Interface

✨ Inspiration

What’s the first place you turn to for travel recommendations? For Gen Zs, it's not Google or Yelp. 74% of them check TikTok — part of 1.58 billion daily users across 154 countries. But with the abundance of content and endless scrolling, it's hard to find direct suggestions without feeling overwhelmed or exhausted.

We wanted to streamline that discovery process. What if you could tap into TikTok’s authentic, visual experiences — but see them on a map?

📍 What it does

TapIn combines the functionality of interactive maps with the power of TikTok’s firsthand content. Users simply enter a location and choose a category — food, nature, shopping, or stay — and TapIn displays TikToks relevant to that area directly on the map as clickable red pins.

Each red dot opens up a curated TikTok that gives users an instant peek into that spot, so they can make decisions visually, confidently, and quickly. Users can then click into the TikToks and be redirected to the app where they can save the posts to their own collections.

⚙️ Challenges we ran into

AI Model Issues Our original idea was to utilize OpenAI’s API and use a ChatGPT wrapper that extracts TikToks based on what the user is looking for. The AI should also be able to extract the location of where the TikTok is recommended. The issue we realized mid-way through coding the backend was that OpenAI is unable to access TikToks directly; thus, we had no access to direct TikTok links. As a result, we had to come up with other solutions. After hours of brainstorming and thoughtful consideration, we found out another AI, Perplexity (known as a research AI), can easily access sent links and further information other APIs were not able to access.

Prompt Engineering Getting good results from the AI wasn’t just about asking questions — it required crafting the perfect prompt. We spent a lot of time testing, refining, and iterating to make sure our queries returned complete, location-rich responses that we could actually use.

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

A fully functional and polished interface.

Seamless 3D map integration with embedded TikTok pins.

🚀 What's next for TapIn

Color-coded pins by category – Enhance the map experience by assigning distinct colors to each category (e.g., food, shopping, nature, stay), allowing users to visually filter and explore at a glance.

Sponsored Pins – Introduce sponsored or promoted pins for restaurants, attractions, or businesses that want to reach travelers directly. These pins would be subtly marked and could include exclusive deals or featured content.

Verified Experiences – Highlight trusted or high-quality recommendations with a badge system to differentiate between authentic content and ads.