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.Urban

.Urban app - How It Works Guide

Table of contents

What is .Urban

.Urban is a local community app that combines:

  • a map and location-based feed,

  • pins for announcements, warnings, events, and promotions,

  • personal connections and neighborhood groups,

  • a local marketplace,

  • institutional tools for administration, tasks, reports, and map layers.

The main goal is to bring local useful information, announcements, and collaboration into one place.

How to post a new pin

You can publish both standard community pins and institution-related reports when nearby institutions are available.

1. Open the creation screen

  • Open the AddPin screen from the main tab or the + button.

  • The screen lets you add text, media, and location details.

2. Choose the pin type

  • info β€” informational announcement.

  • warning β€” local warning.

  • alert β€” urgent alert.

  • promo β€” promotional message.

3. Fill in the content

  • Write the pin description.

  • Add photos or video.

  • You can mention other users with @ if you are connected with them.

4. Select visibility

  • Public β€” everyone in the area can see the pin.

  • Only you β€” private pin visible only to you.

  • Shared β€” pin shared with selected users or groups.

  • If you submit a nearby institution report, you can also use the dedicated institution-report flow.

5. Choose schedule and duration

  • You can publish immediately or choose a start time.

  • Standard duration options are: 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month.

  • Pins automatically expire when the period ends.

6. Publish the pin

  • After final settings, tap Publish.

  • The pin appears in the feed and/or map depending on visibility.

  • If the pin is linked to an institution, the backend may also create an internal task for that report.

Discover β€” feed and map

1. Viewing modes

  • List β€” displays a social feed of cards.

  • Map β€” shows pins on the map with a carousel of items.

2. Content types you can see

  • regular community pins.

  • local and national news.

  • events and relaxing content.

  • pinned event or promo cards.

3. Quick interactions

  • react and comment on cards,

  • save a pin for later,

  • share a pin link,

  • open photo/video media and view the location.

4. Filters and priorities

  • You can filter the feed by content type and news sources.

  • The map shows pins within your current radius or viewport.

5. Search and nearby people

  • You can find connections, groups, and people nearby.

  • Public groups appear in discovery if they are visible and in your area.

Profile and settings

1. Profile page

  • Shows avatar, banner, and account details.

  • Includes counts for active pins, inactive pins, scheduled pins, and saved items.

  • Provides quick access to settings, blocked content, and stats.

2. Edit account

  • You can change your avatar, banner, and personal details.

  • Access the Profile section for account options.

3. Location settings

  • Radius β€” choose watch radius: 500 m, 1 km, 2 km, 5 km, 10 km.

  • Location tracking β€” enable or disable GPS tracking.

  • Manual location β€” set fixed coordinates that do not update with GPS.

4. Presentation settings

  • Map type β€” choose the map style.

  • Start mode β€” choose between list or map start.

  • Video autoplay β€” control whether videos play automatically in the feed.

5. News and feed settings

  • Local news β€” see articles from your area.

  • National news β€” see broader news articles.

  • Relaxing pins β€” enable or disable relaxing content.

  • You can also choose video autoplay, default list/map mode, and map style.

7. Saved and blocked content

  • You can save pins, news, and listings for quick access later.

  • You can block pins or news sources and manage them from the blocked content section.

6. Immediate sync

  • When you enable tracking, the app requests permission and syncs location immediately.

  • When you choose manual location, tracking is disabled so the selected location is not overwritten.

Connections and groups

1. Managing connections

  • Friends shows accepted connections.

  • Incoming requests and Sent requests allow approval or cancellation.

2. Finding people

  • You can view nearby users on the connections map.

  • Nearby users can be invited to connect.

3. Public and private groups

  • Public groups can be discovered by others in the area.

  • Private groups are visible only to members or admins.

  • If you are an admin or owner, you can manage members and join requests.

4. What you can do in a group

  • post messages and polls on the wall,

  • comment and react to posts,

  • see activity stats for the week,

  • manage join requests.

5. Moderation and administration

  • admins can promote or demote other admins,

  • remove members,

  • approve or reject requests.

  • private groups stay hidden from discovery unless visible.

Local Bazaar

1. What is Local Bazaar

  • It is the buy-and-sell marketplace section.

  • In Romanian, it is called Bazar local.

2. Posting a listing

  • Create a listing with title, description, price, and location.

  • Add product images.

  • You can mark a listing as sold or available.

3. Messaging and saving

  • Send messages directly to the listing owner.

  • Save favorite listings to find them easily later.

  • You also get listing conversations and unread message indicators.

4. Visibility and sale

  • Listings are visible within the selected area.

  • The seller can mark an item as sold without deleting it immediately.

Institutions and institutional work

1. Institutional access

  • Users with an institution account have a dedicated dashboard.

  • The dashboard shows reports, tasks, members, teams, and layers.

2. Roles and permissions

  • Roles include privileges for: members, departments, layers, tasks, reports, communication, and analytics.

  • A role may have resolve_tasks without create_tasks.

  • That role can only change task state, add documents/media, and add status comments.

  • If a task is marked rejected, a comment explanation becomes mandatory.

3. Citizen reports

  • Citizens can submit institution-related reports.

  • The report is linked to a pin and an internal task.

  • Internal task progress can also be mirrored back into the public reporting flow.

4. Institutional tasks

  • Tasks may include start date, duration, documents, and media.

  • Task states are managed from the institutional dashboard.

5. Member evaluations

  • Users with manage_members can evaluate members in their department.

  • Evaluations track performance and work quality.

6. Institution map layers

  • Institutions can create and toggle map layers for work zones.

  • Layers can be shown/hidden and marked as active working areas.

  • There is also a dedicated map view with layer filters and quick actions per layer.

7. Departments and teams

  • The organization is structured into departments and teams.

  • Members can belong to departments and teams for visibility and task assignment.

1. Notification types

  • push and in-app notifications for: new pins, reactions, comments, groups, tasks, and reports.

  • notifications can open the relevant screen directly.

2. What happens on tap

  • a pin notification opens PinViewer for that pin,

  • a group notification opens group details,

  • institutional notifications may open the institutional dashboard if you have an institutional account,

  • and notifications can also deep-link into comment, reaction, or report-progress flows.

3. Sync and reliability

  • the system keeps notification state and refreshes content when the app returns from background.

Quick recommendations

  • Use Profile to access account settings and your content.

  • In Discover, switch quickly between list and map for different views.

  • Save important listings in Local Bazaar.

  • If you are an institution, check the dashboard regularly for tasks and reports.

  • Enable location tracking only when you want immediate local updates.