Likewise: Movie, TV, Book Recs Reviews

by Whangdoodle P

First, the user interface was confusing. When I first opened Likewise , there were various categories like Books, TV Shows, etc. that you were supposed to populate with your preferences. I did this for the TV Shows category, but after that, I was never able to navigate back to the other categories again. I could have tried harder to locate that part of Likewise , but I shouldn’t have to try hard. Second, there were useless and irritating features like a pop-up window that came out if nowhere and said something like “Great job making recommendations! Keep up the good work!” (something I hadn’t actually done). I had to make it go away by clicking a button that said “Awesome!” Finally, and most disappointingly, the algorithm for making recommendations wasn’t that effective. It spit out the name of a fairly pedestrian American police procedural based on the fact that I liked the stylistically very different “Sherlock” and “Killing Eve.” Then it recommended a random new David Spade show based on...nothing, apparently. Bleh.

by Popability

I swore years ago in another review that I would never keep an app that demanded I give it my name, email or other personal information before it even allowed me to look at Likewise . I almost forgot that because I haven't seen one in so long that didn't allow the user to skip that and enter Likewise anyway. I started to type in my email and went, "Whoa Nelly!" Any app that bullies/forces you into giving personal information and creating an online account to use it is not for me. I could understand it if Likewise itself purely existed to facilitate use of a social media program that exists only on the web, like Twitter or something. Creating an account should never be a forced requirement to use an app. That would be like Apple forcing you to use their Game Center. That would be like Microsoft requiring you to sign in when you just want to play a private game on your Xbox. Oh, wait, they do...
Deleted.

by Raven1082

Some of the features on Likewise are pretty good. I especially like the option to ask specific questions and get recommendations from other users. But when it comes to the “today” page, it’s a complete hit or miss. Some days they’ll only show me 3 or 4 movies, and none of them will be even close to things I like (which is super frustrating because you have to wait a full 24 hours for new ones.) But other days I’ll get 6 or 7 that are great. It’s also annoying that they ask me to choose from podcasts every day, even though I clearly don’t like podcasts, as I haven’t saved a single one. Yet they will show me literally zero books, even though I have multiple lists full of novels. Basically, the user recommendation feature is great, but the algorithm is mediocre at best.

Beyond that, Likewise also just has a bunch of little problems that altogether make it annoying to use. The biggest one is that if your post exceeds a certain character limit, it just shows a “...” but there’s no way to view the full thing. You also can’t comment on a move or book unless you’ve liked it, and it sometimes crashes. It’s also pretty stupid that they mark it as 12+ but if you aren’t at least 13 you can’t even make an account, this didn’t effect me but it did effect my brother and that’s just dumb. Among other smaller problems. Just needs some updating for sure.

EDIT: Absolutely hate the new update. Layout is so annoying and confusing. Probably will stop using Likewise now

by Tate8525

I really like the idea of Likewise a lot. It’s cool to be able to get recommendations for stuff like this. I also love spreading the word of my favorite shows and books. But after a while, you begin to realize that you’re recommending the same things over and over again. Pretty much everyone on Likewise asks the same question over and over again, leading to a very repetitive experience. If you’re looking for recommendations, don’t even ask a question because you can scroll through the most recent asks and get all the same answers that you would have gotten on your own unless you asked for something super specific. I wish you got more daily recommendation type stuff since you can blow through those in a minute or two. Also, the notification system is awful. It needs to be completely redone in a more efficient way. It would also be great if there was a video game section. That seems like a natural inclusion for this sort of app. It was fun for a little bit, but there needs to be more substance to keep you interested long term.

by SallyCheese

I wrote a previous review which doesn’t appear to be here anymore in which I said that the sign up process is horrible. Because it said year of birth was optional, I selected 2021 to move the process forward and it instantly informed me it deleted my account. I tried to go back and sign up again with the same email address and it wouldn’t let me. So now that email address can never be used to sign up for Likewise— what an awful practice. The developer response to my (deleted?) review, as predicted, was that they don’t collect data on children— okay, then how about warn me before you delete my account, thereby rendering my email address unusable?

I’ve started to use Likewise and it’s okay, but getting there was a chore. This needs to be fixed. If you don’t want to collect data on children (who does?) that’s fine— but don’t penalize adults who for whatever reason select the wrong year— it’s completely possible someone does that by accident and now they can’t ever use their own email to sign up for Likewise again? smh

by Andy33132

Aside from the other issues typically talked about (poor UI, few recommendations per day, etc.), the biggest thing for me is the transience of user interaction/conversation. I commented on a thread about a book disagreeing with some others and explaining my own opinion (not at all a heated convo, just usual discourse). Next day original comment stood starting the convo, but all subsequent comments (including my own) were deleted and replaced with new ones from other users). Either Likewise can’t save or the developer is hugely over-moderating user comments. Whatever the explanation, I now see why there are so few comments on Likewise .

Half the point for me is to know what others think about books, films, etc. Getting rid of those conversations on developer whims makes Likewise pretty meaningless to me. Unfortunately, that only leaves Likewise ’s purpose to be collecting your data and selling it with no meaningful benefit to you, the user. I will be deleting Likewise shortly.

by Ejhwolb

This needs a lot of work. In addition to all the comments about UI, too few recs, not being able to turn off tv or podcast sections etc etc, I would specifically like to be able to hide whole genres (I will NEVER want a YA book, so it’s a total waste of my time to weed through questions or discussions about YA). I went to the genre groups and selected “turn off group notifications” but that seems to have done absolutely nothing. I also tried blocking individuals to see if their discussions would stop showing up but that did nothing either, i still see all their posts.

There also needs to be a better (or any??) way to find people to follow. For example, Likewise could suggest people to you who have liked a lot of the same things you have. I actually can’t figure how to find anyone to follow. There is just a giant list of all the users with zero info about what they like. Not helpful.

by Comptctd

Hi! I come from the software background myself (I sold my company to a giant Corp in 2010) and the most important thing these days is to be user- friendly and easy to use. This is an excellent app and the idea is fantastic. However, the user interface still needs work. In my opinion it shouldn’t open in your own page by default. When I log in- I don’t care if my profile complete if not and how I scored, etc. I’m looking for something.
So, help me find it please. The lists are useful but there is no way to prioritize them based on critics review or members. This is critical! Give us starts so we can see if other people liked this or not. Grouping people with similar tastes is useful, but one needs a freedom to join such group or start his/her own. So, different ways to prioritize lists of movies or books are extremely useful and should be implemented. Thank you!

by Dawsonator99

It’s a really great idea but their are two major problems I’ve seen on only having Likewise for two days. The first problem is that I don’t see an option to say that I disliked a movie or tv show which makes zero sense to me. The second problem is kinda similar in that with all the reviews for various movies and shows, I have not seen one negative review which confused me so I purposely looked up really bad movies to test this so I looked up Secret Obsession which is a terrible movie and what do you know, all the reviews said how great the movie was and how you need to watch it. There is something really weird with Likewise showing everything as great. I’d like an app where people’s honest opinions were showcased as well because how it is, it just isn’t worth using because the reviews are clearly fixed.

by Jaunboy

I can’t even say how much I love Likewise. I have been searching for book recommendations for my very specific taste in books for months, and finally I’m surrounded by a community who actually knows what it is I’m looking for! In an hour I had 10+ books in my need-to-read list.

I do wish that there was a delete option. I selected several books on accident that I didn’t mean to select when going through the initial “things I have read and liked” that I haven’t actually read, but there is no way to unselect that you have read them or delete them out of your list of read books later on. I also recommended the wrong book to someone and it wouldn’t let me delete my recommendation so I just had to leave a comment. It’s a simple enough feature and it’s pretty annoying that it’s not there. Hopefully in a future update though!

Thanks for this beautiful app!

by Ilkjen

It’s true. The daily suggestions aren’t stellar. And the options you have to pick from to help “improve the daily recommendations” aren’t great either.

BUT…

I’m here for the community part! Being able to ask for recommendations and make suggestions to others is borderline addicting. I’ll often watch a movie and think it was really good and want to find more like it. A Google search for “movies like ______” yield sketchy results. Either an algorithm or a single author creates the list. But with this app you have all these other people who love tv/movies/books as much as you. So the suggestions are diverse yet spot-on. It’s fun to scroll through the oddly specific suggestion lists and find things I never would’ve thought to watch or read (depending on if you’re here for the tv/movies or book recs). There’s a podcast section too if that’s your thing.

by Ketchum26

I downloaded this for the Books section and have gotten some suggestions that I’ve never gotten before for books, which I’m really happy about! I am constantly trying to find good animes and other cartoons to watch, so I decided to do the TV/Movie section. I put in twenty favorite movies/shows (3 nature/crime documentaries, 1 live-action movie, 1 live-action show, and the rest being cartoons and animes). I intentionally put down a lot of my cartoon/animes so I could get primarily suggestions based on that. I waited a day to get my suggestions and today I looked and it’s a bunch of mainstream Netflix documentaries that aren’t over nature or crime! It’s things like The Circle, the Demi Lovato Documentary, etc... Super disappointed that the accuracy and quality was so different between the two sections, but I’m overall happy with my new reading list!

by Sai Leigh

I love popping into Likewise when I have a few minutes. I’m quickly building a list of books I want to read, and I’ve used the “ask a question” option to ask for recommendations, make recommendations, and read through recommendations on questions that I didn’t even know I wanted to ask.

There are two things about Likewise that don’t quite work for me. First, the formatting for book descriptions is way off and awkward. All jammed together, no spaces between sentences, can’t tell where professional reviews end and the actual description begins. It’s hard to look at or skim. Second, I’d say 80% of recommendations are all “new” books that I see out on many, many other recommendation platforms. That or every book that gets suggested is YA. A filter option would be helpful to avoid topics or genres I’m absolutely sure I don’t want to get into.

by Lavonte Robinson

Honestly, I’m a movie buff and love re-watching the same movies with new perspectives. Sometimes it's hard to remember all of my favorite movies or tv shows. I use Likewise to save shows that I've watched, want to watch, or rewatch. I love the grouping of recommendations based on your saves, for example, “my favorite comedy shows and movies.” I tend to do this on my own time, but I think it could go further, like when I'm in the mood for empowering movies with a strong female lead in business. It could, for example, recommend The Devil Wears Prada and The Intern, two of my favorites. Or if I want to watch movies based in Paris, it could group recommend Pixar's Ratatouille with another Paris-based movie. Or even groupings based on classic chick flicks. I understand this would take a lot more time, and you would probably would to have someone physically creating collections, as opposed to Ai like I think it is now. But hey, if you're interested in I’m all on board. Overall I love Likewise. It’s free, and if you watch movies or tv shows, I don’t see any reason not to use it!

by Heyitssunev

I love Likewise ever since I downloaded it I go on it multiple times in the day to see if I can get new book recommendations. I thought I had too many books before, well now I have more 😅 the movie recs are great too but I’ve seen so many movies that I’m more the recommender than the one gets the recs. I really like how you can see other people’s lists or ask for books similar to your fave.

I think the only thing I need is a button for when you didn’t hate the book because it was bad, but because it wasn’t your taste. I always feel so terrible unliking a book. But I guess that’s something I may have to just get used to.

by EllieMoe34

Probably the best app I’ve ever downloaded. As a movie lover, it’s a great place to keep track of all the movies I’ve seen and to find new ones. The daily recommendations are okay, but my favorite features are the lists, and the asks. The asks are really good for getting recommendations from real people in the community, and as for the lists, I like organizing my favorite movies and shows by genre to keep track of.

The only thing I would like to see added would be to be able to search by name of author, actor/actress, director, etc. For instance, be able to search “Stephen king” and have all his book titles pop up, or “Adam Sandler” and have his movies pop up.

But besides that, it’s an awesome app. Definitely try it out.

by Voyager13

I just started using Likewise and now I’m selecting what I’ve watched, listened to, or read, going through the lists. Right now I’m selecting books I’ve read. For this category I’m using the search function more. It’s quite a pain! Let’s say I type in a book name or an author’s name, Jeffrey Carver for instance, about 7 books he’s written comes up, and I’ve read most of them. I select the first book, it places the check mark, and goes out of my search back to the list screen. In order to select every book of his I’ve read, I have to type in his name each and every time! There is no way to select multiple books or to clear the search myself. Add this ability to the search function because right now your search function isn’t very user friendly.

by Cornebiser

I finally have a place to categorize all the movies I like and watch instead of having them all hang out on my already cluttered watch lists on my streaming services. The bonus is I’m finding other users like me and finally discovering new movies to watch that I’ve never heard of. Watching movies is really my hobby and finding out others feel the same way was a game changer. I feel like Likewise still has some things they need to improve upon and I hope they do because they have a good thing going. So I’m not upset about a few glitches, I can see that they have already fixed some things. It’s already a part of my daily life, just checking on what other people have found, it’s really cool.

by Tealpiggy

I had no idea Likewise existed until I saw an ad on Instagram. And you can bet it’s great if I take the time to write a review (something I never do.)
Through analyzing my own unique preferences on books and movies, Likewise was able to fine tailor recommendations that were pretty darn accurate. Not only that, but the social aspect of communicating with others who need recommendations or those who recommend allows for yet another place to find what you love. I love that it’s free!
I actually saved two books that I was able to find on this app, and just bought them at my local Barnes and Nobles- they are both EXACTLY what I look for in books. This is a perfect community type app for book-lovers, movie-lovers, and for those who don’t know what to read or watch next!

by Dg128472

When the pandemic started, I had a lot more free time for books, TV, movies, and podcasts, but I didn’t have a good way to discover new stuff, nor talk about the stuff I was watching/listening/reading. I wanted a way to bridge the gap between content consumption and socialization. After it didn’t exist (so I thought) for 2 years, I decided to go and try to build it. I came up with a pitch deck, found a start up advisor, and started my market research. 25 or so conversations in, and I finally discovered this app. Likewise is almost everything I envisioned mine would be (although I have a handful of ideas for them). I’m really happy it exists. The reason it didn’t hit my radar sooner is probably because this one’s early adopters tend to me teens and 20-something’s, whereas I’m in my 30s. I’d love to work there some day because I have big ideas on how this could grow and gain a wider audience.

by Shibbyleigh

I was excited to try Likewise as I’m always looking for new books to read. When I added my starting recommendations, I was given a slew of books I had already read that were similar as well as a bunch of text books. My most recommended books were all “Guide to start up success” type improvement books probably because I selected “Bad Blood” as a book I like. Nice algorithm. 👎🏼

by Hay_haleigh

I found Likewise earlier today through an Instagram ad stating that I'd be able to get date night recommendations for Valentine's Day. I downloaded and signed up for Likewise , assuming that it would be somewhat easy to search for exactly what I was looking for. All I was met with was frustration and confusion through my time using Likewise . I decided to just delete after wasting my time trying to figure out how Likewise works. I think it would be very useful if there were some kind of tutorial immediately after signing up. I still have no idea how to find date night recommendations for Valentine's Day in my specific area, nor do I care to anymore since Likewise is frustrating and confusing for a user such as myself.

by Strawberri3

I don’t really get Likewise, and it seems to be lacking some pretty obvious things that would make it more useful.

First off, there’s a “gamer” flag you can put on your account, but weirdly enough no ability to recommend games.

Second, there’s no AI recommendation ability within Likewise . It would be awesome if, after entering in all your “likes,” Likewise count spit out “smart recs” for users based off similarities between profiles. Like if someone likes Seinfeld and Starbucks, they’ll be able to see other users recs on coffee places or whatever who also like Seinfeld and Starbucks.

by Ninja_Fury

Would be nice if we could also rate the stuff we like, I understand that by recommending something it means we like it, but it would also be nice to see what tons of people really think of a title instead of having to fish/read for their mini “tips” on a movie/show/book. Like, if we could sort recommendations for romance by highest ratings. THAT would be helpful! Otherwise we are just in a social media like to show off what we like and not really to help others to figure out quickly what’s REALLY good out there.

by Starlove1

Good, but I wish it was more useful than just saving stuff and making lists. Maybe allow me to track the shows/movies/books I find recommendations for? Or check-in to places/things and add multiple photos to share with my friends? What about ratings? If you guys added more features Likewise would be the ultimate tool for finding and sharing stuff that I like or that I’m doing!

by Ser8cbc

this app is a good app, and with more users will be even better (I got recommendations from the same group of folks and like to sample from a large group of people). The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was the already opted in email on how many notifications I had. I would rather have that box unchecked and I can change if I need to as it was just another email I had to delete. I didn’t use it much as I’m in the habit of constantly using Yelp, but did use when I traveled for quick recos on where to eat or what to see when in town.

by Hunterrams

We all been there! We search up a film or book but we can’t find that perfect match! We ask several friends and family members but they won’t know. I’m glad Likewise was made because it can do all of that!

However I wish there was a way to look at recent questions and also add a MUSIC section!

by Blyumina

I love the idea of this, it takes out the anxiety of starting a new book or show. The only thing is I wish there was a way to dislike or remove some of the recommendations because a lot of my recommendations include books or movies I have read/viewed and didn’t like but there is no way to remove them from my discover page. Another suggestion that would be a great addition to Likewise would be music artist recommendations, because I’d love to discover some new music.

by Zroc1000

this app has radically simplified my life in Terms of streaming! Nowadays Netflix is overrun with a myriad of trashy show and this app helps me pick out the good ones!

this app has also made travel and exploration much easier to share. When I travel I can see all of the places my friends recommend and vice versa. I can also create asks and my friends can tell me where to eat!

by DMQThoughts

Ever scrolled through Netflix not sure where to begin, cruise the best seller list or local library for random inspiration....if you said yes this app is for you.

Search Likewise to find binge worthy shows, edge of the seat mystery, the latest podcast for your commute. All recommendations are sourced by real recommendations not paid reviews. Love Likewise.

by CLSand

I feel like I’ve been waiting for Likewise my whole life! Other recommendation app don’t hold a candle to this app! I love getting suggestions for places to go when I’m traveling and feeling a little adventurous! Can’t wait to try Likewise in its HQ city and see what great recommendations I can get!!!

by Meg Getting Married

I am SO glad this app came along. I didn’t know how much I would use it when I first downloaded it but I use it everyday multiple times to find recommendations for anything from a lunch place to a new city to explore. Love Likewise!

by Nicky4747474747

It’s never been so easy to save and find new content in all of the categories that this app offers. It’s a super fun way to find new things and record some of my favorite things in my life that I wished I could share to the world more!

by Literacy Maven

Likewise is what you always wanted. The opportunity to be a critic and rate movies, restaurants, books, etc! It enables you to ask for and get great recommendations from people you know or one to know. Highly recommended!