PearCircle is a private, peer-to-peer location-sharing app. Share live location and presence with the people in your circles, with no account, no tracking, and no company holding a copy of your data. Features: - Private circles with invite-link or QR pairing - Multiple circles per identity - Place geofences with arrival / departure notifications - Motion-aware pins (walking, driving, flying, stationary) - Trip history with per-circle opt-in sharing - Sharing pause for the rest of the day - Offline map tiles - download a region for trips into dead zones - Fully offline-capable - your circle's data stays on your devices One exception worth stating: some networks stop two phones connecting directly. When that happens PearCircle can fall back to a relay PeerLoom runs, which forwards encrypted data it cannot read and stores nothing. Your phones try a direct connection first, and one switch in Settings turns the relay off entirely.
First release: May 14, 2026, 30 total releases.
Most recent release: Sep 15, 2026.
Appears in 6 app stacks.
12,100 sats / 2 zaps received in the past year.
Sats Received
Underlying data available via MCP: app_zaps, app_releases.
Zap Count
Underlying data available via MCP: app_zaps, app_releases.
Releases
- Sep 15, 2026 1.1.2## What's Changed ### New Features - **Smaller Places.** Places can now be as small as 50 meters, down from 150. Handy when two Places sit close together, like neighbors or a school next to a park. When you pick a size under 150 meters, the app shows a short warning: a small Place can miss arrivals or report someone leaving when they have not, especially indoors, and iPhones running in the background still notice arrivals and departures at 150 meters. - **See what your seeder is holding.** The seeder dashboard now shows, for each circle, whose latest location it is keeping for them while their phone is offline. A line turns amber when someone is missing, and a details list shows when each person's location was last stored. ### Improvements - **Repairs finish on their own.** If a circle repair has to wait, the app now keeps retrying every few seconds while it is open, instead of asking you to close and reopen it.
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- **Open the seeder dashboard from another computer.** Mac and Windows seeders can now be reached from other devices on your home network, with step-by-step instructions in the install guides. The setting stays in place when the seeder updates. - **Start9 updates show up.** Seeders installed from the Start9 store on newer Start9 systems now see new versions as they are released. ### Bug Fixes - **Mac seeder keeps running after you log out.** It used to stop when you logged out of your Mac, which defeated the point of a seeder. It now keeps going with nobody logged in. - **Mac seeder starts after a reinstall.** Fixed a case where reinstalling left the seeder quietly switched off. - **Seeder survives a Start9 system upgrade.** Upgrading a Start9 box could leave the seeder stuck restarting over and over. It now recovers on its own. - **Working dashboard link for network installs.** A seeder set up to be reachable from other computers now shows a link you can actually open, with its access code included. - Aug 9, 2026 1.1.1## What's Changed ### New Features - **Low battery alerts.** Get a heads-up when someone in your circles is running low, while there is still time to reach them. A phone that dies stops sharing its location, so this is usually the last warning before their dot goes stale. Turn it on in Settings under "Low battery alerts" and slide to pick how low they have to get, anywhere from 5% to 50%. It tells you about your circle members' phones, not your own, and you get one alert per person each time their battery runs down, which resets once they charge back up. ### Improvements - **Start9 owners can add the PearCircle seeder from the built-in store.** Newer Start9 systems can now find and install the seeder the normal way, instead of needing a file downloaded and dragged in by hand.
- Jul 27, 2026 1.1.0## What's New in 1.1.0 ### Improvements - **You can now see which computers are really protecting your circle.** The Seeders screen used to list every computer you had ever approved, whether or not it was actually doing anything. It now separates the ones genuinely holding your circle from the ones that have never checked in, and shows when each was last heard from. A switched-off computer no longer looks like a working one. - **Linking a computer to your circles shows its progress.** Pairing used to sit silently and look like it had frozen. Now each step is reported as it happens, so you can tell it is working. - **Start9 owners can install the seeder from the browser again.** Newer Start9 systems refused the older package format. The seeder now ships in a format they accept, so you can add it by drag and drop instead of using the command line.
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### Bug Fixes - **The seeder's details page on Start9 was blank.** It now shows the information it was meant to. - **App store listings showed the wrong "what's new" text.** Every update was described as a first release. Each version's real notes now appear. ### Security - **Your location is always encrypted before it leaves your phone.** A timing problem when you first joined a circle could leave one early position unprotected. That was fixed in 1.0.25, so if you are updating from an older version you are getting that fix here too. - Jul 24, 2026 1.0.25## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - warn when a member publishes content the blind seeder can read ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - close the join-time race, and heal a tip already published in the clear - stop publishing positions in the clear, and recover the ones already published
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- repair DefaultEncryption._reload, which wiped the block key - report why a peer tip is unreadable, and stop re-fetching it - the recurring "needs repair" wedge is a false positive, plus the recreate bugs that hid it - Jul 23, 2026 1.0.24## What's Changed New features - Connects on networks that used to block it. Some mobile networks stop two phones from reaching each other directly, and until now your circle simply would not sync on them. PearCircle can now pass the connection through a PeerLoom relay when a direct connection fails. The relay only carries scrambled data it has no way to read, and it keeps no copy of anything. - A switch to turn that relay off. Settings, then Staying in sync, then Connection helper. Leave it on for the best chance of staying connected, or turn it off to keep everything strictly phone to phone. - Seeder details on Start9. If you run the seeder on a Start9 home server, its Properties page now shows the seeder's public key, its nickname, which circles it is keeping alive and how much it has stored, plus a Support Development link. Improvements
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- Better background location on iPhone. Several fixes to how PearCircle asks iOS for location mean real, accurate GPS now reaches the app while your phone is in your pocket. Your live position and your arrive and leave notifications are more dependable because of it. - Trips survive the app restarting mid-drive. A drive is now saved as it happens, so if your phone closes PearCircle partway through, the trip picks up where it left off instead of vanishing. - Fixing a stuck circle no longer needs a force stop. If a circle ever needs repair, the Repair button now finishes the job on its own. - Clearer wording about how PearCircle works. Now that we run one optional relay, the app no longer says "no servers". It says what is true: no accounts, no tracking, no subscriptions, and no company holding a copy of your data. Fixes - No more phantom "left" and "arrived" alerts. A phone sitting still could drop from GPS to a rough network position, report itself hundreds of metres away, and fire a false departure followed by a false arrival moments later. Rough positions no longer trigger these. - Fixed a frozen screen when returning to the app. On GrapheneOS phones, coming back to PearCircle after it had been in the background could leave the screen stuck even though taps were still registering. - Trip Sharing is now hidden on iPhone. iPhones cannot reliably record a trip, because iOS shuts the app down within seconds of each background wake, so offering to share them was misleading. iPhones still receive and get notified about trips shared by Android members. - Jul 16, 2026 1.0.23## What's Changed ## What's Changed New features - Run a seeder on Start9 (StartOS). You can now install the PearCircle Seeder on a Start9 home server, so your circles keep syncing even when everyone's phone is off. It installs straight from a marketplace link (no manual file copying) and gets update notifications like any other Start9 app. Works on both regular servers and Raspberry Pi-style ones. - Name your seeders. Give a seeder a friendly nickname (like "Home Pi") in its dashboard, and it now shows up under that name in the app's Seeders list
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instead of a long random code - so you can tell multiple seeders apart at a glance. Improvements - Redesigned seeder dashboard. The seeder's control panel is cleaner and more app-like: it fits on one screen, adds a light/dark theme toggle, and puts the circles it's keeping alive front and center with clear status and controls. - Friendlier pairing. When linking a seeder to your phone, the app now reminds you to turn off WiFi (use cellular) if a home-server seeder won't connect over the same network - a common gotcha. Fixes & polish - Seeder dashboard: replaced the plain browser pop-ups (like the "Leave circle?" prompt) with dialogs that match the app's look. - Fixed cramped and overlapping controls in the seeder dashboard on phone-sized screens. - Jul 9, 2026 1.0.22## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - split Members/Places into separate sheets + place detail sheet - boolean options as toggles + dark-mode contrast - dedicated sheet for place creation, always pick a circle - swap the Store preset for Church - enchance settings UX
- Jul 7, 2026 1.0.21## What's Changed ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - whitelist lightning scheme so wallet detection works
- Jul 2, 2026 1.0.20## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - trim history to 7 days + cap the list at 15 per member - watchdog escalation when a repair can't converge ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - stop missed crossings — radius floor + no-strand on non-writable writer
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### 🔧 Other - Jun 29, 2026 1.0.19## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - autostart diagnostic + consolidate Settings sections - tighter avatar-cluster fan-out with visible hub - fork prevention (rewind guard + durability ordering) - settings menu cleanup ### 🐛 Bug Fixes
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- true daily sync reminder + time-picker sizing - hypercore fork-conflict recovery + seatbelt - Jun 27, 2026 1.0.18## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - bound transition history with 90-day retention - apply retention policy to per-member writer cores - reclaim dead SST with periodic RocksDB compaction - launcher controls - sweep now, restart, byte diagnostic, UI polish - QR pairing - scan to link circles, no copy-paste - predefined Places quick-add + name-inferred place icons
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- daily "open to sync" reminder with configurable time ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - repair dead /join route and give 'already a member' feedback - handle URL-encoded newlines in multi-circle seed bundles - US default map center + waiting-for-location cue - tri-state map pin dot (live / stale / offline) - Jun 19, 2026 1.0.17## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - disable in-app update checker in container/Umbrel deploys ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - seed-invite name + franken-enrollment correctness
- Jun 18, 2026 1.0.16## What's Changed ### What's new? - Blind seeder Umbrel/Docker app ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - bound the RocksDB WAL with periodic + on-background flushes
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### 🔧 Other - Owner Recreate Circle + config export/import + migration nudge - Seeder LEAVE propagation + member-side Remove (fix lingering seeder entries) - Seeder dashboard favicon (real PearCircle icon) + store icon - Multi-arch seeder image (amd64 + arm64) - Jun 12, 2026 1.0.15## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - friendlier point-and-click desktop uninstall (macOS + Linux) ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - suppress phantom exits and duplicate transitions - collapse fanned avatar cluster when switching circles
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- bind seeder-admission channel id to bootstrap, not circleId - tolerate trailing-slash invites - recognize trailing-slash invite links so tapped links open the Join sheet - confine map avatar pins beneath the floating circle pill - peer-trip notifications fire for late-replicating trips - Jun 9, 2026 1.0.14## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - member join/leave notifications + rejoin/leave fixes - autostart on boot/update ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - keep self pin/last-seen live + collapse fan-out on back
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- clear nav bar overlap on stock WebView - Jun 8, 2026 1.0.13## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - member join/leave notifications + rejoin/leave fixes
- Jun 6, 2026 1.0.12## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - two-stage avatar clustering with tap-to-spread ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - clearer copy when location sharing is stopped indefinitely - hide background location indicator so the blue pill stops stealing taps (iPhone)
- Jun 5, 2026 1.0.11## What's Changed ### 🔧 Other - Added: seeder version shown in the dashboard and the PearCircle app - Added: background update checks against GitHub releases - Added: "update available" banner in the dashboard and flag in the app's seeder list - Added: one-click "Update now" (download, sha256 verify, swap, restart) preserving identity and enrollments - Added: per-platform apply for Windows, macOS .pkg, Linux .deb, and Linux AppImage - Added: install-once privileged helper on macOS and Linux .deb for password-free updates
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- Added: Linux .deb desktop entry and first-install dashboard open - Fixed: successful update now reports "restarting" instead of appearing stalled - Fixed: dashboard WebSocket auto-reconnects on drop - Fixed: first-run UI no longer interrupts a macOS install - Fixed: version stamped correctly in Windows and Linux builds - Fixed: update banner centered - Security: updates are operator-gated only, with checksum verification rejecting tampered downloads before install - Jun 4, 2026 1.0.10## What's Changed ### 🔧 Other - Repair UX: top-of-map needs-repair banner + indeterminate Repairing… indicator - Android: network-location nudge banner for de-Googled ROMs - Android location: LocationManager + last-known fallbacks for de-Googled / hung-provider devices - Autobase append-hang: no-freeze hardening + strong circle repair
- Jun 1, 2026 1.0.9## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - shed dead connections fast so replication recovers while moving - proximity-rank the OS region slots by distance - persist classification to recover crossings after suspend/force-quit
- May 29, 2026 1.0.8## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - coalesce lastSeen writes - CLVisit + self-region re-centering for stationary/backgrounded freshness - one-shot fresh fix on foreground + tighter iOS distance filter
- May 29, 2026 1.0.7## What's Changed ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - make positionless member rows tappable so they're removable
- May 26, 2026 1.0.6## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - Universal Links + App Links for /circle/join
- May 22, 2026 1.0.5## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - make member removal rejoin-overridable - owner-side member removal with self-removal notice - in-app seeder explainer + install-doc download links - Blind-seeder macOS, Linux and Windows installers and launchers - fan out overlapping member avatars
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### 🐛 Bug Fixes - don't block cold-boot circle reads on Autobase update - seed lastSeen on becoming a circle writer - May 18, 2026 1.0.4## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - swarm-connected dot, drop lastSeen heartbeat ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - default trip sharing to OFF - pair channel for circles added on a live connection
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### 🔧 Other - make Location sharing a collapsible section - alphabetize circle and member lists - May 18, 2026 0.1.0## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - swarm-connected dot, drop lastSeen heartbeat ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - default trip sharing to OFF - pair channel for circles added on a live connection
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### 🔧 Other - make Location sharing a collapsible section - alphabetize circle and member lists - May 17, 2026 1.0.3## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - lastSeen stale flag - "Syncing with peers..." pill during cold-boot catch-up - 14-day auto-retention prune ### 🐛 Bug Fixes
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- preload _selfLastSeen so peers see "Live" within 15s - suppress historical transition replay on cold boot - May 16, 2026 1.0.2## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - adaptive location mode (SLC while idle, continuous while trip) ### 🐛 Bug Fixes - tune CLLocationManager to cut background battery drain
- May 15, 2026 1.0.1## What's Changed ### ✨ Improvements - distinct arrive / leave sounds for place transitions - per-circle location-sharing toggle with 1/4/8/24h pause durations ### 🔧 Other - drop "Map tiles unavailable" banner + offline-fetch tracker
- May 14, 2026 1.0.0PearCircle - Initial release! A peer-to-peer location-sharing app for Android and iOS. PearCircle lets you share live location and presence with the people in your circles - no accounts, no servers, no subscriptions. Your family's and friends' positions live only on the devices you pair.