Finto - Bluff Quiz for Friends

Chapter 1 · 2019

“What if we made that digital?”

It is the summer of 2019, and someone is telling the story of a game night. Everyone had been slipping each other answers that were as wrong as they were convincing, until nobody knew what was actually true any more. The catch with evenings like that is always the same: you have to be sitting at the same table. And the further a group of friends spreads out, the rarer that gets.

The sentence Finto begins with is dropped almost in passing that evening: and what if we made that digital?

At the table sat Tim Wiersdörfer and Michael Rothkegel, two iOS developers who had met working at the same company. By the time Tim moved to Cologne, where Michael was already living, their shop talk had long since become a standing date: the developer evening. The two had already released an app together by then, Mein Kochwerk, for learning to cook. That one is gone today. Finto is not.

Chapter 2 · August to October 2019

Six weeks from the first line to the App Store

The planning did not happen at a desk but on the floor: a length of brown paper, a grid of masking tape, one note for every step a player would later take. The first line of code was written on August 18, 2019, a playable prototype was running on September 6, and the first complete version was finished on September 28. On October 1 Finto arrived on the App Store, and a good four weeks later on Google Play.

Testing happened wherever people could be found: with friends, with acquaintances, over lunch with colleagues. The moment it became clear that this worked was unspectacular and unmistakable at the same time: nobody wanted to stop after one round.

Chapter 3 · November 2020 to November 2021

No more ads. Ever.

In November 2020 the full version arrived. With it came complaints and a loud call for a variant that would stay free and pay for itself with ads instead. Tim and Michael took the feedback seriously, built it and shipped it that same month.

Then they played it themselves. For a year.

“A game that thrives on the shared moment cannot take an ad break between the fib and the reveal.”

Michael Rothkegel, co-founder

Almost a year to the day later, in November 2021, the ads were thrown out again. That turned into a principle that still holds today: no ads in Finto, ever again.

Chapter 4 · The name

Finto, the owl who knows the strangest things

They were after a name that stood on its own and would also work for a mascot. They found it at the heart of the game: die Finte, German for the feint, the faked answer this game calls a fib. Finte became Finto. Just how late that name arrived shows in the first wireframes: there, the invented answer is still called a bluff.

Neither of them can remember today why it became a blue owl of all things. She stayed anyway. Since 2019 Finto has been asking the questions, a clever owl with a considerable hoard of strange and funny knowledge. For the version 2.0 redesign in August 2026 she got a more modern look. The character stayed.

Chapter 5 · The mascot

When the owl leaves the screen

At some point Finto stopped staying inside the app. First there were stickers, then figures and magnets from the 3D printer, later a beanie with a leather label. None of it was ever in a business plan. It simply happens when you are fond of a mascot.

The sticker on the suitcase is the most honest measure of all: a character that people carry around with them by choice is more than a logo.

Chapter 6 · The growth

No hype, just Christmas every year

The one big moment, the viral spike, never happened for Finto. The game has been growing organically since 2019, with a reliable push between Christmas and New Year, when families and groups of friends come together and look for a game for the whole table. Most of that growth then sticks.

Part of that growth has to do with distance: groups of friends spread across cities and countries keep playing over a game code, just as they would at the same table.

Chapter 7 · The questions

Questions nobody knows the answer to

There are over 5,000 questions, and to this day Tim and Michael write most of them themselves. Since March 2023 the community can submit questions straight from the app, and AI now helps with the research into crazy facts. The standard has never moved.

“A good Finto question is one whose answer almost nobody knows for sure.”

Tim Wiersdörfer, co-founder

Chapter 8 · Today

“So are we actually done?”

To this day Finto is what it was in 2019: an after-work project that two founders keep developing alongside their full-time jobs. AI helps with the development now; the result is held to the same standard as on that first evening.

After every major release the two ask themselves the same question. Version 2.0 arrived on August 7, 2026, the biggest redesign since Finto began. Twenty days later came version 2.1.

“After every release we ask ourselves whether Finto is finished now. So far, a new idea has got in the way every time.”

Tim Wiersdörfer, co-founder

The next milestone they are looking forward to: one million players.

Timeline

Seven years at a glance

1. August 18, 2019The first line of code. Finto begins as the after-work project of two iOS developers in Cologne.
2. September 6, 2019The first playable prototype is up and running.
3. September 28, 2019First complete version, tested with friends and colleagues over lunch.
4. October 1, 2019Release on the App Store.
5. November 3, 2019Release on Google Play.
6. September 2020Friends list and invitations: players can be pulled in straight from the app, not just through the game code.
7. November 2020The full version arrives, along with a free ad-supported variant that many had asked for.
8. December 2021After a good year, the ads are thrown out again. Since then the rule is: no ads in Finto.
9. March 2022The Finto Events begin. On Saturdays, players compete against each other across several games in a row.
10. March 2023Questions from the community: anyone with a good question submits it straight from the app.
11. May 2023Too few players? Finto and Tanky step into the round as virtual players.
12. December 2023Finto speaks six languages. French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish are added.
13. October 14, 2024Focus Mode. Leave the app mid-round and you sit it out and pick up minus points. No more googling.
14. December 3, 2024Explanations with the reveal: after the round you find out why the odd answer is actually true.
15. April 4, 2025The Quick Game with Strangers is rebuilt: join games already in progress, plus a waiting list.
16. May 21, 2025Reactions to what the other players wrote, plus the return of the Finto Events.
17. October 20, 2025The daily streak arrives, with new categories, reactions and avatar items as rewards.
18. December 12, 2025Party Mode: the round runs on a TV, a projector or in a livestream, while everyone keeps playing on their phone.
19. February 16, 2026Two-player mode, in which Finto fills up the round with wrong answers of its own. And: Finto can be given as a gift.
20. August 7, 2026Version 2.0, the biggest redesign since 2019. New app, new owl.
21. August 27, 2026The Events are now about the full version. And the win streak becomes the daily streak: playing is enough, winning is no longer needed.
22. Up nextThe milestone the two are working towards: one million players.