t browse it, analyse it, sell it or share it, and we haven’t built any tool for looking through someone’s Circle or phonebook. The only staff tools we have are for safety, such as handling a report about abuse.
What does “raise a Hand” actually mean?
It means I’m in. A Hand is a commitment, not a like or a “maybe.” Hands are blind, so other helpers never see who else offered. When the person who asked accepts your Hand, it becomes your Word.
What if someone doesn’t keep their Word?
They can be Flagged. Vouches and Flags can only come from someone you actually shared a Word with, and neither side sees the other’s review until both have answered (or a week has passed), so nobody can review to get even. People connected to you can see how many Vouches and Flags you’ve had. There are no stars, no ratings, and no public profile for strangers to judge.
How do you make money with no ads?
Honestly, we’re not fully there yet, and we’d rather say so than invent an answer. What’s decided: no ads and no data sales, ever, and nothing that lets anyone pay for more reach or visibility. The likely direction is something like licensing for organisations. We’ll publish the details before Someone opens widely.
How is this different from a neighbourhood app or a group chat?
A neighbourhood app is a public feed with your area attached: anyone nearby can see what you post. A group chat is one thread where everyone sees everything, and a real request gets buried under read receipts. Someone has no feed and no shared thread. You ask specific people, at a tier and reach you choose, and it goes only to them.
What are Lists and Reminders?
A List is a private, named set of people from your Circle, such as “the climbing crew,” that you can send a single Ask to. Nobody on a List knows it exists, what it’s called, or who else is on it. A Reminder is a note-to-self you set on an Ask, a Word, or a person you’ve been meaning to call. It stays on your phone, and Someone never sets one for you.
Is my data safe?
Someone isn’t wired into the ad-and-tracking machinery most apps run on: no ad networks, no data brokers, no third-party trackers. There’s no public feed or profile to dig through. And if you delete your account, it’s gone immediately. Details are in our privacy policy.
Is there a minimum age?
Yes. You need to be at least 16, or the age of digital consent in your country if that’s higher.
Still deciding? Request access and we’ll find you when it’s time.