The group that meets monthly
Book club, small group, running crew, the Thursday breakfast. It meets once a month, if everyone can make it. Keep it going the other 29 days.
Learn more →Video conversations for small groups
Your group, on your own time.
Record a video when you have a minute. Your people watch and reply when they have theirs. No scheduling, no 400-message group chat.
Free to join and respond. iOS and Android.
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Your group chat has 400 unread messages and zero actual conversation.
Your group meets once a month. If everyone can make it.
The friend you’d call first hasn’t heard your voice since March.
How it works
Three steps. The third one is the whole point.
Join your camp, or start one.
A camp is your group’s home on Bondfires. Public, invite-only, or a hearth just for the people closest to you.
Spark a Bondfire.
Record what’s on your mind. A win, a question, something you’re wrestling with. As short or as long as it needs to be.
Your people respond with video, when they’re ready.
Responses stack into a thread. Watch on the train, reply from the driveway. The fire waits for you.
A Bondfire, up close
One spark. A stack of faces answering it.
Someone records a Bondfire about the thing they didn’t say at dinner. By the next morning three people have answered, each in their own time, each with their own face.
- The Ember Rail sits at the top of Home. A copper ring means someone answered you. A gold dot means your spark is still waiting.
- Threads, not feeds. Responses stack under the spark so a conversation stays a conversation.
- Captions, summaries, and tags, written for you. Every video is captioned and summarised, so you can skim a thread in seconds or find the one about the job offer in October.
Who gathers here
Built for groups that already exist.
Bondfires isn’t a feed of strangers. It’s the people you already have, showing up more often.
Friends in different cities
The five of you who were inseparable at 22 and now live in four time zones. A thread beats a text you never answer.
Family, in a hearth
Your own private space for siblings, parents, kids who moved out. Dad’s face on a Tuesday, whenever he gets to it.
Faith, recovery, and mastermind groups
Groups that already have a leader and a rhythm. One person sets up the camp, everyone shows up between meetings.
Learn more →Faces, not bubbles.
Video carries tone, a laugh, the pause before the honest part. Text drops all of it. And when you need to read instead, every Bondfire has captions and a summary.
Nobody has to be free at 8.
Post when you can. Reply when you can. The thread waits, and the notification tells you exactly who answered.
Small, private, and yours.
Only your camp sees your videos. No ads, no algorithm, no strangers. What’s shared in a camp stays in the camp.
From the founders
Two engineers. One friendship that kept dying in the group chat.
David and Jake built Bondfires because the people they cared about most were the people they talked to least. Not for lack of wanting to. For lack of a Tuesday night that worked for everyone.
Read the storyFree to join and respond
Join a camp, watch everything, reply with up to five minutes of video. Free.
Starting your own Bondfires and running a hearth for your closest people is Plus. Leading camps for a whole group is Pro.
What is Bondfires?
Bondfires is an app where a small group keeps talking between meetups using video instead of text. Someone records a Bondfire, a video about what’s on their mind. The rest of the group watches and replies with their own videos whenever they have a few minutes.
Do we all need to be online at the same time?
No. That’s the point. You record when you have time, your people reply when they have theirs. Early morning, lunch break, after the kids are down. The thread is always there.
Is it free?
Yes. Free members can join camps, watch everything, and respond with videos up to five minutes long. Starting your own Bondfires and running your own hearth are part of Plus. Leaders who want to run camps for their group use Pro.
Why video instead of text?
Because your face and your voice carry what text drops. Tone, hesitation, a laugh, the thing you almost didn’t say. A video from a friend lands differently than two paragraphs. And you don’t have to choose: every Bondfire gets captions and a short written summary, so you can skim a thread, or catch up somewhere you can’t listen.
Who can see my videos?
Only the members of the camp you posted in. Bondfires are never public on the internet, we don’t sell your data, and we don’t use your conversations for advertising. Read the privacy policy for the full picture.
Light one tonight.
Download Bondfires, join your camp, and record the first Bondfire. The rest of the group will hear it in the morning.