I'm Phil Milburn-McNulty. I design Faro, build it and answer the support email myself. It exists because I was losing the best hour of my evening, the part meant for the film, to choosing. I'd scroll for a while, settle for something and know within twenty minutes I'd chosen badly. With someone else in the room it was harder still, because we were turning films down without ever saying what we wanted.
Faro is what I wanted instead. You rate the films you've seen. When it's time to choose, you narrow it down if you want to and get back a small set of films. The ones you're torn between go on a shortlist until you lock one in. With friends, one search runs across everyone's taste and a film any of you has said no to stays out.
Faro's suggestions come from the films you rate and how you felt about them. Nothing trending, nothing paid for, nothing from a feed. Underneath is a set of taste profiles I built by hand, drawing on the way I was trained to weigh evidence in my day job, so that a new account gets sensible picks before it has a history. As more people rate films, a second layer is growing: Faro learns which members' tastes overlap, and once that reaches a useful size it should make the suggestions better still. The hand-built profiles are there to be grown out of.
I work in neurorehabilitation, where a lot of my patients rely on assistive technology, so accessibility was never optional. Faro supports eight of the nine measures on Apple's accessibility label.
Faro is free. There are no ads and nothing to buy. Your data is never sold or used for advertising. If you import your Letterboxd or IMDb ratings, the file is read on your phone and never uploaded.
I started building Faro in April 2026. It's now on the App Store for iPhone and Apple TV. I've built it on my own, from the design of every screen to the support inbox. I used AI coding tools to build it, and every screen was tested by hand on real iPhones before it shipped. I use it whenever there's a film to choose. If something's wrong, write to me at support@tryfaro.app.
Questions
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Free. No ads, no tracking and nothing to buy inside the app.
- Do I need an account?
- To get picks from your own ratings, keep a shortlist and add friends, yes. The account is free.
- Who can see my ratings?
- Nobody else can see them in the app. When you choose with friends, Faro uses your ratings to find films you might all like, without showing your ratings to anyone.
- What happens to my ratings if Faro shuts down?
- They're yours. You can export them from the app at any time, or ask for a copy at support@tryfaro.app.
- Is it on Android?
- Not yet. Faro for Android phones, Google TV and Android TV is coming soon. See Faro on your TV.
How it was built
- 20 April 2026 First code.
- 8 October 2026 Faro launches on the App Store.
- 19 October 2026 Mac Geek Gab, episode 1164.
- 24 October 2026 The iPhone Duo version (11.6).
- 28 October 2026 Listed on FoldHunt.
- 5 November 2026 Faro for Apple TV (11.8).
- 6 November 2026 MacRumors.
- 10 November 2026 12.2.1, the 18th version in the App Store history.