Case study / Group travel app

Convoy case study

Convoy is a web app (PWA) for people travelling together. It has a live map with the whole crew, group chat, Leader and Sweep roles, rally points, SOS, driving mode, a view-only link for family and a QR invite. This is the kind of small, focused app I build to order.

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Role: App, real-time rooms, help pages, tests
Stack: Web / PWA, MapLibre, Socket.IO
Type: Web app that installs on the home screen
Screens: Demo with sample data

My role

I designed and built the app, the real-time rooms behind it, the help pages and the tests. It runs on the shared Apps platform I designed. See the Plaazaa case study for the host product.

The problem

A group of cars on a trip gets split up. People text "where are you?" and stop to wait. Most location apps need everyone to sign up and to trust a service with their position for a long time.

The approach

A convoy is a room. The host shares a code or a QR, and the crew joins with no sign-up. Positions are kept in server memory only, and a member can hide at any time.

On the map each person has a pin with a colour ring. The chat has quick phrases for use on the road. Rally points mark stops, with a "Next" chip. Driving mode makes buttons larger. A member can press SOS, which shows an alert bar and a pin for the others. The host can create a view-only link so family can follow along, with no sign-in and no chat.

The app is available in six languages. Texts for Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Spanish are first drafts that still need native review.

Stack

Web / PWA, real-time rooms, MapLibre and Socket.IO, as listed on the demo page. The real-time layer is the Arena server and SDK modules described in the real-time and backend service.

Screens

Demo with sample data

A made-up crew and a test stack. The screens are from a local test run with scripted fake GPS on a tourist route. No real people or positions.

Convoy invite screen with a convoy code, a QR code, a copy-invite-link button and four crew chips — Demo with sample data

Convoy live map in dark mode with emoji pins, colour rings, distance labels and an ETA chip — Demo with sample data

Convoy group chat with system lines, a message and quick phrases — Demo with sample data

Convoy in dark mode showing an SOS alert bar, an SOS pin on the map and a moments sheet — Demo with sample data

Convoy driving mode with larger buttons and the next rally point — Demo with sample data

Convoy map with a route and a Next: Coffee rally-point chip — Demo with sample data

Convoy family view-only page with a map, rally pins and a crew list, no sign-in needed — Demo with sample data

What is public and what is not

Public: the feature list, the stack and the sample-data screens. The help pages are at plaazaa.com/help/convoy.

Not public: any real trip, person or position. I give no user counts and no speed figures.

Honest limit: it is a web app. A web page cannot track a phone that is locked, so background tracking would need a native wrapper. I have not built one.

Related pages

Need a live group app?

Tell me what your group does together. I reply with a one-page recommendation and a written scope before any code.

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