Sign in

Anchor

@dropanchor.app
200 followers 101 following 101 posts

Anchor was an experiment in geolocation on the AT protocol: dropanchor.app Project by @tijs.org #ATGeo.

PostsRepliesMedia
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/04/2026
Getting up to date location data is hard. It’s either going to cost real money or you can get most of the way with OSM data but not all the way. Also if you wanted to do social you’d need to keep track of your own social graph so you’d need some decent hosting at scale, just AT probably wont cut it
000
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 09/04/2026
oh and remember; we're 100% open source so you could always fork us and spin up your own Anchor if you desire! github.com/dropanchorap... github.com/dropanchorap...
github.com
GitHub - dropanchorapp/anchor-appview: Location AppView with Feed Generation Capabilities
Location AppView with Feed Generation Capabilities - dropanchorapp/anchor-appview
041
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 09/04/2026
If you're looking for a great alternative to Anchor there is always @beaconbits.app, it's the more social (and honestly better looking) brother of Anchor, I can heartily recommend it. I use it too. I've looked into an import script to BB but it would be quite involved so I have no plans to do that.
122
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 09/04/2026
Your checkin records will keep existing on your PDS right where they are. And anyone is free to make a script or service that somehow re-purposes or re-uses them. So an export your data option is not really needed, it's already yours!
130
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 09/04/2026
We had a good run, and it was a great way to figure some atproto things out. But I don't see a way forward that makes sense for Anchor as a viable product. Taking Anchor to the next level would require non-trivial investment which the usage does not support. So I'm closing it down end of this month.
3112
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/02/2026
Oh great thanks! Yeah I was too cheap to upgrade. Will save that for when more people start using it 😁
000
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 13/02/2026
thanks! so far so good. running charmingly. but also not a lot of traffic so not really pushing the limits or anything 😅
110
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 13/02/2026
dropanchor.app now also uses the infamous typeahead component for auto completing your bsky handle in the oauth screen. I've extracted it from kipclip.com and made it into a little js module so it was easier to re-use, feel free to use for your own atproto projects tangled.org/tijs.org/act...
Bluesky sign-in dialog showing a handle typeahead search for "tijs" with five matching account suggestions including tijs.org, tijssikma.bsky.social, tijshofmans.nl,
  tijsvandenbrink.bsky.social, and tijs010010.bsky.social, each with their profile avatar.
253
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 13/02/2026
like @kipclip.com before it dropanchor.app has grown up a bit more and moved off valtown to @deno.land Deploy which should help it perform a bit better.
dropanchor.app
Anchor - Location-based Social Network
120
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 04/02/2026
finally got around to publishing our checkin lexicon (and the like and comment one) lexicon.garden/lexicon/did:... it's been a while since I actually changed anything in it so seems ok to officially release this v1 of sorts.
lexicon.garden
app.dropanchor.checkin
ATProtocol lexicon schema by dropanchor.app
000
Reposted by Anchor
Jaxon Evans @jaxonevans.social · 02/01/2026
Two cool projects I learned about this week, both building Foursquare-esque location based experiences on ATProto: @beaconbits.app and @dropanchor.app
052
Reposted by Anchor
Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 30/12/2025
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.
1627
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/12/2025
So cool! You don’t only own your data but you can bring it along to create new use cases in other apps.
063
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/12/2025
We're not asking for 'all the permissions' anymore when you login.
051
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/12/2025
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 😉
screenshot of the new Anchor layout with a standard 3 column feed layout
041
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/12/2025
.. and soon comment on it. This is a good reminder to explain all of this better though. So far I’ve used anchor more as a test bed for location on atproto so the UX is lacking in some obvious ways.
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/12/2025
Yeah this is badly explained. Anchor, at this time, is a personal location logger. You log where you have been but there is no social graph, all check-ins have their own page which you can share anywhere though. Share button is at the bottom. When shared on Bsky people can see the checkin and like..
110
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 13/12/2025
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...
tangled.org
tijs.org/fsq2anchor
Imports from your Foursquare data export into Anchor atproto records.
0114
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 13/12/2025
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!
0162
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/11/2025
Noice! More mad folk making checkin apps on atproto 🫶
030
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/11/2025
I’m very interested in how the locations sources are working for you, it’s quite different depending on where in the world you are I’m afraid
120
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/11/2025
I (@tijs.org) am on a custom pds myself so I would stop making that mistake when making atproto apps 😛
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/11/2025
Could you try again? I’m afraid we had some outages over the past few days..
110
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 19/10/2025
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...
020
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 18/10/2025
New atproto app just dropped 🐔
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 12/10/2025
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.
Screenshot of the Anchor app showing the timeline feed of a user, with the new likes counts showing for some itemsScreenshot of the Anchor app showing a detail checkin view with the new like count.
020
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 11/10/2025
Build 24 is now out! This fixes the share url to use the new checkin detail page url format.
screenshot of the Anchor app showing the sharing screen after checking in.
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 11/10/2025
Only on the web for now, mobile also coming soon...
000
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 11/10/2025
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...
dropanchor.app
Testing image uploads with the perfect location checkin image.
Tijs Teulings 🦑 at Park 't Loo, Voorburg, Zuid-Holland, NL
120
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 04/10/2025
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 😛
Settings screen of the Anchor app with an option to choose the geo provider for the nearby and search options.
021
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 03/10/2025
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
000
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 03/10/2025
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...
dropanchor.app
Tijs Teulings 🦑 dropped anchor at Park 't Loo
Testing image uploads with the perfect location checkin image.
020
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 01/10/2025
TestFlight link is here: testflight.apple.com/join/gmSQv4Gh
testflight.apple.com
Join the Anchor - Social Check-ins beta
Available on iOS
000
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 01/10/2025
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.
120
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 01/10/2025
Should work in any browser near you. Point your bug reports at the GitHub issues page! github.com/dropanchorap...
github.com
GitHub - dropanchorapp/location-feed-generator: Location AppView with Feed Generation Capabilities
Location AppView with Feed Generation Capabilities - dropanchorapp/location-feed-generator
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 30/09/2025
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:...
dropanchor.app
Anchor - Location-based Social Network
241
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 28/09/2025
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.
040
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 27/09/2025
Oh I won’t make promises but a basic web client should be in the cards. Also nice for testing
100
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
Would you use a PWA client you think? I've been thinking about making the website more than just read only. On a browser with location permissions it should work reasonable well I think.
110
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
Awesome! Sometimes the nearby search will error out because Overpass times out sometimes (<- insert gazetteer here!) but the Nominatim search that powers the search field is pretty robust usually if you know the name of your venue already.
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
Anchor already support this I guess. A checkin is always for a POI/venue. It's just a checkin record for the text and date and then a ref to a location and a ref to geo record for the POI. In The Netherlands and large parts of Europe this works pretty well with OSM as data is good, in US/CA not sure
100
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
wait really? I thought you shouldn't mess with the created date... ok maybe I'll have another look at that then. could be cool to import a bunch of foursquare and google local checkins.
000
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
If used as a personal logger would you like to have some sort of rating attached? Or just the fact that your logging it is enough info (together with the checkin text and maybe some images of course)
100
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
Yeah I'd love to backfill my foursquare export as well but the createdAt date is not something you can set. I guess I could do a checkinDate field and use that in the UI instead but seems a bit dirty.
100
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
What you're losing, besides the social aspect, is game mechanics. If you're just doing this for yourself there is no external incentive to keep going, so you need an internal drive to log excursions. Not good for usage numbers likely but since this is open source not a real issue.
010
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
..from that. No need for likes, comments. But pictures make sense. Social sharing would still be interesting but incidental; share a specific checkin on Bluesky or elsewhere. Eventually private records might make sense, but we're always storing venues not exact user location, so not a blocker.
100
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
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..
220
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 26/09/2025
gonna be a long wait... 😘 but it's open source so you could always roll your own client?
110
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/09/2025
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
testflight.apple.com
Join the Anchor - Social Check-ins beta
Available on iOS
001
Anchor @dropanchor.app · 14/09/2025
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?
000