1. About BoardGame Friend
BoardGame Friend is a board game discovery and community app. You can explore games, organise your collection, follow useful content, find people and places to play, join public events or arrange private game sessions.
The app is organised around four main areas: Games, Pulse, Discover and your Profile and Lists. The sections below explain what you can do in each area.
2. Discover games
Use the Games area to find newly released games, popular titles, highly rated games and recommendations that may match your interests or the games you already enjoy.
Browse and search
Search by game title and explore categories such as featured, trending, quick picks, similar games and top-rated games.
Follow games
Follow games you care about so they are easier to find again and so related activity can appear in your experience.
Add games to lists
Add a game to an existing list or create a new list for collections such as My Library, Want to Play, Previously Played or personal favourites.
Discover public lists
Explore lists created by other users and like lists that you find useful or interesting.
3. Learn about a game and keep useful files
Open a game page to understand what the game is like before deciding whether it suits you or your group.
Game overview
Review player count, estimated play time, recommended age, gameplay characteristics, themes, components and a short description.
Difficulty and language dependence
Check the expected difficulty and whether the game relies heavily on written language or can be played mainly through icons and visual information.
Ratings and user feedback
See available player ratings, reviews, comments and other community information about the game.
Rulebooks and supporting files
Open available rulebooks and other supported game files. You can save supported files for later access, including when your device is offline.
4. Follow creators and BGF editorial content in Pulse
Pulse is the content area of BoardGame Friend. It brings together posts and recommendations from board game creators and BoardGame Friend editors.
Creators
Discover creator profiles and follow creators whose recommendations, posts and lists you enjoy.
By BGF
Read official BoardGame Friend editor picks, announcements, guides and curated recommendations.
Reviews and videos
Explore available reviews, videos, opinions and other game-related content in one place.
Creator lists
Open lists created by creators and use them as inspiration when choosing or discovering games.
5. Discover players, groups, places and events
The Discover area helps you find people and board game activity that may be relevant to you. Results can depend on your search, language, location, interests, privacy settings and the information made available by other users.
Game Events
Discover public game sessions, view the available details, join when participation is open or create a public game event of your own.
Players
Find players who are nearby or who share similar game interests and languages. You can view available profiles and send a friend request when you would like to connect.
Player Lists
Explore public game lists created by other players and discover games through their collections, recommendations and rankings.
Groups
Find public board game groups, review their details and join groups that are open to new members.
Cafes
Find nearby board game cafes, view their available information and follow cafes you want to keep track of.
Places
Explore community-marked places where board games can be played. Where enabled, you can also suggest a suitable place for the community.
Events
Discover and follow public events created by organisers, cafes or groups.
6. Plan private sessions with Game Rooms
Game Rooms are private spaces for arranging a game session with invited or participating users.
- Create a private room or join an available private session.
- Chat with the other participants inside the room.
- Choose which games the group may want to play.
- Agree on a suitable time with the users in the room.
- Confirm the plan and start the game session when everyone is ready.
You can also use supported one-to-one real-time chat to communicate directly with another user.
7. Identify games with the scanner
The scanner helps you identify a board game from its box image.
Single scan
Take or upload a photo of one board game box to search for a possible match.
Multi-upload
Upload multiple board game box images together when you want to identify several games.
Review matches
Check the suggested result before confirming that the identified title is the correct game.
Add to a list
Once identified, add the game to your library or another list without searching for it again manually.
8. Organise and choose games with Lists tools
Your profile and Lists tab help you manage your collection and make decisions about what to play.
Custom lists and library
Create and manage lists such as My Library, Previously Played, Want to Play, favourites, yearly collections or any custom list you need.
Library Picker
Choose from games already saved in your library and let the tool help narrow down what you feel like playing at that moment.
Ranker
Select one or more lists and compare games through a sequence of choices. The tool builds a numbered ranking such as first, second and third place.
Save rankings as lists
Use Ranker as a personal ranking or rating tool, then save the finished order as a new list when you want to keep or share the result.
Reorder lists
Change the order of games in supported lists so that your collection reflects your current priorities or preferences.
9. Feature availability
Some features depend on your account, app version, device capabilities, permissions, location and whether enough public information or community activity is available in your area.
Location, camera, photo, file, notification or other device permissions are requested only when needed for a related feature. You can review these permissions in your device settings, although disabling one may limit the feature that uses it.
Note: Screens, names and feature behaviour may change as BoardGame Friend is updated.
10. Help, support and important documents
For common questions and contact options, open the BoardGame Friend Help page or use Profile → Settings → Solution Center inside the app.
Support email: [email protected]