Frequently Asked Questions

FavCircles is where your favorite places live — organized into circles (collections like "Date Night Spots" or "Best Coffee") and shared with people you actually know. When you're looking for somewhere to eat, a place your friend loves beats a stranger's star rating every time.

You decide, per circle: Public (anyone), My Network (only your connections), or Private (just you). You can also mark an individual place private inside any circle. Nothing is shared beyond the level you choose.

• Answer from your real favorites: "Where do my friends like to eat near downtown?"
• Save and organize: "Add Carbone to my Date Night circle."
• Import your history: hand it your Mapstr, Google Maps, or Swarm export and say "move these into FavCircles" — it reads the file, shows you what's new vs. already saved, and imports on your OK.
• Run your store (owners): "How's my store doing this month? Post a happy-hour special for Friday. Set my hours to 7–7 weekdays."

1. Open ChatGPT → Settings → Apps & Connectors (turn on Developer mode under Advanced if you don't see an option to add one).
2. Choose Create / Add connector, name it FavCircles, and paste: https://mcp.favcircles.com/mcp
3. Sign in with your FavCircles email and password when asked.

That's it — about two minutes, once.

1. Open claude.ai → Settings → Connectors.
2. Click Add custom connector and paste: https://mcp.favcircles.com/mcp
3. Sign in with your FavCircles email and password when asked.

Full walkthrough with screenshots: Connect FavCircles to Claude.

The connector sign-in needs a FavCircles password. Set one first in the app under Profile → Settings, then connect with your email and that password.

Your assistant only gets the access you grant, acts as you and only you, and asks before anything that writes or shares. You can disconnect at any time from the assistant's settings, which immediately revokes access.

Yes — from Mapstr, Google Maps, and Swarm/Foursquare. Years of saved spots become circles your friends can actually use, in a couple of minutes.

Two ways to do it:

• With your AI assistant: drop your export file into ChatGPT or Claude and say "import these into FavCircles." It previews what's new vs. already saved and imports when you confirm.
• In the app: Settings → Data → Import Places, then pick your export file (zips work as-is).

• Mapstr: in the Mapstr app, Settings → Export my places — they email you the file.
• Google Maps: go to takeout.google.com, deselect all, choose Saved, export — the zip has one file per saved list.
• Swarm/Foursquare: request your personal data export from your Foursquare account settings — they email a download link.

Everything lands in one import circle (like "Google Imports") on your map, and each of your original lists becomes a tag — so you can filter to just "Want to go" or "Favorites" with one tap. Your notes stay private to you. Duplicates of places you already saved are skipped automatically, so re-importing is always safe, and importing is free.

Yes — a full walkthrough for each one, export to finished map:

• Switching from Google Maps
• Switching from Mapstr
• Switching from Swarm / Foursquare

Claim your store from its place page ("Is this your store?") and you get a free dashboard and a window QR that turns passers-by into followers. FavCircles Business adds the full toolkit: a loyalty program with your own points and rewards, announcements that reach your followers' feeds, offers, and detailed stats — all manageable from the app or by asking your AI assistant.

More at FavCircles for Store Owners, or watch the tutorial.

• Your own ambassador kit: personalized business cards with your name and your own @favcircles.com email, plus "Every great place has a story" coasters and stickers to leave at your favorite spots.
• Early access: new features land on your phone before anyone else's.
• A direct line to the founder: your feedback goes straight to the top of the list.
• Bragging rights: when your city's map is good, everyone knows whose fault that is.

No follower counts, no resume. Ambassadors are just people who like hanging out in their area and having fun — trying the new taco spot, happy hours that turn into whole evenings, live music on a random Tuesday. If that sounds like your week, you already qualify.

Email wesley@favcircles.com with a line about your city and your favorite hidden gem. That's the whole application.

🌵 FavCoins are rewards you earn for making FavCircles better — adding places, sharing moments, checking in. They live in your piggy bank and can be claimed to a wallet on the Cactus blockchain. How the Cactus blockchain works.

FavCircles is free. Premium adds power features (like unlimited circles), and FavCircles Business is the subscription for store owners. You can go a long way on free.

Reach us any time via the support page. You can request account or data deletion at favcircles.com/delete-data. Our privacy policy covers exactly what we collect and share — in plain language.