How Pinmate works
A local map that turns spontaneous ideas into actual meetups.
Pinmate is a free, no-install web app for arranging outdoor activity in the next few hours or days. Drop a pin, see who joins, show up. That's the whole loop.
What we're solving
Group chats die, Facebook events are too heavy, Strava is for after the fact. There was no light place to say "I'm running in an hour, anyone in?" without spamming a dozen friends. Pinmate is that place.
Low friction
No app store, no profile setup ceremony. Open the link, drop a pin, you're done in under a minute.
Local first
Pins appear inside your observation radius around your home location. The map stays your neighbourhood — not a global feed of strangers.
Show up, not perform
No leaderboards, no kudos counts, no clout games. Just "are you in?" → "yes" → see you there.
Who it's for
If you're outdoorsy in any way and you'd do more if it were easier to coordinate — this is for you.
Solo outdoor people
Runners, cyclists and hikers who'd rather have company some of the time but don't want to organise a whole event.
Small friend groups
The MTB crew, the Sunday football regulars, the climbing partners. Private groups keep your circle's pins to your circle.
Neighbourhood communities
Block-level walks, dog-park meetups, parents' running clubs. Local at the scale that actually matches your day.
The four steps
Every meetup on Pinmate goes through the same four-step loop. It's deliberately boring — that's why it works.
- 1
Drop a pin
Tap the map at your meeting point, pick a sport, a time, and (optionally) a short note about pace or vibe. Takes ~30 seconds.
- 2
Get discovered
Anyone with matching filters in their local area sees your pin appear on their map. They tap it, read the meta, RSVP if it fits.
- 3
See who's coming
RSVP counts update live — "going" is a commitment, "interested" is a soft signal. Hosts can also share a profile link so participants know who they're meeting.
- 4
Show up
Push and email reminders fire X minutes before the start (you pick). No-shows are visible; flakers self-regulate over time.
Core features
Everything the app does today, in plain English.
Drop pins anywhere
Tap the map or use the "place a pin" button. Pick from nine sport categories, add a free-text discipline ("MTB", "5v5", "with dogs").
Filter what shows up
Sport categories, difficulty, audience (mixed/women/men), radius from home — all client-side so the map redraws instantly.
Reminders before each meet
Push notifications and email a configurable number of minutes before the pin starts. Mute either channel independently in settings.
Follow people
Tap Follow on someone's profile to surface their upcoming pins in your Network tile. Per-follow notification preferences keep the channel quiet for casual follows.
Private groups
Create invite-only groups for friends or your neighbourhood. Pins dropped in a group are visible only to its members — never on the public map.
Calendar of your activity
Your Activities page tracks pins you've RSVP'd to — upcoming, past, and the ones you're watching but haven't committed to yet.
The social layer
Three independent surfaces work together. Each is opt-in and each respects privacy — Pinmate doesn't surface anything you didn't choose to share.
Follows + Network tile
Follow other users to see their upcoming pins in a small tile on your map. A discoverable but tucked-away surface — doesn't compete with the public map.
Private groups
For pins you don't want the whole town to see. Invite via a shareable link or directly. Members get the same RSVP/reminder flow as public pins.
Notifications
Push and email, off by default for people you follow, on for meetings you RSVP to. Configurable per channel and per follow.
Nine sport categories
Each pin picks one top-level category — the colour you'll see on the map. Specifics like "gravel", "Nordic walking" or "padel" go in the free-text discipline field.
- Cycling
- Running
- Football
- Hiking
- Climbing
- Water sports
- Racquet sports
- Skating
- Other
Tip — colours are designed to stay readable side-by-side on a busy map.
Your data, your map
Pinmate is built around the idea that your neighbourhood stays yours. Concretely:
- No social login
Email + password + email-based 2FA. No Facebook, no Google, no third-party tracker shipped by default.
- Home location is private
It lives on your account to filter the map. Pins you drop have their own meeting points — your home is never broadcast.
- Group pins are scoped
Server-side filter rejects group pins for non-members. Leaving or being removed from a group makes those pins disappear from your view too.
- Core features will always be free
The basics — the map, pins, RSVPs, reminders, profile and follows — stay free forever. If paid add-ons land later, they'll be opt-in extras, never gates on what you already use.
Ready to drop your first pin?
The first one is the awkward one. After that it gets natural.
Open the map