39.5296° N, 119.8138° W · RENO
Most apps that show you where your friends are want you to add everyone individually. It turns location-sharing into fifteen separate negotiations, and the social weight of asking someone "can I see where you are?" is often heavier than people realize.
We wanted something different. A room you walk into, where the people you already share context with are visible to each other in whatever way they've chosen to show up. One decision. You join a community, you get everyone in it.
When I left social media, I feared losing context with my communities, but what I gained was mental and emotional health. I did lose context and it cost me connections but my community found other ways to connect. One of these ways was location sharing, it provided us a way to connect that was an inversion of the news feed. Keep track of those you care about, those who you want to see, and use it to initiate a real connection. No broadcasting, no performance to grow an audience, just a shortcut to connecting with someone who has the context to understand you.
Everything on SameOrbit is filtered through people you already trust.
You see where your friends are, at the granularity they chose: exact location, the city they're in, just the country. They decide. If they've set a weekly intention, you see that too. If you're in the same place, that's a nudge to reach out. We don't tell you what to do about it.
Your community also keeps a shared map of places. Where people have actually been, what they'd go back for, what they want to try. A friend's note about one café is worth more than a stranger's five stars, and the fact that they went at all is worth something on its own.
And when someone's up for company, they can put a gathering on the map. A dinner, an open house, a slow afternoon somewhere. It waits there for the community to find, and whoever shows up, shows up.
This isn't a social network. There's no feed, no likes, no followers. No discovery. You only see people you share a community with.
It isn't real-time tracking. Presence here fades on its own, on purpose. We're not trying to help you find anyone.
It isn't public. Every community starts with someone who already knows you, inviting you in.
It isn't a chat app. When you want to reach someone, we hand you off to wherever you actually talk to them: SMS, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram.
Honest over magical. If a feature is faked, we say so. Empty states tell the truth. Seed data is labeled.
Invitation over discovery. Communities form from real-world relationships. There's no "people you may know."
Granularity as consent. You choose what you share. The default is your city. Showing exact location is something you opt into.
Ambient, not anxious. No streaks. No engagement tricks. Notifications are rare and meaningful, or they don't happen. An app that's fine to close is the whole idea.
The core stays what it is: your people and their places, on a map, at whatever distance feels right. What's coming builds on that. Telling your community you'll be somewhere before you get there, so overlapping travel surfaces on its own. Better ways for a community to feel like a room, with the map as the lens you raise when geography matters.
We'll keep updating this page as the app grows. If something here stops being true, we'll change it.