Echoes & Paths

About the project

A GPS-powered historical landmark app born from wanting castles, ruins and museums front-and-center on a map, not buried among restaurants and gas stations. Visit a castle, a ruin, a museum — conquer it physically within 150m — build a medieval rank, add friends, and see what they've explored. Currently in closed testing for family and friends due to Google Places API operational costs at scale.

Key features

• GPS-validated conquest system — server-side Haversine distance check (≤150m) rejects spoofed or remote check-ins
• 7-tier medieval rank progression — Peasant → Squire → Knight → Baron → Count → Duke → High King
• Social layer — friend requests, cross-user conquest visibility, and push notifications via the Expo Push API
• Hybrid feed aggregating Google Places API (New), Wikipedia historical descriptions and community contributions — server-cached and paginated
• Community photo and text contributions via Cloudinary, moderated before going public
• Google Sign-In + JWT authentication
• OTA updates via EAS Update — ships JS fixes to production without waiting on a Play Store review
• English and German localization, auto-detected from device locale
• Full GDPR-compliant legal pages — Art. 13/14 rights, DPA complaint links for 6 EU countries
• Built solo with Claude Sonnet 4.6 as daily AI pairing partner throughout the entire build