HankRing User Guide

Your phone already knows where to find a good restaurant. Nobody has built the app that tells you whether the dish is worth ordering. HankRing does that.

What is HankRing?

A Hank is a craving, a specific dish or drink you are seeking. The Ring is the community that shares your passion for food discovery. HankRing connects your cravings to real places where they are tasted and rated by people who care as much as you do.

There are many good places to find where venues are rated and reviewed. HankRing is different: it focuses on individual items, rather than restaurants as a whole. You might want to know which bars near you carry great cocktails, which bakeries make flan, or which restaurants serve wood-fired pizza. HankRing finds those places, checks their websites automatically, and lets the community verify and rate them. Preloaded with over 5,000 highly regarded spots serving the top 50 Hanks, so you will find results right away.

How It Works

  1. Pick your Hanks: the foods and drinks you want to find
  2. Find spots near you (or anywhere) on the map and list
  3. Add spots the Ring hasn't found yet. Your local knowledge matters
  4. Rate what you've tried to help the best places rise
  5. Journal every find. Track your ratings, verifications, and planned visits

Web Checks vs. Community Verification

Web checks are automated scans that happen when the app searches your area. The app visits venue websites and searches for keywords related to your picks. This is a best-effort scan. It works well when restaurants list their menu items online, but it can miss items that aren't on the website.

Community verification is powered by real people. When a user has physically been to a spot and rates a Hank there, that category becomes verified. Ratings carry more weight than any automated scan, and the trust score grows as more people rate.

Think of it this way: Web checks are a helpful first guess. Community verification is the real answer. Both work together.

Standard vs Power User

HankRing has two tiers. Standard users get everything they need to find, add, rate, and journal. Power Users get deeper tools for discovery and planning.

FeatureStandardPower
Interactive map and list with color-coded search results✓✓
Browse Top 50 and all existing Trending Hanks for search✓✓
Browse search results and click on spots✓✓
Add spots and rate their Hanks✓✓
My Journal with map view✓✓
1 Hank at a time search✓✓
Up to 3 Hanks at a time search-✓
Create new Hank categories-✓
Customize search terms for Hanks and Spots-✓
Add offering styles to spots-✓
Future Meals wish list-✓
Plan a Visit from spot details-✓
Deeper Scan for more potential results-✓
Early adopters: The first 1,000 users get Power User access free. After that, a subscription unlocks Power features.

Getting Started

Age Verification

Because the app includes alcohol-related categories (cocktails, bourbon, scotch, etc.), you'll see an age verification screen first. Confirm you're 21+ to proceed. This only appears once.

Welcome Screen

A welcome screen introduces the app's key features. Tap "Let's go!" to enter the app. This screen may reappear when new features are added. You can also revisit it anytime from Profile > What's New.

Your Default Picks

Every new user starts with default picks to get you exploring right away. You can swap them out anytime from the My Hanks tab.

Location Permission

The app will ask for location access so it can show venues near you. You can also search other cities manually without granting location access.

Signing In

You can browse the map and explore venues without signing in. But the community features (adding spots, rating, verifying, and journaling) all require an account.

HankRing offers two sign-in options:

If you try to add a spot or rate one while signed out, the app will prompt you to sign in and then continue right where you left off.

Privacy: Your email address is never shared with other users.

Guided Tours

HankRing includes two guided tours that walk you through the app using speech-bubble tips on your actual screen. You can exit anytime, and both tours are always available from Profile > Guided Tours.

Pick Your Hanks

Your picks are the heart of the app. They determine what shows up on your map, which ghost pins appear, and what the web checker searches for. Standard users search one Hank at a time. Power users can have up to 3 active picks at once.

The My Hanks tab showing your active picks

Figure 1. The My Hanks tab with active picks.

Managing Picks

Go to the My Hanks tab (heart icon) to see your current picks. Each pick card shows the category emoji and name, the search terms used for website scanning, an edit button to customize terms, and a remove button.

Tap "Customize My Hanks" to open the full category grid, where you can browse all available options and swap picks in and out.

Available Categories

HankRing includes 50 popular categories across three groups:

Creating a Custom Category Power

Can't find what you're looking for? Tap "Create Your Own" at the bottom of the category grid. You'll choose a name, an emoji, and the search terms the app should use. Be specific: "Pupusas" works great. Broad terms like "Italian" are too generic for useful results.

Find Spots on the Map

The Explore tab is the main screen. It shows your location (blue dot), verified spots (solid colored pins with category emoji), and ghost pins (suggested spots that haven't been verified yet).

Filter Buttons

The filter bar lets you show or hide different types of pins. Each button displays a count and shows Filter on (green) or Filter off (red) so you always know which pins are visible.

The map showing color-coded pins with filter buttons

Figure 2. The map with color-coded pins. Filter buttons at the top control which pin types are visible.

Searching

HankRing uses a two-stage search to get you results quickly.

Stage 1: Quick Scan. When the map loads or you tap "Search This Area", the app fetches nearby venues from Apple Maps and runs a quick homepage scan on the closest 25. Yellow ghost pins appear on the map. Venues whose websites mention your picks turn green. This usually takes just a few seconds.

Stage 2: Scan More Spots. Power After the quick scan finishes, a "Scan More Spots?" button appears. Tap it to scan the remaining venues in the wider area. This may take a bit longer but can reveal matches farther from the map center.

Search This Area

Pan or zoom the map and a "Search This Area" button appears. Tapping it starts a fresh search for the new area.

One search, two views: The Map and Spots tabs always show the same search results. Search on one tab and see the results on both.

Find Spots in the List

The Spots tab shows the same search results as the map in a scrollable list. Verified community spots and search results appear together, sorted by distance.

Category Filters and Toggles

Category filter pills at the top let you narrow results to a specific pick. Below that, three toggles (Verified, Likely, and Potential) control which types of results appear. Each shows a count.

Searching Other Cities

Tap the location bar to search a different city. Type a name, pick from the suggestions, and the app scans that area for your Hanks. Great for planning trips.

Tap any result to open the detail sheet with an automated website check. From there you can add it to HankRing or tap "Show on Map" to see it on the map.

Trip planning: Search for venues in any city, not just near you. Heading to a new town? Search it on the Spots tab before you go.

Ghost Pins

Ghost pins are unconfirmed suggestions from Apple Maps. They represent places that might have what you're looking for.

Yellow ghost pins (dashed border, "?" icon) are untested suggestions. The app hasn't confirmed anything about their menu yet.

Green ghost pins (solid border, checkmark icon) are likely matches. The app found keywords related to your picks on their website during the pre-screen. These are worth checking first.

Tapping a Ghost Pin

When you tap any ghost pin, a detail sheet slides up and the app runs a thorough 3-pass website check:

  1. Pass 1: Downloads the venue's homepage and menu subpages, scanning for your pick's keywords
  2. Pass 2: If Pass 1 didn't find a match, searches the web for your keywords on that venue's domain
  3. Pass 3: (Only for venues with no website) Searches the broader web for your pick at that venue name

While the primary pick is being checked, all your other active picks are scanned against the same cached pages at no extra cost.

Ghost pin detail sheet showing category chips and website check results

Figure 3. A ghost pin detail sheet. Green chips confirm a match; gray chips were not found.

Add a Spot

Adding a spot creates a permanent listing that others in the community can find, verify, and rate. You'll need to be signed in to add a spot.

From a Ghost Pin

Tap a ghost pin on the map, then tap "Yes, add it!" This pre-fills the venue info and any categories the web check confirmed.

From the Spots Tab

Search for a venue by name on the Spots tab. Tap any result to open the detail sheet, then add it.

The Confirm Spot Screen

After selecting a venue, you'll see a map preview, the venue name and address, and the categories to be added. If the spot already exists in HankRing, your categories merge with the existing entry.

Each category has a specific type of offering you can list. For example, Mezcal asks for brands, Flan asks for styles, Oysters asks for varieties. Offerings are optional but helpful for the community.

Spot Details

Tap any confirmed spot (the solid colored pins on the map, or any row in the Spots tab) to see its full detail page.

What You'll See

Offerings Power

Each category lists the specific brands, styles, or varieties the community has logged at that venue. Power Users can tap the + button to add more offerings.

Actions

How Verification Works

Verification is the backbone of HankRing's community trust system. A spot becomes verified for a Hank when someone rates that Hank there for the first time. No separate step is needed.

What Counts as Verified

When you add a spot and give it a rating (even 1 flan, "Confirmed Spot"), that category is now verified at that location. The pin changes from a ghost pin to a solid community pin, and other users can see that a real person confirmed it.

The more people who rate a Hank at a spot, the stronger the verification becomes. A spot rated by ten people carries more trust than one rated by a single user.

One action, two results: Rating a Hank at a spot verifies it and scores it at the same time. No extra taps required.

Rate a Spot

HankRing uses a flan-based rating scale instead of stars. You'll need to be signed in to rate.

RatingLabelMeaning
1 flanConfirmed SpotThey have it
2 flansNeighborhood OptionSatisfies the craving
3 flansBest Local ChoiceBest of the nearby choices
4 flansBest in RegionWorthy of a road trip
5 flansWorld ClassWorthy of a pilgrimage

How to Rate

Open the spot detail page, tap "Rate", select the category you're rating, choose your flan level, and confirm. The app will ask you to confirm higher ratings (4 and 5 flans) to make sure you really mean it. Those levels carry weight.

You can edit or remove your rating anytime by revisiting the spot detail page.

Important: Only rate items you've personally tried at that specific location. The rating is about that item at that place, not the restaurant overall.

My Journal

The My Journal tab is your personal record of every find. Every spot you add, every rating and verification you submit, and every offering you log appears here.

What You'll Find

Future Meals Power

Power Users can use the Journal as a food trip planner. Tap "Plan a Visit" on any spot detail page to add it to your Future Meals list. Organize planned visits by trip, drag to reorder, and check them off as you go. When you rate a spot you've planned, it automatically moves from Future to Past.

Customize Search Terms Power

Every category has website keywords the app uses when scanning venue websites, and map search terms that control which venues appear as ghost pins. Tap the edit button (slider icon) on any pick card to open the customization page.

The search terms customization page

Figure 4. Customizing the search terms and map queries for a pick.

Tip: Use words that appear on actual restaurant menus. If a category isn't finding matches, try adding terms that chefs and bartenders actually use (e.g., "agave spirit" for mezcal, "custard" for flan).

Tap "Reset to defaults" at any time to restore the original terms for a built-in category.

Profile

The Profile tab shows your account info and contribution summary.

Signed Out

You'll see sign-in buttons (Apple and Email), a Standard Tour button to preview the app, and a link to What's New.

Signed In

The Profile tab shows:

From here you can also view What's New, start a Guided Tour, access the privacy policy and terms, sign out, or delete your account.

Feedback

During beta testing, you may see a floating orange feedback button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Tap it to open the feedback form.

  1. Choose a category: Bug, Suggestion, Content, Design, or Other
  2. Optionally enter the city you're exploring
  3. Write your feedback (at least 10 characters)
  4. Tap "Submit Feedback"

Your feedback is sent along with basic device info (app version, device model, iOS version) so we can investigate any issues. No personal data beyond your anonymous user ID is included.

For Venue Owners

If you own or manage a spot that's on HankRing, you can verify your listing and add categories just like any other user, for free. Want to control your spot's information, add a menu, a photo, and a reservation link? Contact [email protected].

Tips and Tricks