Pocket Escape

Pocket Escape is the immersive luxury vacation soundscape app. Escape to your favourite vacation no matter where you are or what you're doing. Focus, Sleep or Calm yourself.

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Inspiration

I have vivid memories of specific vacations I have taken throughout my life. When I think deeply about them they give me a huge sense of calm. Sometimes I smell something or hear something that triggers these memories, which gave me the inspiration for Pocket Escape. What if you could have all your favourite vacations in your pocket, ready to immerse yourself in whether you're trying to sleep, focus or relax?

There are other white noise apps out there, but life is too short to listen to static and electric fans. Especially when vacation sounds tap into a person's most relaxed state, which normally we only get to visit for a few weeks a year if we're lucky.

I was messing about building a swimming pool simulator at swwwim.com and had the idea to extend the soundscapes idea into an iOS app to help people relax and destress.

What it does

Pocket Escape is immersive vacation soundscapes in your pocket. Sit by the beach, in a ski chalet, a forest cabin or on the teak deck of your yacht. Soak in the sounds and teleport to a place and feeling that deeply relaxes you, causing your shoulders to relax without even realising they were tense. Or become so immersed that you start to smell coffee, or perhaps coconut sunscreen.

How we built it

I built the app using Claude Code and Swift. It's been an amazing multimedia dev art project involving so many new tools. I really don't think this app would have been possible pre 2026.

I used Claude to craft the immersive soundscapes. I used Nano Banana for the retro vacation images and app icon. Then I used the Omni video model to create video for scene transitions and icon animations.

Then for the Pocket Escape landing pages I had Claude build a corpus of retro Ogilvy magazine adverts, so it had the context to write in the same creative style. ElevenLabs text-to-voice then allowed me to bring these Ogilvy-style ads to life in audio format, with the vacation soundscape audio scenes playing in the background.

Challenges we ran into

Learning the limitations of each of the creative tools was a frustrating process. I know what I want to get out of the different tools, but I had to learn the nuances of each one so I could steer them in the direction I want and not be at the mercy of what felt like randomness when I started.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm so proud of the mixed-media nature of the project. Me sat in the centre steering the taste, but using all these new tools to bring the project to life in such a rich way. It's been a joy to make and has unlocked a new love for art direction. There's no need for apps to look so similar now that these new tools give our creativity so much leverage.

What we learned

Image + audio + video + software + voice art direction converging through a single creator unlocks so much. Software really is now a place for artistic expression.

What's next for Pocket Escape

I will be adding more new vacation scenes to the product and leaning more into the retro advertising style. My plan is to distribute the app via vacation publications rather than app publications. Sell vacations, deliver the app. I'm talking with users and other folks to understand vacation soundscapes that mean something to them, so I can broaden the soundscapes in the app and help others connect with these vivid vacation memories we all have.

Built With

  • claudecode
  • elevenlabs
  • nanobanana
  • omni
  • revenuecat
  • swift
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