BuyNothing Reviews

First of all I am so so grateful that this happens so we can all get off Facebook! That being said, the functionality of BuyNothing is still pretty clunky and there are a few fixes (app dev team, I’m looking at you) that need to happen before it will have the full functionality and ease of use of working within Facebook groups. First we need to be able to reply to comments in a post thread —Without replies the comments section on posts is pretty difficult to follow. Additionally in the Messages section, I do not understand why the sent from me messages are displaying on the left side of the screen, and those of my message partner are on the right — this is the opposite of how (at least the English speaking world) expects messages to appear, so it’s very graphically confusing.

I am so happy to be able to get off Facebook and keep on BuyNothinging lol in a setting made for it. The old reviews seem to be from before it was even officially released. You can now login without linking to socials, upload pictures and videos easily, react to posts, private message, etc. As someone who has participated on Facebook this app groups, this is so much better! When you make a post you can identify it as a gift, ask, or gratitude off the bat. One of the biggest level ups from the Facebook experience is having a feed of your own activity all in one place even if you’ve moved locations. For those of you new to this app, enjoy and welcome to the community I’m so excited about the future of the movement with BuyNothing!

I made a Google email so I could sign up for pintrest. Lucky me it doubles and works as a “jet” for BuyNothing. It is just a free email that collects junk. I don’t understand why people are mad they need a gmail account. It is better choice than needing evil Facebook. I deleted FB months ago. My over all health improved. It was like quitting smoking. I am so glad there is a buy nothing app. So far nobody in my area. But! I have hope. I love to give away things. I have posted free things on the next door app with no luck. I hope people will tell the ones on the BN FB groups there is a app. For the ones complaining about ads. Do you work for free? Do you complain about ads on social media? Ads make it so BuyNothing gets maintained.

After I unhappily signed in with a linked account, the only thing I achieved was to be put on a “Wait list.” I did not even determine which neighborhood group I wanted to join, so it’s not a “waiting to be verified and admitted into the group” situation. What in the world am I put on a wait list for?

Also, each group should have more than one admin. The group in my neighborhood has only one admin who is no longer active on Facebook so no new members can be admitted. I tried sending her a message, but it’s not showing as delivered so she likely does not use BuyNothing . The members are not shown and cannot not be contacted. I tried reaching out to Buy Nothing only to sent back automatic general response to look into FAQs.
This was my last resort... to get into the group through BuyNothing , but it’s looking pretty bleak right now.

Ignore the reviews that say "ignore the bad reviews! they're old!" They're not. In my case, after I added photos I couldn't do anything more with my post and can't edit it because it leaves the keyboard stuck on my iPhone screen. It's an obvious bug and I figured it must have been solved in an update, but after updating it treated me like a brand new user (re-selecting my area, re-naming my neighborhood, etc.) yet it still gives me a button to edit my old post, so it must have recognized me? Yet I still can't scroll down to see whatever options are at the bottom of the post because it parks the keyboard on it permanently. Giving things away needs to be simple (so an audience grows) and this doesn't offer that to givers.

I was excited to be off the Facebook group into an app that doesn’t rely on sometimes questionable Admins. However, BuyNothing asks for a location only to just put it in your profile header. After that BuyNothing is basically a long endless feed of posts from people that can be asks or gives- no way to filter and it’s not reader friendly. I also see items hours away from my location and I’m in a major metropolitan city - i should have a way to limit to within 5 miles of my area for example.

Have deleted, will donate directly to charities until BuyNothing gets better since I don’t wish to interact with the power trip in the FB groups either

There is a reason why the Buy Nothing Project is a global sensation. The gift economy meets the needs of individuals and communities, showing that we are all stronger when we support each other. BuyNothing is easy to use, and complements the Facebook groups nicely. Autosave features such as pick up information and neighborhood are super helpful. It is wonderful to have options and alternatives to meet more people’s needs. This is an important step forward for a more caring and connected world.

After years of witnessing the inefficiencies of building out the movement on Facebook, finally we can experience a sharing platform built by the very people who innovated this social movement. I love how we can define our own sharing radius, mark gifts as Gifted, share our saved address with others (game changer!) and how we can participate in offering input through Canny. The developers and founders are listening! All apps could be built this way. Start sharing, now.

I agree that many of these reviews were from before the bugs were worked out. It is really easy to post items; I love it.

That said, there is one minor glitch I’ve encountered:
Once you’ve selected your Photo Library to use for pictures, and selected particular photos (and DONE), it doesn’t let you choose any more until you close BuyNothing and reopen it.

So if you post a second item, and go to your camera and take a photo of the new item, it doesn’t show up in the Buy Nothing app, and there’s no way to make it show up. You have to close BuyNothing and reopen it. You CAN however tell BuyNothing to use the Camera, directly, but then the pictures you shoot for BuyNothing do not appear in your Photo Library. Maybe not a big deal, but should be fixed IMO.

I’m bemused at the lack of a search function. Seems basic!
And the last couple of days BuyNothing won’t load any posts more than about 24hrs old, just spins its loading wheel and flickers.
Hoping this is new app glitchiness 🤞

Clean interface, simple to use, and a great community. It feels good to know I can have a positive impact and reuse/recycle goods, and it’s nice to see this outside of where the group started, on Facebook, as it’s a lot easier to find what I need on BuyNothing than in those groups.

I think a lot of the reviews on here were for beta versions, most of the issues that were mentioned I haven’t run into at all.

Late last night I downloaded BuyNothing , set up an account, and posted my first gift in less than 15 minutes. When I woke up this morning someone had replied to the post. I happily handed off the item a few hours later. Done and dusted! BuyNothing is fabulous!

This was my very first BN experience. I would not have tried it if I had had to do it via FB.

Feb. 2022: I’m glad Buy Nothing is moving away from Facebook, but BuyNothing has a ways to go before it’s a good replacement. In particular, there’s no way to filter posts so I can, for instance, look only at asks or weed out anything pending pickup. The fact that BuyNothing doesn’t default to the hyperlocal setting, one of the main draws of BN, also gives me pause. BuyNothing looks pretty but only works for folks who are using it in one very specific way. That’s not the way to draw people in.

Things that need to be improved 1) The location settings should automatically be set to hyper local (the hyper local community & friendships are what make the buy nothing groups so special) and 2) we need to increase users on BuyNothing . (I suggest we increase marking for BuyNothing on Facebook group pages, Nextdoor, and in local coffee shops)

Love that Buy Nothing built a new app outside of Facebook. I don’t use Facebook so loved being able to tap into the network in a different way. I have been able to gift several items through my local but nothing network now BUT BuyNothing is terribly hard to use. It signs me out daily. The activity notifications do not update (they show unseen even after I have viewed things). The two ways to message people in BuyNothing are confusing (reply or DM).

I know that BuyNothing is a pretty new thing but apparently no one stays on top of it. Only one person ever answered my messages and I was grateful to help her. It seems that if things have been “gifted”, then the posts don’t come down/or the people just figure you can read their minds.
It is really sad as the original way I was introduced to Buy Nothing was on FaceBook and I am apart of an amazing group. I have deleted BuyNothing unfortunately. Maybe it just needs more help then ppl can give it.

Really want little to do with Facebook but buy nothing has been keeping me on. The only issue is that people on Facebook haven’t moved over to BuyNothing and the community admins are pushing the apps use. If there is nothing pushing people to change people won’t change.

I’m disappointed in the lack of a search function. Also seem unable to get BuyNothing to sync on both my iPad and my iPhone. Inbox messages on my iPad did not appear in my iPhone. Had to set up profile picture on each device. Also, when I logged out of BuyNothing on my iPad, then logged back in it was almost like starting over. My inbox messages were lost and the record of my posts was lost.

This is a great app but I just wish there was a “search” button. Sometimes BuyNothing glitches and the posts skip so I’m unable to find where I was previously. In addition, someone replied to my comment but there was no notification area on BuyNothing for me to see. So now that post is buried and I cannot find it anymore.

this app, freecycle, and similar concepts are absolutely wonderful and I support them for so many reasons.

BuyNothing doesn’t. Imagine combining the most broken sign-in experience you know with a barely usable messaging system, inconsistent and unreliable notifications, and a generally garbage interface based on a scrolling feed. You know, because endlessly scrolling feeds without meaningful filters are how all good shopping apps work (which is what this is, even if it’s basically for free stuff).

I am an adamant believer in the gift economy movement and I believe that the this app app is the logical next step in the revolution.

Kudos to the team for putting out a great beta product and continuing to improve the Ux day in and day out.

Can’t wait to see where this journey takes us!!

I was so excited for BuyNothing so I could get off FB and keep my Buy Nothing group. This was so disappointing. It gets rid of the defined buy nothing group in favor of a proximity zone (a certain number of miles from your address) which makes it identical to other “free stuff” groups out there. The whole point of Buy Nothing is the sense of community it builds with a defined group of people. This is just a free stuff message board. Really disappointed.

I was excited to see an Ap, given that I left the uber unhealthy social media platforms, but needing to tie my account to one is a disappointment. I’ll check back again to see if The Buy Nothing project will one day allow us to register with email/phone numbers instead. I was looking forward to sharing my goods once again, so hopefully someday soon!

I am so excited about this application - being able to share and exchange items or services freely within ones community is truly an amazing experience. I am glad l downloaded the this app App!

I love the idea but I deleted BuyNothing as soon as I opened it. I will not sign in with my “Facebook, google, apple, whatever” in order to use your app. Do not force me to link accounts when I do not wish to do so. Apps shoot themselves in the foot when they refuse to allow folks to set up their account without linking. Please reconsider. I love my local FB community group and am hopeful that I can come back and update this review to something more positive.

Ignore the bad reviews while BuyNothing was in limited-functionality beta testing…

There needs to be a way to upload photos in comments and direct messages, especially to respond to an “Ask”

I am/have been a huge supporter of buy nothing & put in a tremendous number of volunteer hours helping cultivate great groups over the past few years.
I am not comfortable with the fact that to sign into BuyNothing you must link one of the following 3 identities or you cannot proceed:
Google
Facebook
Apple

??

Great wait to engage in the this app we all love. So excited to see the continued growth of this community. Grateful for BuyNothing and for you all :-)

User must use logins for either Facebook, Google, or Apple. Disappointed I can’t use my non-google email, to create a login (I have a Yahoo email). Truthfully, I want to get away from using Facebook entirely, and I thought that was part of the reason why they created BuyNothing in the first place.