Pathify.app

Pathify FAQ

Frequently Anticipated Questions

  • What is Pathify?

    Pathify is a privacy-first location-based app that integrates a map and a timeline for tracking and reviewing your activities.

  • What does “privacy-first” mean?

    Privacy-first means privacy is always a top priority for Pathify. Total privacy is always the default. Future sharing features will always be opt-in, limited to what is truly required, and designed to minimize exposure to privacy risk.

  • Is Pathify a running app?

    Pathify works as a running app. You can track your activities in the background, view your path on a map, see your speed / pace, distance, etc. both in real-time and afterwards. In contrast to other apps, Pathify takes a minimalist approach, with privacy as a first principle.

  • Are you suggesting I replace an app I use now?

    Pathify does not attempt to reinvent or replace general purpose map apps for real-time traffic and travel directions, nor social networks, goal-oriented training apps, or health or fitness trackers that integrate with heart monitors and the like. Those bases are pretty well covered.

However, if you’re an iPhone user and you want to privately track your own activities, and you don’t need sharing or device integrations, Pathify just might be all you need.

  • Who made Pathify?

    Pathify was created by Jonathan Dubman.

  • Is there an Android version?

    There is not. Pathify is open source and written in React Native. All the components have Android versions, so this is quite doable.

  • Is there an iPad or Mac version?

    Browsing the map and reviewing activities would be great on an iPad or Mac, or on the web on a big screen, but Pathify is currently iPhone only. Since all the data is currently confined to the device, you wouldn’t be able to see your data on the iPad unless the data were collected on the iPad, which maybe isn’t so likely. In the future, ideally all of your devices could share data securely. Sharing anything raises privacy issues, and those issues do have solutions, but they are not yet implemented.

  • How about Apple Watch support? I want to start/stop and monitor activities with my watch.

    Apple Watch should be supported, but not yet.

  • If I delete an individual activity, is it really gone? Can I get it back?

    It is really gone, unless you have your entire phone backed up, in which case, the deleted activity would be among the data in there, but not easily accessible without restoring the phone, or at least the Pathify app container. Delete does not have an Undo, and the data is really deleted from your device.

  • Can I export my activities in a standard GPX format?

    Sorry, no, export is not yet available, but data you capture today can be exported later. Export is definitely a desirable feature and has always been on the product roadmap. One easy way to do this would be to send one or more activities as a GPX email attachment straight from the app to an account of your choosing.

  • Accessibility: What if I have trouble reading your tiny fonts or translucent UI?

    This needs some work. The UI is somewhat configurable; you can adjust the map opacity to increase contrast when needed, and you can use the horizontal bar to show or hide data over the map. Font sizes are currently fixed and the app is not ideal for the visually impaired as of today. Thankfully this is a totally fixable problem.

  • Are you currently available for employment / consulting, etc.?

    Please see my LinkedIn!