Baranov: Slow Mail & Penpal

3D MapKit journey tracking real physical steps
Hand-drawn notes sealed with custom wax haptics
Long-distance dispatches requiring physical milesб, shapes over the ocean
Tactile dispatch: Geo-locks, time capsules, and wax seals
Outgoing letter tracking with multi-hop relay and share links
Courier passport with city stamps and distance trail
Ink-stamped physical envelopes and nearby handoffs
Ink-stamped physical envelopes and handoffs, code share
Courier field notes with WeatherKit logs and journey milestones
Viral story reels with automated commentary
hepherd profile with Apple Intelligence Playground, bio and postal ID
Opportunistic P2P relay to traveling friends next to me
Flock capacity progression and courier slots
Postmaster Pass paywall powered by RevenueCat
Home Screen widget and Dynamic Island Live Activities

Inspiration

I’m currently doing an academic exchange semester abroad, 9 time zones away from home.

Out here, you quickly realize the best thing you can send someone isn't another rushed text, it’s real mail. A postcard on a friend's fridge matters not out of vintage nostalgia, but because someone actually gave you their deliberate physical effort and time.

So I built Baranov (my last name literally means "ram" - stubborn animals that just keep walking) The idea was simple: what if messaging required physical effort? What if your letter only moved forward when you put on your shoes and walked, or physically passed it to someone else heading that way?

What it does

Some words are worth waiting for. Baranov brings back the quiet excitement of real mail. You write a letter and seal it with wax. Your ram carries it across a 3D map, moving only when you walk or pass it to someone heading that direction. No shortcuts, and no paying to speed it up.

When the letter finally arrives, it brings that genuine feeling you only get from real mail. Your friend breaks the seal with a tactile haptic snap and sees the exact miles it took to reach their hands.

How we built it

Baranov is built natively with Swift and SwiftUI.

MapKit renders the 3D trails, HealthKit tracks steps, and Core Haptics gives the wax seal its physical crunch. Letters hop offline via MultipeerConnectivity, while a lightweight backend logs handoff coordinates and angles so you can track your letter's journey.

RevenueCat runs the Postmaster Pass for cosmetic skins, custom stamps, and extra rams to expand your flock, keeping the core mail experience 100% free.

Challenges we ran into

Tuning Core Haptics took hours so breaking the wax felt sharp instead of like an iOS error buzz.

The real fight was passing letters offline. I used Apple’s MultipeerConnectivity so rams can swap encrypted notes over Bluetooth and local Wi-Fi, but keeping discovery alive in the background without killing the battery was brutal.

Right now, the build is still in review. I like to imagine two Apple reviewers walking the halls in Cupertino just to bump into each other and test it. Still waiting on that green checkmark, but at least they are getting their steps in.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making digital mail feel physical. With custom wax haptics and real trail tracking, opening a letter feels earned rather than disposable.

Keeping words 100% free. With RevenueCat, unlocking extra rams lets you grow your flock to send multiple letters at once without gating friendships behind a paywall.

What we learned

Friction can be a feature. In a world of instant pings, making someone walk and wait makes every delivered word matter again.

Technically, RevenueCat proved that monetization does not have to be painful. It turned StoreKit from a multi-day receipt-validation nightmare into an afternoon task.

What's next for Baranov: Slow Mail & Penpal

The build is submitted, so the next phase is organic growth and scaling the flock.

For distribution, I am posting daily videos showing outdoor walks and the quiet ritual of sending physical letters on glass. It is a simple, grounded hook that gets people to stop scrolling and send something thoughtful.

Baranov is all about moving slow, but RevenueCat made building a sustainable indie business effortless. Now the focus is simple: getting more letters out into the world and growing the community.

Download the app, lace up your shoes, and send a letter to someone you actually miss. Let's get this stubborn ram moving and see if we can push it all the way to Times Square.