At half five, dinner's decided.
Half Five picks tonight from the meals your household already cooks. One card, one tap, and that's the evening sorted.
One card. Not six options.
Four steps, and three of them are a tap.
Tell it what you cook
Your household's own meals, once. Pick them from a list of familiar ones, or photograph a recipe page, a whole recipe, or the list on the fridge.
Half five: one card
Tonight's meal, picked from your meals, with a short reason why. It arrives as a notification and sits on your lock screen.
Yes, or say what you fancy
One yes settles it. Not that one? Tap a different mood or type your own words, and it offers something else.
It remembers
Half Five knows what you've had lately, so the meal you'd forgotten about comes back round.
The meals are already yours.
Most evenings the problem isn't that you can't cook. It's that nobody wants to be the one who decides, and by half five it's too late to think about it properly.
So Half Five decides. At your household's card time, one card: tonight's dinner, chosen from the meals you already cook, with a line saying why. Answer it on the notification, on your lock screen, or in the app. One yes settles it, or you can set your household so two adults have to agree.
If it's wrong, say so. Tap a different mood, or type what you actually fancy, and Half Five offers something else from your own meals. Nothing gets recommended that your house has never eaten, unless you go looking for it.
It watches what you've had lately, which is the whole trick: the meal everyone likes but nobody has thought of since February comes back round on its own.
Tell it which allergens your household avoids, and new recipes that list them stop being suggested. That's health information, so Half Five asks for your explicit consent first, keeps the list in our own database and sends it nowhere. It doesn't check your own meals, and it's a convenience, not a safety system: read the actual ingredients and the actual packaging, every time.
Children eat earlier, so Half Five can keep leftovers for them. It holds a child's first name and nothing else, and it never shows a number about a child.
Half Five is published by Spark Curiosity Ltd, a company incorporated in Jersey.
What it actually does.
One card a day, not a meal plan
Tonight, decided, from your own meals. No weekly planning session, no six options to choose between.
The whole household answers
Everyone signs in as themselves and sees the same evening. One yes settles it, or choose "Both agree" and it takes two.
Recipes from a photo
Photograph a recipe page, paste some text, or drop in a link, and Half Five reads the ingredients and the method out of it.
Tell it what to avoid, once
Tick the allergens your household avoids and new recipes that list them stop coming up.
A convenience, not a safety system. Always read the actual ingredients and the actual packaging.
The week, and the shopping list
Pick the week's meals and Half Five builds the list, sorted by aisle, shared with everyone in the house.
Allergies, and what we do with them.
Tell it what your household avoids, once.
Tick the allergens your household avoids and new recipes that list them stop being suggested. Half Five asks for your explicit consent before you choose any of them, because that's health information. You can say no and keep the app: it just won't filter for you.
- The filter is a convenience, not a safety system: always read the actual ingredients and the actual packaging before you cook and before you serve.
- Your household's allergen list never leaves our own database. It isn't sent to the service that reads your recipes, and it isn't part of any count we make.
- Withdraw consent whenever you like and it's erased on the spot, not marked inactive. Take a copy of everything, or delete the lot, from Settings › Your data.
- No calories, no macros, no weight, no goals, for anyone, and never a number about a child. There's no setting that turns that on, because it doesn't exist.
The evening is free. Always.
The evening
Free
- Tonight's card, and answering it
- Choosing from your own meals
- Marking what you cooked, and leftovers
- The Live Activity on your lock screen
- Up to 15 meals
The subscription
Monthly or yearly
- More than 15 meals
- "Something new" from our recipe library
- Recipes read from photos, text and links
- The week's shopping list
- Everyone in the household, and your Apple family
The app shows the price in your own currency before you buy, along with any free trial you're eligible for.
Apple takes the payment. Cancel anytime in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. If the subscription ends, your household keeps every meal it has.
Questions people ask before downloading.
Do I have to plan a whole week?
No. Half Five is built around tonight. The week and the shopping list are there if you want them, but you can ignore them entirely and still get a card every evening.
What if I don't fancy what it picked?
Say so. Tap one of the moods it offers, or type what you actually fancy, and it offers something else from your own meals.
Can I cancel?
Yes, anytime, in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. Apple handles the billing. Your household keeps its meals either way.
Does everyone need their own subscription?
No. One subscription covers everyone in the household, and Apple Family Sharing is on.
Is the allergen filter a safety system?
No. Half Five leaves out new recipes from its library that list what your household avoids, and those recipes carry allergen labels checked by a person, but both are a convenience rather than a safety system. It doesn't check your own meals at all. Always read the actual ingredients and the actual packaging before you cook and before you serve.
What does Half Five do with my data?
Your meals, evenings and recipes are held on our servers in London, so everyone in the household sees the same thing on their own phone. Allergen information sits there too, under your explicit consent, and goes nowhere else. We don't track you across other apps, and we don't sell or share your data. Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.
What age is this for?
The account holder must be 18 or over. Children don't have accounts: an adult sets up the household, adds a child's first name so Half Five keeps leftovers for them, and gives consent for the household if its allergen list reflects that child's allergies.