Frulo — frequently asked questions
Everything people ask before they try an AI calorie counter: how the photo estimate actually works, how accurate it is, what happens to your pictures, and how to get your data back out.
How does Frulo count calories from a photo?
You photograph your plate and Frulo's AI identifies the foods in the picture, estimates the portion, and returns the calories along with a protein, carbohydrate and fat breakdown. You can adjust anything that looks wrong before saving it to your diary. There is no database to search and no portion dropdown to fill in.
How accurate is AI calorie counting from a photo?
It is an estimate, not a laboratory measurement. A photo cannot show the oil a dish was cooked in or what is hidden under the top layer, so any photo-based calorie counter — Frulo included — is approximate. In practice that is usually enough, because body composition responds to your average intake over weeks rather than the exact number on any single meal. When you need precision, scan the barcode or enter the food directly, and adjust the estimate whenever it looks off.
Is Frulo free?
Frulo is free to download from the App Store and starts with a free trial. Full access is a subscription, billed through your Apple account and cancellable at any time in iOS Settings. There are no ads and no advertising SDK in the app.
Is Frulo available on Android?
Not yet. Frulo is an iPhone app. It relies on iOS features such as Siri, Apple Health and on-device speech recognition, so there is currently no Android or web version.
Does Frulo store my meal photos?
No. A meal photo is downscaled, sent for analysis, and discarded as soon as the estimate comes back. It is not saved on your device by Frulo, not saved on our servers, and not sent to our analytics. Only the resulting numbers — the food name, calories and macros — are stored in your diary.
Can I log food with Siri?
Yes. Say something like "Hey Siri, log a bowl of oatmeal" and the meal goes into your diary without opening the app. You can also dictate to the AI coach inside the app, where speech is transcribed entirely on your device by Apple's speech recognition — the audio never leaves your iPhone.
Does Frulo work with Apple Health?
Yes, in both directions. Frulo writes what you log into Apple Health — energy, protein, carbohydrates, fat, sugar, fibre, saturated fat, sodium, water and body weight — and reads back your active energy and body weight, so your daily calorie budget adjusts to how much you actually moved. Every Health permission is optional and Frulo keeps working without them.
Can Frulo scan barcodes?
Yes. Point the camera at a packaged food and the whole nutrition panel drops into your diary. The packaged-food data comes from the Open Food Facts database under the ODbL licence, held as a copy on our own servers — so Open Food Facts never sees what you scan or search for.
Does Frulo track macros as well as calories?
Yes. Every entry is broken down into protein, carbohydrates and fat, and where the values are known Frulo also records sugar, fibre, saturated fat and salt. Your daily targets cover calories and each macro, and the statistics screen shows macro splits and calorie averages over time alongside your weight trend.
What does the AI nutritionist actually know about me?
It can see the summary of your profile and targets, the entries in your journal, your statistics, product lookups and your saved recipes — which is what lets it answer using your own numbers rather than generic advice. It also keeps short "coach memories" you ask it to save, such as allergies, intolerances or foods you dislike. You can read and delete each memory in Settings.
How is Frulo different from a traditional calorie tracker?
Traditional calorie trackers are built around a searchable food database: you type the food, pick the closest match, then correct the portion. Frulo is built around the camera — you photograph the plate and the AI does the identification and the portion estimate. Most people who abandon calorie tracking abandon it because of the typing, so removing that step is the whole point. Barcode scanning, Siri logging and typed entry are all still there when they are faster.
Do the AI features need an internet connection?
Yes. The meal scanner, the AI coach and the recipe nutrition estimates run on our servers, so those need a connection. Speech dictation is the exception — it is transcribed on your device by Apple's on-device speech recognition and the audio never leaves your iPhone.
Does Frulo need an account?
Yes. Your journal syncs to our servers so it survives a lost phone and follows you to a new one, which requires an account. You can sign in with an email address and password or with Sign in with Apple, including Apple's private relay address if you prefer not to share your own.
Does Frulo sell my data or show ads?
No. Frulo does not sell your data, does not share it for advertising, and does not track you across other companies' apps and websites. There is no advertising SDK in the app and it never asks for the tracking permission. The AI provider that processes meal scans and coach messages does not use them to train its models.
Can I delete my data?
Yes, and you do not have to ask us. Any meal, water or weight entry can be deleted from the journal, coach memories have their own page in Settings, and Settings → Account → Delete Account erases your profile, meals, water, weights, coach memories and saved recipes from our servers in one step. Deleting the app removes the copy on your device.
How do I cancel my subscription?
The subscription is billed by Apple, so you cancel it the same way as any other App Store subscription: open iOS Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose Frulo and cancel. You keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for.
Still have a question?
Email support@frulo.app and it reaches the developer directly. You can also read the privacy policy, which describes in detail what Frulo stores, or see the full feature list.