ABV

A Better Value

Take a photo of a drink menu and see what each drink costs per standard drink. This page is for questions, and for how the app handles your information.

1
House lager, pint
16 oz 4.5% read from menu
1.2 standard drinks, $5.00 per standard drink
0.20 per $
2
Well whiskey and soda
1.5 oz 40% estimate
1.0 standard drinks, $8.00 per standard drink
0.13 per $
3
House red, glass
6 oz 13.5% estimate
1.4 standard drinks, $8.15 per standard drink
0.12 per $

An amber chip means the app estimated that number rather than reading it off the menu. You can tap any estimate in the app and change it.

Getting help

One person builds this, so a reply usually takes a day or two. If a menu read badly, attaching the photo helps more than anything else.

Common questions

It missed drinks on my menu, or got a price wrong.

Reading a photo of a menu is the hardest part of the app and it does not always get everything. You can add a drink it missed, remove one it misread, and edit any price, strength or pour size directly in the results. If a whole menu came out badly, send me the photo and it goes into the test set.

Where do the strengths and pour sizes come from?

From the menu when the menu says. When it does not, the app estimates from the kind of drink it is, and labels the number as an estimate so you can see it and correct it.

Why will it not rank one of my drinks?

Because it could not read that drink's price clearly. The app never invents a price. It sets the drink aside and asks you to type the price in, rather than ranking a guess.

What is a standard drink?

A fixed amount of pure alcohol, about what is in a 12 oz beer. Measuring in standard drinks is what lets you compare a small strong pour against a large weak one and get an answer that means something.

I paid, and a new phone is not showing it.

Open the Support button on the home screen and choose Restore Purchases. It is a one time purchase tied to your Apple Account, so it restores on any device you sign in to.

Do I have to pay for anything?

No. Reading menus and ranking drinks is free and stays free. The tip jar is there if the app saved you money and you want to say thanks, and it unlocks nothing, because nothing is locked.

Privacy

Short version: your photos and your drinks never leave your phone, and there is no account to make.

What stays on your device

Menu reading uses Apple's built in text recognition, on the device. Photos, drink names, prices and rankings are never uploaded and never sent anywhere. Nothing about what you scan is recorded or transmitted. There is no account, no sign in, and no analytics on your use of the app.

What the app stores locally

Three small values, readable only by the app and removed when you delete it: your confirmation that you are 21 or over, whether the support message has been shown, and a count of how many menus you have scanned since it last appeared.

The one thing that leaves

If you choose to tip, Apple handles the payment and a purchase receipt is sent to RevenueCat, which confirms the purchase is genuine and records that the tip happened. That is the only data collected.

RevenueCat's own privacy policy is at revenuecat.com/privacy. Payments are processed by Apple, and Apple's handling of them is covered by Apple's privacy policy rather than this one.

Children

The app is for adults 21 and over, asks you to confirm that on first launch, and is not directed at children.

Changes and requests

If this policy changes, the updated version appears on this page. Since no personal information is collected, there is nothing held about you to request or delete. If you want the purchase record associated with your tip removed, email the address above and it will be deleted.