PocketPup: Dog Care

Pick your pup from 120 illustrated avatars, dress them in cute hats and neckwear, and share personalized cards. Free shared care, optional $0.99 cosmetics, and animated walks in beta.

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Inspiration

A dog-care app should feel like it belongs to your dog. PocketPup starts with a cute illustrated companion you can choose, dress, and share, then gives everyone in your dog's life a shared place for everyday care.

The practical question is still "Did someone feed the dog?" The design opportunity is to make checking the answer feel warm and personal enough to become a habit.

Make a pup your own

  • Choose your companion: browse 120 dog illustrations across breeds and mixed-dog looks. Preview expressive faces before choosing the one that feels right for your pup.
  • Build a cute look: mix layered hats and neckwear in the Closet. Try accessories on your own dog before buying or equipping them; the same recognizable companion appears on Home and in profile previews.
  • Make an image worth sharing: personalized pup cards carry the selected illustration, expression, and outfit into a shareable image or link. Care streak and birthday cards turn small moments into keepsakes.
  • Care together: invite family and trusted caregivers into a Doghouse, plan feeding, walks, medication, and training, and see shared care history. Reminders, quick logs, vet records, and Pup Journal keep the useful details nearby.

Core care stays free. Optional cosmetics let people support the app through the part that feels uniquely theirs.

New in the 1.1.1 walking beta: little adventures

Walking extends the companion beyond the Home screen. Your selected dog avatar has matching walking and summary artwork, with animated walk cycles and layered scenery that changes with season, daylight, and weather when available.

Choose time + distance tracking or a location-free timer, set a gentle milestone, pause and resume, and finish with a celebratory summary. Keep notes and potty observations private, then optionally share a walk card with Friends, Global, or your Doghouse. The sharing preview lets you choose a caption and whether time, distance, and weather appear. Routes, precise location, potty details, and private notes stay out of the shared card. Opt-in rankings and accepted friend challenges add encouragement.

Release distinction: these recorded-walk features are in the distributed 1.1.1 beta, including iOS build 9 and Android build 30. The public 1.1.0 store app supports care routines and manual walk logs. Walking gallery images are labeled beta component previews with sample data.

How RevenueCat fits

The Closet offers 30 optional premium accessories across 15 collections. Each is a $0.99 USD one-time, non-consumable purchase, with prices localized by the store. A Royal Crown or Alpine Ranger look is a visible, personal choice that users can preview on their own pup.

RevenueCat loads store products and localized prices, handles native purchases and Restore Purchases, and supplies individual accessory entitlements. PocketPup's backend checks ownership with RevenueCat before applying paid pieces and rechecks access for shared outfits and cards, including revoked purchases. Purchases belong to the buyer's account and work across their dogs; other caregivers can see the outfit without acquiring ownership.

This model ties monetization to creative expression while keeping household care available without a subscription. Complimentary judge access is provided privately in the submission's judge fields.

How we built it

Expo, React Native, and TypeScript power the app. A Next.js backend on Vercel uses Supabase authentication, Postgres, storage, and realtime, with authorization and row-level security for Doghouses. Reminders use Expo with APNs and FCM.

The portrait renderer combines a body, expression head, neckwear, and hat. Matching server-rendered cards preserve that visual identity outside the app. Preview tooling helps inspect expression and accessory alignment across different dog shapes.

For walking, character animation and scenery are separate systems. Prebuilt artwork and animation assets let us expand the dog catalog and environments independently. Pause, hidden-screen behavior, and Reduced Motion are part of the walking presentation.

Challenges and lessons

A cute hat has to fit a Beagle, a Corgi, and a Poodle while leaving each face recognizable. Layering, fitting controls, and catalog previews made that problem inspectable. The same attention applies to purchases: trying on, owning, wearing, and restoring are distinct actions that need clear feedback.

Walking adds another design constraint: decorative motion must never masquerade as measured progress. Milestones follow recorded time or distance; sharing exposes only the information the person chooses.

What we shipped

PocketPup is publicly available in the United States on both Google Play and Apple's App Store. Android first launched September 10, 2026. Public version 1.1.0 includes the illustrated catalog, optional Closet purchases, personalized cards, and shared care. The newer 1.1.1 walking experience is distributed separately to testers, with external iOS beta approval confirmed September 30.

What's next

Bring the walking beta to public release after its remaining store and device checks, refine avatar and accessory fitting, and add more looks and environments. The aim is a companion people enjoy making their own, with care habits that are easier to keep together.

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Updates

Private user

Private user posted an update —

PocketPup 1.1.1 beta: little walks, more personality

The newest PocketPup build turns a daily walk into a little adventure with your illustrated dog. Walking now has its own space in the app, with time and distance tracking, gentle milestones, and an animated companion that follows your selected dog avatar.

Make the walk yours: • Your pup, in motion: dog-specific walk cycles bring the profile illustration into the walking experience, with matching artwork on the start and summary screens. • Scenery that changes with the moment: scrolling paths and foliage, day and night lighting, seasonal surroundings, and rain or snow effects respond to the environment. Weather is also saved with the walk when available. • Your pace, your goal: choose time + distance or a location-free timer, then pick a 5, 10, or 20-minute milestone—or 0.5, 1, or 2 miles. Pause, resume, and finish whenever your pup is ready. Milestone markers approach and pass by as you reach them. • Your story to share: finish with an animated summary and award artwork, add private notes and potty breaks, then optionally share a walk card. Customize the caption, choose Friends, Global, or your Doghouse, and decide whether to include time, distance, and weather. Routes, precise location, potty details, and private notes stay out of the shared card.

The beta also adds walking challenges and leaderboards for a little friendly encouragement. Behind the scenes, the dog animation and scenery are separate systems, so we can keep improving each pup’s movement and expand the environments independently.

This latest round also fixes oversized walking badges and Closet back navigation, simplifies profile editing, and introduces new PocketPup-branded navigation icons.

Now rolling out to testers: Android 1.1.1 (29) and iOS 1.1.1 (8). External TestFlight access is pending Apple’s beta review; this update is a beta preview, separate from the public release.

What would make your everyday dog walk more fun: new scenery, more milestones, or a friendly walking challenge?

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Submission history