Spießer is now available in English

I share a flat in Bremen, and since the winter semester Marco from Bologna lives with us. His German is good enough for the bakery and for "is there any oat milk left?", but not for an app full of words like Schuldenausgleich. Every time we settled up, one of us sat next to him and translated. That was the moment it became obvious: Spießer needed English.

Since June 2026 it has it. The app now runs in German and English, which changes things for one specific kind of flatshare.

What Spießer actually does

If you have not come across it: Spießer splits shared costs in a flatshare, with one feature most apps do not have. You photograph the supermarket receipt, and the app reads each line with AI-powered OCR: store, date, every item and price. Then each flatmate ticks only the items they wanted. The salami goes to whoever eats salami, the oat milk to whoever drinks it, the cleaning spray to everyone.

That item-level split is the point. Splitwise and Tricount let you divide a total; Spießer lets you divide a receipt down to the single product. No other app I know does that. If you want the full comparison, there is a detailed breakdown of the best flatshare apps (in German).

Who the English version is for

German university towns are full of flatshares where at least one person does not speak German. Erasmus students stay a semester or two. People move to Berlin, Munich or Leipzig for a job and share a flat at first. In those flats a German-only app does not fail because of the concept. It fails because someone cannot read the buttons.

The English version closes that gap. The whole flat can use Spießer together, without someone translating at every settle-up.

How it works in a mixed-language flat

The language lives on the device, not on the flat. Marco has his phone in English, so he sees Spießer in English. My phone is in German, so I see the same flat in German. We share the same shopping trip, the same amounts, the same debt overview. Only the labels differ.

Element	You (German)	Your flatmate (English)
Interface	German	English
Amounts and debts	identical	identical
Scanned receipts	original (German)	original (German)
Item names from receipt	as printed	as printed
Switching	system language or in-app	system language or in-app

The receipt scan is unaffected. You still shop at the Edeka around the corner, the receipt is in German, and the OCR reads it the same way. Marco does not need to understand "Vollmilch 3,5%". He ticks what he wanted and sees the price.

What English means, and what it does not

To set expectations: English applies to the app interface. Spießer does not become a travel app with multi-currency conversion. The focus stays on the flatshare in Germany, settled in euros, with German receipts. The English version is for people who live here and shop here, but would rather use the app in English.

How to switch the language

1. By default Spießer follows your phone's system language. If your iPhone or Android is set to English, the app opens in English.
2. To set it independently, change the language in the app settings.
3. Each person in the flat decides for themselves. There is no flat-wide language setting that affects everyone.

One ask: this is a fresh translation, and the beta is exactly when feedback matters most. If something in the English version reads awkwardly or a term feels off, tell us. The person behind Spießer reads every message.

FAQ