Now on the App Store

Your friend group.
Live.

Stop drowning in group chats just to figure out where everyone is. Pod is a live home base for your closest people, see who's around, share your schedule, and plan without the ten-text back-and-forth.

🍕
😎
🧢
🎧
🌸
🍕 Friday Night Slice Live
🗺️ Juniors's Pizza 🕗 7:30 PM
😎
🧢
🎧
🌸

What you get

Everything your
group actually needs

Pod isn't just for one trip. It's the ongoing home base for the people you see the most, no fluff, no 47-tab spreadsheets.

📍

Live Location Tracking

See your whole pod on one map in real time, even when the app is in the background. No more "where are you?" texts.

🏠

Home Feed

One shared feed for everything happening in your pod, plans, updates, and check-ins, all in one place instead of scattered across texts.

🗓️

Schedules

Share your availability with your pod, or keep blocks private. See when your friends are actually free before you even ask.

🗺️

Plan Together

Build itineraries as a group, add notes, set times. Everyone sees the same plan so nobody shows up at the wrong spot.

✅

RSVP in One Tap

Drop a location, set a time, let everyone say in or out. Instant headcount. No back-and-forth.

🔔

Smart Notifications

Get pinged when a pod member is nearby or the plan changes, without your phone blowing up all night.

📸

Memories

Look back on everything your pod has done together, a running record of the plans that actually happened.

⌨️

Instant Invite Codes

Share a code. Anyone joins your pod, sees the plan, and shows up on the map.

🗂️

Saved Favorites

Bookmark your go-to spots so planning your next hangout takes seconds, not another group debate.

How it works

Three steps.
Zero chaos.

🪐

Create a Pod

Open the app, start a new pod with your friend group, and grab your invite code in seconds.

📣

Invite your crew

Share the code. Your friends join, appear on the map, and share their schedule right away.

🚀

Live it, together

See who's around, plan the next hangout, and look back on it all later in Memories.

Available on iOS

Be in the first pod.

Pod is live on the App Store. Grab it, create a pod with your closest friends, and stop losing the plan in a group chat.

 Download on the App Store

iOS only for now · Android coming later

Pod

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 13, 2026

01 Overview

At Pod, we are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy outlines how we handle your data to provide a live, real-time experience for you and your friend group. By using the app, you consent to the practices described here.

02 Data Collection & Usage

Precise Location Data

We collect GPS coordinates to enable real-time map features and pod tracking. This includes Background Location access, allowing your pod members to see your location even when the app is minimized.

Account Identifiers

We use Firebase Authentication to collect your email address and name. This is required to sync your pods and identify you to the friends in them.

User Generated Content

Plans, schedules, notes, and favorite locations you save are stored in our Firebase Realtime Database to ensure all pod members have the latest details.

03 Data Sharing

Your data is private. We do not sell your personal information. Your precise location, schedule, and pod updates are only shared with users you have explicitly authorized by joining a shared "Pod." You can block any user, which immediately stops all location and content sharing with them. We utilize Google Firebase for secure data infrastructure.

04 Data Control & Deletion

You maintain full control over your data. You may delete your account and all associated pod data at any time via the in-app settings menu. Upon deletion, your data is permanently removed from our Firebase production servers.

Questions or concerns? Reach out directly:

podplananything@gmail.com

© 2026 Pod

Pod

Support

Answers to the most common questions about Pod. If you don't see what you need, email us directly and we'll get back to you.

📍
Location & battery
Background tracking, accuracy, battery use
🪐
Pods & plans
Creating pods, invites, schedules, RSVPs
🔒
Account & privacy
Blocking, data, deleting your account

Location & Battery

Why does Pod need my location in the background? +

Pod shows your pod members where you are in real time, similar to how a live location app works. Background location lets that stay accurate even when you're not actively looking at the app, so your friends can see you're on the way without you having to keep Pod open. You can turn this off any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Pod.

Will Pod drain my battery? +

Pod adjusts how often it updates your location based on how you're moving. When you're stationary, it checks in far less often; when you're actively traveling, it updates more frequently to keep the map accurate. This keeps battery impact low compared to apps that ping location at a fixed interval regardless of movement.

Can I hide my location from specific people? +

Yes. You can block any user from your profile or a pod's member list. Blocking immediately stops all location and content sharing between you and that person in both directions.

Pods & Plans

What's a pod? +

A pod is a persistent group for your friends, not a one-off event. Once you create a pod, it stays as your shared home base: a live map, a shared feed, everyone's schedules, and a running history of everything you've planned together in Memories.

How do I invite friends to my pod? +

Open your pod and generate an invite code from the members screen. Share it however you'd normally send a link or code, anyone who enters it joins the pod immediately and appears on the shared map.

Can I keep my schedule private? +

Yes. Schedule blocks can be marked public or private. Public blocks are visible to your pod so they know when you're free; private blocks stay visible only to you.

My plan isn't saving, what's wrong? +

When adding a location to a plan, make sure you select an actual result from the address dropdown rather than typing free text and dismissing it. The correct location shows small gray text underneath it confirming a real place was selected before you save.

Account & Privacy

How do I delete my account? +

Go to Settings → Account → Delete Account inside the app. This permanently removes your profile, location history, and pod content from Pod's servers. This action can't be undone.

Who can see my information? +

Only people in a pod with you can see your location, schedule, and plans within that pod. Pod does not sell your data. See the full Privacy Policy for details.

Someone is bothering me in a pod, what do I do? +

Block them directly from their profile or the pod's member list, this cuts off all sharing between you two immediately. If it's a safety concern, email us and include the pod name and the person's username so we can look into it.

Still need help? We usually respond within a day or two.

podplananything@gmail.com

© 2026 Pod

Minh Tran

The person behind Pod

Minh Tran

CS Student · University of Florida

ML Research Automation Engineering iOS Dev

01 Why I built Pod

My friend group was (and is) genuinely crap at planning things. We'd try to organize something and Elijah would get mad, Jay wouldn't read the chat, Rafe + Luis would be dead asleep, Davis would be halfway across town, and who knows if Ali was even alive. Somehow I was still worse than all of them combined.

The real problem wasn't that they didn't want to come. It was that the plan lived in a wall of text nobody was going to scroll through, and there was nowhere for the group to just exist between plans. So I thought, what if the group had a permanent home, not just a chat that resets to zero context every time?

That's Pod. You open the app, you see where everyone is, what they're up to, and what's coming up. No group chat archaeology. You show up.

02 Background

I'm a CS student at the University of Florida, graduating December 2026. Outside of Pod, I do machine learning research in genomics and automation engineering at UF.

Building Pod taught me more than I expected — Firebase security rules that silently fail at 2am, animated marker bugs that only show up with 4+ users, background location on iOS being its own beast entirely. The kind of stuff you only learn by shipping something real.

03 What I'm looking for

Pod is live on the App Store now, and I'm actively growing it, if you're reading this and want to try it, download it from the homepage.

I'm also looking for a summer 2026 SWE internship or co-op. The dream is somewhere like Anthropic or Google — places where the range of what you can work on is genuinely wide, where people care deeply about what they're building and why, and where you feel that in the culture. That kind of freedom to build things that matter is what I'm after.

If that sounds like where you work, I'd love to talk.

04 Get in touch

Whether you want to talk about Pod, an internship, or anything else — reach out.

✉️  podplananything@gmail.com 💼  LinkedIn