YouAt — Press Kit

🔑 How YouAt is different

Most family-sharing apps run continuous background location tracking by default. YouAt uses a different architecture: event-driven location reporting. The app shares your position when something triggers it, not on an invisible always-on schedule.

The triggers are simple and visible:

• You open the app. Your location flows while you're using it, and the moment you open it, every family member's position refreshes too — one tap updates the whole group.
• You start a Trail. Hike and travel breadcrumbs stream to your device during an active session you turned on.
• A family member sends YouAt-Locate. The push notification wakes your phone just long enough to send one position back. No ongoing stream — one answer to one request.

Between those events, the app isn't broadcasting. No scheduled check-ins. No background pings. If every family member closes the app, the location flow pauses until someone opens it again. You can also hush update alerts whenever the refresh gets noisy — it's a toggle, not a hidden setting.

This is a genuinely novel pattern for the family-safety category. Every other major app in this space runs continuous background collection. YouAt was built to prove that family sharing can work without surveillance-by-default.

📝 The one-line pitch

“A privacy-first family location app, built in a garage by a retired CNC programmer who learned vibe-coding.”

📝 The 50-word pitch

YouAt is a privacy-first family location-sharing app with event-driven architecture — your location is shared when the app is open, when a family member requests it, or during an active hike. No continuous background broadcasting. No ads, no data resale, no insurer partnerships. Built solo by Jaye.

📝 The 200-word pitch

Years ago, standing in a shopping-mall parking lot, Jaye couldn't find his car. He thought: “someone should build a compass that just points to your car.” He's a semi-retired CNC programmer from Bristol, Virginia. He recently discovered Emergent vibe-coding tools and started building. Three hours later, by v1.3.0, “Park” worked — GPS compass, distance to car, Google Map overlay.

The tooling asked if he wanted broader family-location features. Jaye had never used an app like that. He asked, “What's wrong with them?” That opened a can of worms. 190+ builds and hundreds of hours later, YouAt is a complete family location-sharing app built on a different model: no ads, no data resale, no insurer or data-broker partnerships, and — architecturally — no continuous background tracking. Location flows when you open the app, when a family member requests it, or during an active Trail session. Small circles (up to 100 members, invite-code only). Honest Ghost Mode that pauses sharing without faking a location. Safe Zones with duration options. The original Walk-to-Car compass that started it all. Built with his wife as a brutal non-tech QC. Currently in Google Play Closed Testing. Indiegogo launch upcoming.

✨ Features (all verifiable)

• No ads, no data resale. Location data is stored only to deliver it to the family circle you chose.
• Walk-to-Car compass. Points to your car with distance. Works in airports and malls.
• Safe Zones. Named places (Home, School, Grandma's) with gentle arrive/leave alerts. Alerts fire whenever a family member's phone reports its location to the server — through opening the app, a Locate response, or an active Trail. Duration picker: Permanent, 2h, or 24h.
• YouAt-Locate. One-tap request to a family member. Their phone sends back a single current location — fast, bulletproof, no ongoing stream.
• Save-a-place for one-tap drive directions. Add any location (a yard sale, a new restaurant, a friend's house) as a temporary or permanent zone, then tap once to launch Google Maps navigation. A privacy-respecting bookmark system for places.
• Honest Ghost Mode. Pauses location sharing. Circle sees “paused” — never a faked location.
• SOS button. One tap, three answers: start a safety countdown, call 911, or alert your circle silently.
• YouAt Trail. Offline-first hike breadcrumbs stored in a local SQLite database on your device. Runs during active sessions you turn on.
• Small circles. Up to 100 trusted family members. Invite-code only. No public profiles.
• Hush toggles. Mute location-refresh alerts whenever the group updates get noisy. Full user control over notification density.
• Pricing. Roughly one-third the price of leading family-tracking subscriptions.

📸 Screenshots (click to download)

🎨 Brand assets

• App icon (PNG, 512×512)
• Brand color: #EA580C (burnt orange)
• Secondary: #1C1917 (near-black ink), #F8F7F4 (warm paper)

👤 Founder bio

Jaye — Bristol, Virginia. Semi-retired CNC programmer. Built YouAt solo over hundreds of hours and 190+ builds using Emergent's vibe-coding platform. Previous life: decades of precision machining where “close enough” wasn't in the vocabulary — that CNC rigor is baked into every bug fix. Lives with his wife (and chief non-tech QC tester).

📊 Fact sheet

• Platform: Android (iOS coming via TestFlight)
• Current status: Google Play Closed Testing
• Pricing: Free tier available · Family plan · Family Plus / Lifetime
• Compared to leading paid family-location apps: Roughly one-third the price
• Launch: Indiegogo campaign upcoming
• Operator: YouAt LLC
• Website: youat.app
• Privacy policy: youat.app/privacy

💬 Press-ready quotes

“Family-tracking apps grew up during the ad-tech boom. We're building the version that didn't.” — Jaye, Founder

“YouAt doesn't run ads, doesn't sell data, and doesn't share location with insurers or data brokers. Those aren't features, they're the baseline.” — Jaye

“We built event-driven location instead of continuous tracking. Your position flows when you open the app, when family asks, or during an active hike. The rest of the time, the app is quiet.” — Jaye

“Ghost Mode in YouAt is honest. We pause your location. We don't fake one. If your family can't trust you to say ‘I'm taking a break,’ faking a location won't fix it.” — Jaye

🤝 For journalists

Email press@youat.app for:

• Closed-testing invite codes (hands-on access)
• 15-min founder interview
• High-res screenshots or additional brand assets
• Exclusive embargo arrangements before Indiegogo launch