How Mosey Works in Five Minutes: A Diner Tour

How Mosey works comes down to four habits. You rate places and the dishes you ate, you keep lists of places you want to try, you follow people whose taste you trust, and you answer a short question now and then. Each habit takes a minute or less, and together they turn what you eat into something you can remember and share.

How Mosey works: what does the app do?

Mosey is a food app for finding places through people you trust, rating the dishes you ate and sharing what you love with friends. It is built around three ideas: a rating should be about the dish as well as the place, a list is better than a memory, and the people you follow are a better guide than a stranger's star count. Everything else in the app is a way of doing one of those things faster.

Nothing in it asks you to leave a long review. You can rate with stars and a tag in a few seconds, and add a sentence only when you have one.

How do you rate places and dishes?

Start a rating from a place's page, or from the add button. Give the place stars, choose a few tags that describe the visit, and add the dishes you had. In the dish step the app shows a list of the place's menu items to tap, or a box where you can name something yourself. Each dish gets its own stars.

If you want to rate at the table, the live rating splits the job in two: first "What are you having?" and then "How was it?" The dish rating guide goes through every step, and the ratings feature page shows the screens.

How do you keep lists of places?

A list is a named collection of places with a note on why each belongs. You can make a private list for yourself, a shared list for a trip or a public list for anyone to follow. Anyone with an invite link can join a shared list as a collaborator, even if they are not on Mosey yet. Your highest-rated places also collect in a permanent Top Rated list, and the app can turn a group of rated places into a list for you.

Lists are where the planning happens. The lists feature page explains privacy and sharing, and the guide to building a food list with friends shows a typical start.

How do you follow people whose taste you trust?

Follow a friend and you see what they rate and save. Follow someone whose picks you keep agreeing with and the app becomes a stream of recommendations you actually want. The map has layers too: Everywhere, Friends' picks and Open now, so you can switch between the whole map and just the places the people you follow have rated.

You can also tag the friends you ate with when you post a rating. They get a chance to add their own rating of the same meal, which is a good way to see how two people read one dinner.

What are the short questions?

Two features ask you a short question at a time, and neither needs a long answer. Top 3 asks which three places you would name for something like coffee, brunch or pizza, one question per visit, and keeps your answers in a private list. Best in town asks quick questions about places near you, you tap a place, give it stars and move on. Both feed your ratings and badges.

What are badges and games?

Rate places with a tag, such as a cuisine, and you climb four levels in that family at five, ten, twenty and fifty different places. The levels are Sampler, Taster, Expert and Connoisseur, and nothing about a level changes what a place charges you. A Local Champion title is earned by rating five places, answering three Top 3 questions and making a list in the same town.

There are also three daily food puzzles, Ladle, Origin and Ingredient, a new set every day, for people aged 18 and over. They are a fun way to learn food, and they keep a streak.

What does it do for local places?

A place gets what it needs from a diner who tells friends where to go, and none of it costs the diner anything. Mosey is free for a place to list, has no hidden fees and keeps its tools affordable, so the attention you give a neighborhood spot goes to the spot itself. That is supporting local without a special occasion.

What does a first week look like?

Day one, rate the last meal you ate, even with just stars. Day two, start a list called "Want to try" and add three places a friend once mentioned. Day three, follow two people whose taste you trust. By the weekend, you will have answered a Top 3 question or two, maybe tried a quick question in Best in town, and you will have a small, personal map of food that did not exist before. None of that needs a long session. The habits are built to fit between other things, such as a commute or a wait for a table.

It never asks for a long review, a perfect score or a post every day. A rating with only stars is a full rating. A list with one place on it is a list. A day without opening the app costs nothing, and the daily games keep a streak only if you want one. The app is meant to remember for you, so you can enjoy the meal and tell the story later.

Where should you start?

Pick one habit and do it today. Rate the last meal you ate, even with just stars. Then see every way to support local places for free, open the US food guides for the next idea, or read how to turn rated places into a list once you have rated a few.

Get the Mosey app, rate your last meal and add one place you want to try to a new list.