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How to split a bill with someone who doesn't have the app

October 7, 2026 · 9 min read · Dimesum Engineering

One link or one QR code is enough to split a bill with someone who has never installed anything. Here is what they see, how they take their seat, and how a person with no account stays in the group for good.

Yes, you can split a bill with someone who has never installed anything. In Dimesum you send one link or show one QR code, and the other person opens it in any browser to see the bill and their share, with no download and no account. If they want the seat to be theirs, they sign in with an email code or Google in that same browser, still with no download. If they never do, you keep their place for them and record what they paid.

Below are the questions people ask at the table, each answered first and explained after. Every Dimesum answer describes what the app does today; every other app is described from our own research, dated August 2026.

Can you split a bill with someone who doesn't have the app?

Yes. Dimesum gives you two ways. A quick split is one bill shared by a link or a QR code, where each person opens a seat in a browser. A kept place is a person you add by name to a group, who may never sign up at all and still shows up on every bill and every balance.

The two cover different evenings. A quick split fits a single dinner with people you may not see again. A kept place fits a flat sharing rent or a trip with several payers where one person refuses apps on principle. Both rest on the same seats, so the money works the same way in each.

What is a quick split?

A quick split is one bill with a seat for each person, shared by a single link. You enter the amount, choose how many people were there, and Dimesum makes a seat for each, called Person 2, Person 3 and so on until somebody takes it. The bill splits like any other: equally by default, or by shares, exact amounts or line by line.

You then share the link, or show its QR code across the table. The seats belong to the bill only, so one quick split's people never see another's. How the split itself is worked out, line by line, is in how to split a restaurant bill fairly.

Does the other person need to download anything?

No. The link opens in any browser on any phone or computer. The web app is live at app.dimesum.com, and the Android and iPhone apps are in closed testing, so for most people today the browser is the way in anyway.

If the person does have the app installed, the same link opens there. Nothing about the bill changes between the two.

Do they need an account to see what they owe?

No. Opening the link shows the bill's title, its total, each seat's share and whether the seat is taken, with no sign-in. Seeing is free of any account.

An account comes in only at the moment somebody takes a seat. That is when the share becomes theirs, so it has to be tied to a person who can be reminded, can mark a payment and can see the bill again later.

What does the person see when they open the link?

A view-only page with first names and amounts. It names the person who made the split by their first name, lists each seat with its share, and shows which seats are already taken. It never shows anyone's email address or phone number.

We kept the page that plain on purpose, because a link travels further than the table it was made for. Our privacy reasoning across the app is laid out in private expense sharing apps.

How do they take their seat?

They tap the seat, sign in with a code sent to their email or with Google, and the seat becomes theirs. It all happens in the browser. The seat is renamed to their name, and their share now sits in their own list of balances.

You choose, when you share the link, whether a tap takes the seat at once or waits for you. With approval on, the claim waits in your inbox until you say yes or no, and a person whose claim you turn down is told.

What if two people tap the same seat?

The first claim wins. With the seat taken, the second person is asked to pick another seat or ask you. With approval on, both claims wait and you choose one.

If the wrong person took a seat, they can let it go with "Not my seat", and it opens again for somebody else. The money on the seat stays where it was; only the person changes.

Can someone stay in a group without ever signing up?

Yes, as a kept place. You add them to a group by name, and Dimesum keeps a seat for them that carries their share of every bill. They never need an account, an app or an email address for the group to work.

A payment you record with a kept place is confirmed at once, since nobody on the other side can confirm it. Everything else is the same as for any member: their balance is kept per currency, and the group settles in at most one transfer fewer than the number of people, as in how to settle up group expenses.

What happens when a kept place signs up later?

They claim their place and its history comes with them. You can send them the place's own personal link, or offer the seat to an account you have split with before. Once they accept, the seat is renamed to their account and the balance carries over untouched.

The personal link stops working the moment it is claimed. A link that could still be used after a real person owns the seat would be a key left in the door.

How do they pay me back?

With whatever they already use to pay people. Dimesum never holds or moves money. It keeps the score, shows who owes whom, and offers payment doors for apps such as PayPal, Venmo, Wise and Revolut, then records the payment.

For a quick split every seat owes the person who paid, so nobody's debt is passed through anyone else. When a seat was never taken, you record the payment yourself, for example "paid me in cash". What settling up means across apps is in what settle up means in Splitwise and every other app.

Can a quick split hold more than one bill?

No. A quick split is one bill by design, and Dimesum refuses a second one. The same people sharing a second bill is exactly when a group starts to earn its keep, so that is the moment to make one.

A group keeps a running balance across every bill, with kept places for anyone who stays app free. For a trip with several payers, how to keep track of who owes who on a trip walks through it.

Does it work in other currencies?

Yes. A quick split can be in any currency, and a group can hold bills in several. Balances are kept per currency and never added across them, so a dinner in yen and a taxi in euros stay apart until somebody pays.

A group can choose to see its balances folded into one currency at a rate it agrees. The rules behind that are in multi-currency expense splitting apps.

What do other apps do for people without an account?

The answer varies by app, and our research dated August 2026 records it for the bank and wallet apps. Monzo Split lets guests join by link with no Monzo account and no UK address, according to Monzo's own help page. Revolut Group Bills has let people without Revolut take part through a web page since about mid 2025.

Venmo Groups works in the United States only, and everyone in the group needs Venmo. Cash App Pools and PayPal Pool Money accept people by link, but each is a pot toward a fixed target with no running balance. Apple's receipt split, announced for iOS 27, does not work with people outside Apple Cash.

Splitwise's own feedback forum listed "Add friends without email or phone" with 625 votes, under review, on 22 August 2026. Splitwise's website can add an unnamed member and its phone app cannot. The full comparison of switching off Splitwise is in Splitwise alternatives.

Is a quick split enough, or do I need an app at all?

For one dinner, a quick split is enough, and it is free. For people you share money with every month, a group keeps the record and the kept places, and the bills stack up in one balance. The general choice between apps is in bill splitting apps compared.

If the only question is the arithmetic of one bill, how to split a bill works it out by hand. And if the bill has a dish only some people ate, apps to split a bill by item ranks the apps that can carry a line to the people who had it.