Vicinity: Proximity Chat

Esketit LLC

In-app purchases

About this app

The goal of Vicinity is to give all nearby smartphones an instant, common channel of communication.

Vicinity is a social tool developed with a vision to bring people together in a time of increased social isolation. Its live chatroom and messaging features will give you the ability to connect with everyone around you—broadly interacting with smartphone users around you has never been easier. This app will allow entire cities and neighborhoods to chat with each other, all at once, in real time!

Other social media platforms, while having good intentions, have caused negative personal and societal effects. Vicinity aims to reverse this pattern—to help people form real-time connections with others in their community.

Connect instantly with neighbors, classmates, or anyone passing by in any setting or location. Join a live chatroom based on a radius of your choice and send messages to any member in that Vicinity. Send private messages to any other user participating in the chatroom.

There are many other apps for friendship and socializing, but Vicinity has been specifically designed as a tool to help you put down your phone and start talking with people in real life.

Feeling lonely? Set the radius and find real people nearby with mutual interests. Vicinity allows you to instantly connect and socialize in a unique way. Share thoughts and useful information, or ask questions about any topic to learn from others as well.

Potential uses
• Meet new friends
• Organize meetups by topic
• Interact with others at a sports game, bar, or any large gathering
• Coordinate a class study group
• Get help from a neighbor
• Invite others to a block party
• Recommend shows, websites or movies to others with common interests
• Ask for local service recommendations
• Coordinate group activities
• Query locals for tips when traveling


Core features
• Vicinity chat: a general chatroom based on location radius only
• Private messaging: privately message any user you see in private, public, or general chat

Dark Mode

Vicinity has both a light mode and a dark mode for an interface that is easier on the eyes.

Privacy and security

A private environment is designed just for you to safely chat with people around you. Member locations are never revealed.

Ratings and reviews

Similar issue to another reviewer, app hangs on the location setup screen. Then says it cannot determine my location even though precise location is shared and other apps are able to see my location. Seems app needs a round of testing, I like the idea though.

Not ready for public release. Even though I gave the app full, precise location permission, it can't find me, so it won't even let me sign up. No other app has this much trouble with location. DEVELOPERS, do not ask me for anything, I do not work for free. My advice is to not cut corners during QA. Actually test on real phones. I write these to warn others, not to help you.

Works perfectly fine for me. New to this big wonderful chaotic city and it's nice to be able to socialize with people who also live here. However, the location issue I did have at first but, still able to use it so it's fine. Great app man!

What’s new

Vicinity has had major UI/UX improvements, a safer chatting experience, and voice/video calls have been added for premium users!

Subscribers can now upload their own profile photos, and now you get to see who is active. You can also @ mention other users in vicinity chat