Vicinity

From scratch turn-key development of a location-based app designed to help new people in town to get united around the area, share interests and recommendations as well as socialize with the locals.

Custom software development
2015 – 2016
Industry: Entertainment, Social networking

Apple Store

Initial Task

Description

The Client approached the Touchlane team with a request to build a brand new full in-app functionality of the location-based network, including:

Core part: live feed with recommendations and offers from public places based on user position with number filtering options
Social part: profiles, comments, likes, direct messaging, reviews, ranking etc.
Business part: profiles, admin panel for business accounts, integration of payment system

Technology stack

Frontend

Google Maps SDK Core Location Objective-C

Backend

MongoDB Node.js Angular TypeScript

Challenges

01.

Strict Limitations

The development team faced the necessity to perform a large scope of tasks within a short timeframe and fitting the limited budget allocated by the Client.

02.

Development of High-Performance Architecture

As the app was meant to process loads of information, both textual and graphical, the app’s backend architecture was to be designed as a robust system able to endure high loads and minimize the risk of failures.

03.

Integration of Complex API

Our Touchlane developers were to employ their vast expertise and solid tech skills to implement a smart logic able to minimize the number of in-app’s API calls to Google Maps API in order to provide cost-efficiency.

Workflow

01.

When starting the work on the functionality, the development team proceeded to the integration of the live feed showing people’s recommendations and offers about the local public places like cafes, restaurants, shops, etc. in their residential area. In such a way, travellers, coming to a new unfamiliar town, could see reviews about their places of interest, using numerous filters.

02.

Apart from the recommendations, it was required to introduce a manifold social part of the app. At this point, our specialists had to build a complex layer that would include user profiles, comments, likes, rankings, and direct messaging chats to help people socialize with each other and find a company in the unfamiliar area.

03.

Radius setup was also among the key Vicinity functions developed by our team. This feature was to allow users to adjust the radius of the area they would plan to be around and search for people nearby ready to hang out. Plus, any Vicinity user could set notifications to stay up-to-date with the recent news and posts within the adjusted area.

04.

After release, our Touchlane team kept on enhancing user experience and took up the development of further features including business profiles, admin panel for business accounts, and the integration of a payment system. The paid subscription for business accounts would allow the Client to monetize the app and help local venues to promote their services at the Vicinity platform.

Overall Result

The initial free version of Vicinity was successfully released for iOS within an estimated timeframe and budget limits and the application was maintained with improvements during a year after the official release.

Vicinity gained popularity among users who especially mentioned the app’s utility when searching for venues around the unknown area, the accuracy of the radius setup, and the user-friendly navigation.

After the app was released in production, the development team of Touchlane experts also elaborated and suggested a number of new features for the upcoming updates.