Wandity Guides

The Challenge

Travelers want authentic local experiences without the constraints of group tours. We needed to build a mobile app that could guide users through curated walking routes with rich content at each stop — and it had to work offline, since cellular coverage varies widely across cities.

Our Approach

The iOS version was built natively with Swift and SwiftUI for the best possible map and location experience. MapKit provides smooth, responsive maps while Core Location handles GPS tracking with battery-efficient monitoring. Tour content is downloaded ahead of time so everything works without an internet connection.

For the cross-platform companion version, we used React Native with Expo, sharing the tour content format and backend while adapting the UI to each platform’s conventions.

Technical Highlights

• Native iOS with SwiftUI delivers smooth 60fps map interactions and native gesture support for the best user experience
• Offline-first architecture pre-downloads tour data, map tiles, and audio files so tours work without connectivity
• GPS-triggered content uses geofencing to automatically surface relevant information as users approach points of interest
• MapKit integration renders custom route overlays, animated user position, and interactive point-of-interest markers
• Battery optimization uses significant location changes for background tracking, switching to precise GPS only during active tours
• React Native + Expo version shares tour data format and API layer while providing platform-native UI on Android