Inspiration
The idea came from from a problem that I faced myself, I searched the AppStore and found some apps that do the same, some of them were limited, and others were far beyond my needs. In fact when I discussed it with some of my friends, they indeed facing the same problem. So I decided to build one myself and focusing on making it a BEST IN CLASS APP in its category.
What it does
Collect all your favorite locations and organize them in one app, check expected travel time, add rich markdown notes, with the ability to open them in most navigation apps with. You can add notes using markdown, using the app with Shortcuts, Lock Screen and Control Center Controls. You can take it extra mile and use it a trip planner when you travel to another country and want to plan the places you want to visit.
How we built it
It's built using SwiftUI and SwiftData, some APIs came in clutch with iOS 18 release like having a map Identifier for MKMapItem and the ability to select a pin and a MapFeature at the same time in MapKit.
Challenges we ran into
Some SwiftData bugs, since the app was originally started in iOS 17, when iOS 18 was released in BETA so many things were broken although it was working fine previously. Presenting multiple sheets with material background was crashing the app (Apple fixed it in iOS 18).
Accomplishments that we're proud of
UI/UX of the app, I tried to keep it as simple as possible, without limiting features, and the usage of regular material across the whole app blending with the map looks visually stunning and keeps the app always fresh and bless to look at.
What's next for Placey
Will see how the community reacts to the launch, then of course will adopt to make it better for them.
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