# Bottled: Message in a Bottle — Make friends, penpals and chat

> Global pen pal app connecting users through random message-in-a-bottle exchanges. (iPhone/iPad app by Pierre Delannoy.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bottled-message-in-a-bottle/id1106327189 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Pierre Delannoy](https://appshunter.io/developer/1053412027)
- Category: Social Networking, Entertainment
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 2,758 App Store ratings · 377 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 15.1 · 116 MB
- Languages: Russian, Azerbaijani, Vietnamese, American English, Arabic, Hungarian, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian and 16 more
- Released: 2016-05-18
- Data updated: 2026-08-28
- Monetization: freemium
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bottled-message-in-a-bottle/id1106327189/reviews.md

## What is Bottled?

Make friends worldwide, chat with real people, and discover meaningful pen pal connections.

Bottled is a modern twist on the classic message in a bottle. Write a message, send it out to sea, and let serendipity connect you with someone, somewhere in the world.

Whether you’re looking for new friends, a pen pal, emotional support, or just a meaningful conversation, Bottled helps you meet real people through chance, curiosity, and conversation.

HOW BOTTLED WORKS

Write a message and put it in a bottle
Throw it into the sea and let it drift to a random person anywhere in the world
If they keep your bottle, you match and can start chatting
If they release it, your bottle sails away to someone else
Every bottle can lead to a unique connection

WHY PEOPLE LOVE BOTTLED

Make friends and meet pen pals from around the world
Chat at your own pace, without pressure
Send text, photo, and voice messages
Follow your bottles’ journeys in real time
Play Spin the Bottle with fun questions and challenges
Discover supportive, meaningful conversations with new people

Join over 5 million users in a positive social app designed to help you meet new people and have genuine conversations.

Chat without expectations.
Talk freely.
Let chance create real connections.

If you have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to contact us on Instagram (@appbottled) or by email at contact@bottledapp.com

Bottled is free to download and use, and all main features are available for free.
If you’d like to meet even more people, faster, you can subscribe and become a Cruise Member.

We offer weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly subscription options.

Terms of Use: https://bottledapp.com/terms
Privacy Policy: https://bottledapp.com/privacy

## Key features

- Send messages in a bottle globally
- Match with users through random exchanges
- Chat at your own pace
- Send text, photo, and voice messages
- Follow bottle journeys
- Play Spin the Bottle game

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Explorer Membership | $2.99 | per month |
| Cruise Membership - weekly | $5.99 | per 7 days |
| Cruise Membership | $9.99 | per month |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 5 Gold coins | $0.99 | one-time |
| 20 Gold coins | $3.49 | one-time |
| 50 Gold coins | $6.99 | one-time |
| 100 Gold coins | $14.49 | one-time |
| 500 Gold coins | $54.99 | one-time |
| Camera | $1.99 | one-time |
| Skull Island | $0.99 | one-time |
| Treasure Island | $0.99 | one-time |
| Shield | $1.99 | one-time |
| Gift 100 Gold | $14.49 | one-time |
| 40 gold coins | $4.99 | one-time |
| 220 gold coins | $19.99 | one-time |
| 100 gold coins | $9.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Bottled?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Unique concept of connecting people globally
- 🌍 Ability to meet people from different countries and cultures
- 💬 Facilitates interesting conversations and language exchange
- 🤝 Helps make new friends and connections
- 📚 Opportunity to learn about other cultures and perspectives
- 🎨 Visually appealing and creative app design

**Cons**

- 🤖 Presence of bots, scammers, and inappropriate users
- 🔇 Lack of moderation and enforcement of community guidelines
- 🚫 Difficulty in finding genuine, long-term connections
- 📵 Inability to share more personal information to connect further
- 🚧 Occasional technical issues and glitches
- 🔒 Concerns about user privacy and data security

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Inconsistent notification system
- Bottles not disappearing after being blocked
- Crashes and freezes on certain device models
- Inability to log in or access account after device changes

**Most requested features**

- Improved moderation and user verification system
- Option to filter bottles by country or language
- Ability to create and join interest-based groups
- Integration of voice/video messaging features
- Offline mode or message drafting capabilities
- More customization options for user profiles and islands

## Recent user reviews (10 of 377)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bottled-message-in-a-bottle/id1106327189/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Poor moderation / unsafe community

*2026-07-26*

This app is full of extremely inappropriate and hateful users. Reporting hateful diaries does nothing, moderation is basically non-existent. There are bottles / diaries that call for genocide of Jews / Israel and just seem to get away with it whenever we report. I strongly advise Jewish and LGBT+ users to avoid this app for their own safety.

### 3/5 — Ruined it with recent update.

*2026-06-12, version 2.15.2*

I used to receive lots of bottles (random messages from other users) daily. These weren't always high-quality messages or relevant to me, but the app made up for it with quantity. Enough of these messages had sufficient substance to make the app worth it. Now, they've seemingly throttled the number of daily bottles that free users can receive in a hamfisted attempt to get people to buy a subscription. It's gone down to about 5 bottles a day, and most of them are meaningless pleasantries like "hiiiiiiiiii" or "how are you today?" These pointless messages were always in the majority on this app, and now you're much less likely to receive anything else due to the forced limit on bottles received. Yet another good app ruined by greed. 🤬

### 5/5 — ☮️

*2026-06-04, version 2.15.2*

☮️

### 5/5 — Message to the world

*2026-06-02, version 2.15.2*

I love this, sending random messages out to the world and meeting new ppl is awesome.

### 1/5 — Force Pay

*2026-05-30*

If you reach gold reputation, Bottled cuts your reputation in half so you eventually pay for this service.

### 3/5 — absolute worst feature

*2026-05-25, version 2.15.1*

giving someone false hope by notifying them for being DELETED?? im sorry but that is such an awful feature. it comes off like "hey! guess what? :) this person absolutely hated your guts, loser!! haha get bent"

anyway this is completely unrelated but momo from slovakia, youre an objectively terrible person. have the day you deserve

### 5/5 — Bottled

*2026-05-21, version 2.15.1*

It sucks

### 5/5 — 🧌

*2026-05-06*

I made a friend on bottled and we just spoiling each other Install this app if you want to find someone to really vibe with😌👍🩷🩷

### 1/5 — Not very well moderated.

*2026-05-04, version 2.15.1*

I was enjoying this app until some random user reported my profile pic. It was a genuine selfie, but they reported me for stealing pictures from the internet. I couldn’t believe it when my account got blocked. I’d done nothing wrong. It made me realise that you can make stuff up about someone you don’t like and have them blocked out of spite. I have cancelled my account. Life is too short for that kind of nonsense.

### 1/5 — It's trash

*2026-04-19, version 2.15.0*

Absolute garbage

## Frequently asked questions about Bottled

### What is Bottled: Message in a Bottle?

Bottled is a social networking app that allows you to make friends and find pen pals worldwide. It uses a unique 'message in a bottle' system where you send a message out to sea, and it drifts to a random person. If they keep your bottle, you can start chatting.

### How does the message in a bottle feature work?

You write a message, put it in a digital bottle, and 'throw' it into the sea. The bottle then drifts to a random person anywhere in the world. If they decide to keep your bottle, you'll match and can begin a conversation. If they release it, your bottle continues its journey to someone else.

### Is Bottled free to use?

Bottled is free to download and use, with all main features available at no cost. For users who wish to meet more people faster, there is an optional subscription called 'Cruise Member' with various subscription durations.

### What kind of messages can I send?

You can send text messages, photos, and voice messages through the app. This allows for diverse and engaging communication with your new connections.

### Who is Bottled for?

This app is designed for anyone looking to expand their social circle, find genuine connections, or simply have interesting conversations with people from different backgrounds and locations around the globe.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.15.5 — 2026-07-17

- Major performance improvements: smooth sailing ahead!
- bug fixes

### 2.15.4 — 2026-07-16

Major performance improvements: smooth sailing ahead!

### 2.15.2 — 2026-05-27

- Upgraded our GIFs: more trends, more laughs
- bug fixes and performance improvements

### 2.15.1 — 2026-04-21

- 7 new islands and 12 new sky colors await
- Multiple "quality of life" improvements
- Many bug fixes and performance improvements

### 2.15.0 — 2026-03-25

- 7 new islands and 12 new sky colors await
- Multiple "quality of life" improvements
- Many bug fixes and performance improvements

## Apps similar to Bottled

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Topface: Meet with new people](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/topface-meet-with-new-people/id505446332) | 4.6 (5,534) | Free | Social Networking |
| [Weworld: Discover & Connect](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/weworld-discover-and-connect/id1372628409) | 4.5 (8,375) | Free | Social Networking |
| [Slowly: Make Global Friends](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/slowly-make-global-friends/id1199811908) | 4.7 (10,755) | Free | Social Networking |
| [Wave - Friends, Dating & Chat](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wave-friends-dating-and-chat/id1506820334) | 4.4 (18,818) | Free | Social Networking |
| [WN Social (Worldnoor)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wn-social-worldnoor/id1526428169) | 3.7 (82) | Free | Social Networking |
| [Interpals: Penpals & Languages](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/interpals-penpals-and-languages/id1220469418) | 3.8 (553) | Free | Social Networking |

## More apps by Pierre Delannoy

- [Honi - Game for couples](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/honi-game-for-couples/id1053412028)
- [Dreemer - Dream Diary](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dreemer-dream-diary/id6468988986)
- [WASTD - Party Games](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wastd-party-games/id6736373448)
- [Lovli - Quiz for Couples](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lovli-quiz-for-couples/id6739309299)
- [Time Capsule - Capsuled](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/time-capsule-capsuled/id6753762140)

All apps by Pierre Delannoy: https://appshunter.io/developer/1053412027

## Related topics

[a message in a bottle](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/a-message-in-a-bottle) · [message in a bottle](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/message-in-a-bottle) · [the bottle](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/the-bottle) · [bottle](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/bottle) · [daily postcard](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/daily-postcard) · [drift bottle](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/drift-bottle) · [slowly](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/slowly) · [penpal messenger](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/penpal-messenger) · [platonic friends](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/platonic-friends) · [penpal world](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/penpal-world) · [pen pals](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/pen-pals) · [penpal](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/penpal) · [el amigo de todos](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/el-amigo-de-todos)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-28.*