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dropanchor.app
Anchor
@dropanchor.app
Anchor is an experiment in geolocation on the AT protocol: https://dropanchor.app Simple & Free in beta. Currently alpha. Project by @tijs.org #ATGeo. TestFlight here https://testflight.apple.com/join/gmSQv4Gh Support me here https://ko-fi.com/tijsteulings
Reposted by Anchor
Love that people are working on geo-based apps built on atproto. Plenty of cool possibilities here, and a reminder of why all sorts of new apps should be building on atproto to have instant identity and social layers.
That is sort of @beaconbits.app @dropanchor.app which you can use now.

Lots of work on geo this year.

We have a lexicon for geo data and have in progress work to have a lookup for Foursquare open data info.

Private data really needed for a bunch of larger usage of this.
December 30, 2025 at 8:06 PM
So cool! You don’t only own your data but you can bring it along to create new use cases in other apps.
December 30, 2025 at 9:14 PM
We're not asking for 'all the permissions' anymore when you login.
I've updated the OAuth permission scopes for @dropanchor.app to only ask for permissions to write blobs and Anchor specific lexicon, plus we need permission to read/delete community address lexicon for a while until all checkins are migrated to the new checkin lexicon (migration happens on login)
December 14, 2025 at 8:15 PM
I caved and got rid of the admittedly quite jarring pink background and redesigned the overall look to be more 'standard feed social'. Feels a bit more calm now at least if a bit less original 😉
December 14, 2025 at 10:52 AM
If you happen to have a Foursquare/Swarm checkout lying around somewhere you can now take those checkins and publish them on #atproto as Anchor checkin records. I made a little Golang cli app that should make it super easy (and takes rate limits into account) tangled.org/tijs.org/fsq...
tijs.org/fsq2anchor
Imports from your Foursquare data export into Anchor atproto records.
tangled.org
December 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM
In one of those 'you can just build it' moments @dropanchor.app now support @beaconbits.app checkins on your feed. All your beacons will be shown in your anchor feed (marked with the bb logo) and link back to the original checkin on beacon bits. Enjoy!
December 13, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Noice! More mad folk making checkin apps on atproto 🫶
Time to put your posts on the map using ATProto.

Excited to announce that my web app @beaconbits.app is opening up for beta this week.

Beacon Bits lets you drop public beacons on a map that can be filtered by friends, global view, or location radius.
November 30, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Still seeing issues with check-ins failing once your session is expired. If you get a 500 error when checking in please logout and back in again for now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Will look into this after our holiday ☺️ bsky.app/profile/tijs...
October 19, 2025 at 12:13 PM
New atproto app just dropped 🐔
Introducing kipclip.com, the friendliest way to save bookmarks on atproto 🐔 This first version works on the web and features a simple bookmarklet (for desktop) or iOS shortcut or Android sharesheet option, once you save it to your homescreen (for mobile). Uses the community lexicon for bookmarks!
October 18, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Build 25 adds the like count to the timeline and detail views in the app. A checkin you share can be liked by other logged in users on the checkins page on the web.
October 12, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Build 24 is now out! This fixes the share url to use the new checkin detail page url format.
October 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Anchor might be for personal logging but that doesn't mean we can't be social on the checkins you share beyond your personal timeline. We now support likes ❤️ on the checkins! (comments coming soon)

dropanchor.app/checkins/tij...
Testing image uploads with the perfect location checkin image.
Tijs Teulings 🦑 at Park 't Loo, Voorburg, Zuid-Holland, NL
dropanchor.app
October 11, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Build 22: Makes the settings screen options functional, but also introduces an option to choose your own location provider. Starting simple for now but eventually will likely do a bring your own api key setup. I believe the target audience for this is nerdy enough that I can get away with this 😛
October 4, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Build 21 is now available in TestFlight! It brings beautiful photo checkins to the app making it useful for both travel logging as well as food logging, and probably many more use cases.

Also the timeline and detail views have been cleaned up and we brought the delete button to the iOS app as well
October 3, 2025 at 12:18 PM
The dropanchor.app web client now supports image uploads! 🌁 this should make your checkins much more interesting. iOS coming soon! "remember this image from 9 years ago" feature maybe coming someday?

dropanchor.app/checkins/tij...
Tijs Teulings 🦑 dropped anchor at Park 't Loo
Testing image uploads with the perfect location checkin image.
dropanchor.app
October 3, 2025 at 9:48 AM
The new mission for Anchor, focusing on personal location log instead of Swarm clone, has now also been implemented in the iOS app. The latest TestFlight build should now work again with the updated backend. But please logout and back in to get a new session. Bonus: nearby places is faster too.
October 1, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Since 5 mins ago @dropanchor.app also support checking in from the website directly. This allows you to use drop anchor on any platform. Also it should keep you busy while I overhaul the iOS app to be more in line with the new personal location logger mission. Enjoy! dropanchor.app/checkin/did:...
Anchor - Location-based Social Network
dropanchor.app
September 30, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I’m reworking Anchor to be a personal location logger more than a swarm clone. This allows me to rework the appview as a very thin layer on the PDS where it only needs to do some API endpoints and auth checking. While I’m working on this the site/app will likely be more down than up.
September 28, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Whenever I'm looking at feature set and scope for Anchor I come back to personal location logger more so than Swarm clone. This would allow the app to rely purely on the locations in your pwn PDS for storage. No need for fancy follower graph logic (nor a need to store/cache that). Features follow..
September 26, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Build 19 is now on TestFlight (and plenty spots still open). This one fixes some UI issues but mostly adds the timeline and following feed to the app.

testflight.apple.com/join/gmSQv4Gh
Join the Anchor - Social Check-ins beta
Available on iOS
testflight.apple.com
September 14, 2025 at 10:50 AM
I'm adding the following feed to the mobile app together with your personal timeline feed. I probably want to get rid of the global feed completely since that's not really something you'd want to have in the long term. So also likely taking that out in the web frontend. What do you think?
September 14, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Build 18 is now out on Testflight!

This release adds a new search feature in the checkin flow, for when the nearby places do not include your location. This search tab will allow you to search Nominatim directly for matching places. + Also includes your actual checkin text when sharing
September 7, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Dropanchor's backend is now using @bad-example.com's Slingshot! Simplify all the things.

github.com/dropanchorap...
use slingshot where possible · dropanchorapp/location-feed-generator@6114bc8
github.com
August 17, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Build 13 is out. This one moves all the categories to an API endpoint so we don't have duplicates but also since that will make it easier to move to other POI services/datasets in the future...

These are our current categories if you're curious: dropanchor.app/api/places/c...
dropanchor.app
August 17, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Build 12 is out. Simplifies the checkin flow, fixes an issue where you geo location would not update, more refactoring and fixes for oauth flow (should be much less error prone now) testflight.apple.com/join/gmSQv4Gh
Join the Anchor - Social Check-ins beta
Available on iOS
testflight.apple.com
August 16, 2025 at 5:30 PM