Skene 1.3.0 adds rain and wind to the map, reworks chat and the feed filters, and requires iOS 17.

Map

• Added Rain and Wind layers to the map’s layer picker.
• Added a time bar to the weather layers, from a day back to three days ahead.
• Added European radar for past rain, and a forecast for the hours ahead.
• Added a play button that runs the weather to the end of the time bar.
• Added a colour key to the time bar, with the reading at the map’s centre.
• Added the rain measured over the last 48 hours to a place’s details.
• Added a dark outline to your own location marker.
• Removed the direction line drawn by tapping your own location marker.

Chat

• Changed a tap on a message to open its actions, with six quick reactions on top.
• Added a line above the composer showing who is typing.
• Changed leaving a group to the trash icon on your own row in its member list.
• Improved how the conversation moves with the keyboard as it opens and closes.

Feed

• Added hiding a category or a tag from the feed filters.
• Added filtering the feed by tag.
• Changed a category chip to cycle on each tap: show only, hide, off.
• Changed a session row to show one start time, or Now while it is on.
• Added a session’s length, such as “2 h”, to the line under its name.
• Changed the session name to lead its row, with the place as a quieter heading.
• Changed tags to grey #words, set apart from the category.

Sessions

• Added back and next arrows to the steps of creating a session on mobile.

Photos

• Added a progress bar while a photo uploads, in posts and in chat.
• Reduced photo upload size by resizing to at most 2048 pixels.
• Removed location data from photos before they are uploaded.

General

• Added a dialog offering the new version when one is in the store.
• Changed Android’s navigation bar buttons to follow the app’s theme.
• Added autofill hints to the sign-in fields.
• Reduced lag on the map and in the feed while the phone turns.

Under the hood

• Updated Expo to SDK 57 and React Native to 0.86.
• Updated the sign-in library to Clerk 4.
• Updated the map library to MapTiler SDK 4.1.
• Raised the minimum iOS version from 16.4 to 17, which Clerk 4 requires.

Fixes

• Fixed the first tap after typing closing the keyboard instead of pressing the button.
• Fixed a click on a chat row opening its pin menu on the web.
• Fixed a long press on the map zooming in to street level.
• Fixed taps in a sheet being missed for about a second after it opened.
• Fixed feed filter chips moving under your finger when Clear filters appeared.

Skene 1.2.9 improves the feed, sessions and notifications, and fixes a number of bugs.

Feed

• Fixed an issue where some users did not see every upcoming session in the feed.
• Added opening a place from its row in the feed.
• Changed a multi-day session to be listed once, under a heading that spans its days.
• Added posting to selected people, or only to the people you follow.

Sessions

• Added more than one category on a session, picked in the last step of creating it.
• Added declining an invitation from the session view, which notifies whoever invited you.
• Changed the session view to scroll as one page, with the Participants and Discussion tabs staying at the top.

Chat

• Added a day heading above each day’s first message.

Places

• Changed a place’s Sessions tab to list every upcoming session, grouped by day.
• Changed a place’s details to scroll with the content of each tab.

Profile

• Added a Following count beside Followers on every profile.
• Added a list of the people you follow to your own profile, visible only to you.
• Added a hidden achievement, I Know Kung Fu.

For organisers

• Added free accounts for registered associations, each approved by us before it opens.
• Changed registration to one form, with details looked up by Finnish business ID.
• Added co-owners, and handing ownership over to another member.
• Added photos to an organisation’s event, with the first one leading its feed card.

General

• Added changing where you collect your Skene Bounty shirt after reserving it.
• Added a line to What’s new telling you when you are on the latest version.
• Added a notice to the notification settings when notifications are not allowed, with a button to allow them.

Fixes

• Fixed message notifications stopping for a conversation until the app was opened again.
• Fixed messages, invitations and replies arriving late while an Android phone was idle.
• Fixed notifications staying off on a device when registering it failed the first time.
• Fixed the keyboard covering the place discussion while you wrote.
• Fixed the golden avatar frame showing on only a few screens.
• Fixed the golden avatar frame being too thick on small avatars.
• Fixed a session further ahead printing its name twice in the feed.

Venues now show their hours and a Follow button at the top, and sessions can carry a sign-up link.

Venues and organisers

• Added today’s opening hours to the top of a venue’s page.
• Added Book and Website buttons above a venue’s tabs.
• Changed a venue’s follow heart to a Follow button with the follower count.
• Added a note for exceptions to a venue’s opening hours, such as a holiday closure.
• Added verified organisers to map search.
• Added a line to organiser pages saying what they do and where.
• Changed an organiser’s venues to cards with addresses.
• Added the Facebook link to organiser pages.
• Removed the empty Info and Posts tabs from pop-up places.
• Fixed a venue’s logo pin turning into a plain pin while a session was on.

Sessions

• Added a sign-up link to sessions, shown as a Sign up button.
• Added the sign-up link field to the session edit screen.
• Changed the tabs on a session page to underlined text.
• Changed long session names to wrap instead of being cut off.

For businesses

• Added categories and tags to venue posts.
• Changed a post’s reach to follow its own categories instead of the venue’s.
• Added a line to the post composer showing who will see the post.
• Added editing a venue’s categories.
• Added how many people opened your venues last week to the dashboard, next to the week before.

Rewards

• Fixed lag on screens showing the My Precious avatar frame, including the claim form.
• Changed the My Precious frame’s shimmer to a still highlight.
• Removed the capital-region pickup checkbox from the claim form.
• Added a note that more pickup points are added from time to time.

Fixes

• Fixed the precise time picker’s clock ignoring touches on iOS after a short pause.
• Fixed sessions staying at a place’s old spot after the place was moved.
• Fixed moving a sub-location on the map adding a copy instead.
• Fixed a place opening underneath its own sheet with animations turned off.
• Fixed the compass calibration hint animating in the background after it was closed.

The feed has been rebuilt. The rest of the release is fixes, and there are a lot of them.

Feed

• Added participants’ faces and names to session rows instead of a count.
• Changed a place to be the title of its block, with its sessions listed underneath.
• Added a photo to a post, opening the card at full width.
• Added comments under a venue’s post, and a screen of its own for the post.
• Added a sort order to the filters: nearest first, or by starting time.
• Changed all five kinds of feed card to share one base, so a category looks the same everywhere.

General

• Added a home location, used by the map and distances instead of Helsinki when the device gives no location.
• Added setting the home location in Settings, on the location permission screen and from the chip on the map.
• Added a “No location” chip, shown while the map’s centre is a guess.

Sessions

• Changed the multi-day picker to the calendar, where “Several days” selects a range of days.
• Changed the two clocks on a multi-day session to set the start and the end of the whole session.
• Changed day-grouped screens to say what happens on each day: Starts 9, All day, Ends 21.
• Added the whole date range to a shared session link.
• Removed the organiser’s crown and label. The organiser now comes first in the participant list.

Map and places

• Changed “Pick on the map” to a row among the search results.
• Changed “Pick on the map” to open the real map, with panning, zoom and layers.
• Added a prompt when you drop a pin within 500 m of an existing place.
• Added an access-info gate that opens a restricted place’s access info before directions and waits for you to confirm.
• Added the acknowledgement expiring when a place’s access info or classification changes.
• Added the crosshair’s coordinates to the screen reader.
• Added the OpenStreetMap credit to the map.

Fixes

• Fixed a crash when location permission was missing or withdrawn while the app was running.
• Fixed a person you had blocked being named on your own day and in a profile’s upcoming sessions.
• Fixed a multi-day session being marked on the calendar only on its first day.
• Fixed your own day being empty on the middle days of a multi-day session.
• Fixed a place card promising “all day” when the day had a gap in the middle.
• Fixed two adjacent search sections both headed “~09:00”.
• Fixed a session that began at 09:45 being filed under 09:00.
• Fixed search time headings ignoring the 12-hour clock setting.
• Fixed the session discussion being squeezed into a sliver above the keyboard. The map and the info card now fold away while you write.
• Fixed headings falling back to the device’s own typeface on Android.
• Fixed the notification about a reply to your own comment not arriving at a muted venue.
• Fixed a post’s image staying on the server after the post expired.
• Fixed the app freezing when a malformed link was opened.
• Fixed skene.life/business opening in the browser instead of the app on iOS.
• Updated the map library.

Skene 1.2.5 has been released, with the following changes:

Achievements

• Added achievements and levels. Some achievements are hidden: the name shows, the rule does not.
• Added a class title beside the level. It is a name only and unlocks nothing.
• Added an announcement when one is earned.
• Added a setting that hides achievements entirely.

Feed and sessions

• Renamed “activity” to “session” throughout the app.
• Added a picker behind the compose button: post or session.
• Added the ⚡ reaction on sessions, and a list of who reacted.
• Added a seen count on posts and sessions. The list of viewers is the author’s alone.
• Added @mentions in posts, comments and messages. Mentions have a notification setting of their own.
• Added multi-day sessions.
• Fixed a session reaction telling the organiser somebody “reacted to your post”.
• Fixed the session-change notification, which only reached confirmed participants.
• Fixed “Notify participants?” being asked on saves that send nothing.
• Fixed picking a new place discarding unsaved edits in the session editor.

Chat

• Added a group rail at the top of the chat list, and a Groups filter.
• Removed the ⋮ menu from the chat header.
• Changed the chat tab’s unread marker: the icon takes a tint instead of a red count.
• Changed group, session and place pictures to squares. People stay round.
• Fixed a caption’s mentions being lost when the picture was sent.

Profile

• Added Intro, a short description of yourself on your profile.
• Added Klipy GIFs, stickers and memes as a profile or group picture.
• Fixed a long name being cut off in the menu header.
• Fixed a crash when signing out after visiting a profile.

Places and map

• Added temporary places: a spot picked for one session leaves the map when the session is over.
• Added discussion and following on places that have an end time.
• Added access info per language, and a badge for its level.
• Added “Permanent only” to the map’s place filter.
• Removed MapTiler’s names, roads and trails from the “Terrain + satellite” layer. Labels no longer read as doubled.
• Fixed a hidden place’s discussion being readable by anyone who knew the place’s id.

Sharing and invites

• Added sharing a public post into a chat or through the share sheet.
• Added “Invite a friend to Skene”.
• Fixed shared link previews, which showed the generic Skene card.
• Fixed “Open in Skene” doing nothing without the app installed.
• Fixed the onboarding invite-code field asking for a code already claimed.

For organisers

• Added an organiser page for businesses with no venue of their own.
• Added publishing a session under a business’s name.
• Added pop-up places, paid for in place-days.
• Added the Toimija subscription and place-day packs.

General

• Fixed blocked users appearing in search, group add and session invites.
• Fixed follower notifications that looked identical on most themes.
• Fixed screen-reader support on reactions, switches and pickers.
• Added length limits on messages, posts and comments.

The map grows up in this one: basemaps are named layers you pick from a sheet, two of them are the Finnish terrain map you already know from paper, and one lays that map over aerial imagery so you can read the crag and the contours at once. Organizers can also move an activity to another place.

Map

• Added named map layers — Skene, Streets, Topo, Outdoor and Satellite — picked from a sheet at the bottom of the map.
• Added Maastokartat, Maanmittauslaitos’ own map sheet, with the boulder, cliff and mire symbols drawn the way they have always been drawn.
• Added Terrain + satellite, the same sheet over aerial imagery, with the coverage adjustable from 5 % to 100 %.
• The two Finnish layers are offered while the map is over Finland and step aside elsewhere. Your choice is kept for when you come back.
• Added a north compass to the map header.
• Gathered the map’s bottom controls — search, locate, layers, filters and list — into a single field.
• Improved the location marker, which now points the way you are facing.

Activities

• Added moving an activity to another place after it has been created.
• Auto-generated activity names follow the new place. Titles you typed yourself are left alone.

Fixes

• Fixed sheet content sitting behind the keyboard on iOS, which could collapse a category picker or a post editor to nothing.
• Fixed a crash when the map’s look changed with the pointer line drawn, and stopped that line from hiding under map pins afterwards.
• Fixed creating a hidden activity at a place notifying that place’s followers — an audience the activity itself would have refused to show it to.
• Fixed leaving an activity leaving its chat behind in your conversation list.

This update brings business accounts to Skene — gyms and venues can claim their place, keep its hours and profile current, and post to the feed — along with map decluttering, feed and chat filters, and a batch of fixes.

Businesses

• Added business accounts — claim your gym or venue, manage its profile, opening hours and members, and post to the feed as the venue.
• Added venue identity to the map and place sheets — logo, an open-now dot, and Info and Posts tabs.
• Added seasonal opening hours for venues whose schedule changes through the year.
• Added venue-claim disputes — report a claim that looks wrong and an admin reviews it.
• Business onboarding starts at skene.life/business; billing begins from the first claimed venue.

Map

• Improved overlapping markers — nearby pins spread out instead of stacking, and tapping a cluster lists everything under it.
• Added sub-locations and venue logo backdrops to place panels on web.

Feed

• Added venue posts to the feed, with filters to show or hide them.
• Improved the empty state — it now says which filter is hiding posts and offers a way back.

Chat

• Added filtering to People & Messages — all, messages only, or notifications only.

Notifications

• Added a separate setting for posts from people you follow, so you can keep their activities and mute their posts, or the other way round.

General

• Added Apple sign-in to the web app.
• Improved sign-in — Enter now submits the email and the verification code.
• Improved the emoji picker — it opens on Recently used once you have picked a few.

Fixes

• Fixed notification toggles being invisible against card backgrounds.
• Fixed notification settings silently turning pushes back on for people who had muted them.
• Fixed display-name changes reverting after a rename.
• Fixed invites that were silently dropped.
• Fixed sheet buttons hidden behind the keyboard, and scrolling inside sheets on Android.
• Fixed a blank app after visiting Explore in a narrow web window.
• Fixed links that could land you on business registration instead of the screen you asked for.
• Fixed sidebar navigation bouncing back on business screens.
• Updated dependencies and hardened the app against a batch of security findings.

This update adds polls to chat and lets you turn a feed post into an activity, plus a faster app start and a batch of fixes.

Feed

• Added “Create activity” to a post’s menu — the creation flow opens pre-filled with the post’s category, place, tags, and people. The post shows a card linking to the activity, and the activity links back to the post.
• Added multiple places to a post — a plan can float between spots until it firms up.
• Moved the composer’s Post button into the form and made the category picker full width.
• Improved feed loading — location updates no longer blank out the feed while it refreshes.

Chat

• Added polls — type /poll in any chat to vote on options or times. Supports multiple choice; the poll creator can close and reopen it.

Activities

• Added an editable title field to activity creation and editing — leave it empty to keep the auto-generated name.
• Replaced the icon-only join button with a labeled Join button in lists.
• Fixed vertical scrolling in the activity creation steps on small screens.

General

• Improved cold start speed — the app renders instantly from cached settings while auth loads in the background.
• Updated the logo and all app icons to sharp vector versions.
• Added reporting for discussion comments via a three-dot menu (feed, activity, place, and What’s new discussions).
• Comment authors’ names and avatars now open their profile.
• Updated the privacy policy and terms of service.

Fixes

• Fixed the keyboard hiding the name input during onboarding.
• Fixed opening directions — Apple Maps now routes correctly, and you get a message if no maps app is available.
• Deleting your account now also removes your discussion comments.
• Deleting a post now removes the linked activity’s “created from a post” chip.
• Removed loading spinners that only flashed on fast-loading screens.

Skene 1.1 turns the app social — a Feed replaces LFG, profiles get a home, and per-place chat becomes a discussion.

General

• Added a Feed — a social home for posts, comments, and lightning reactions (replaces LFG).
• Added a menu tab that gathers navigation, settings, and What’s new in one place.
• Moved notifications into People & Messages and added conversation pinning.
• Added a What’s new screen so you can follow updates, like them, and comment.
• Updated onboarding with a single Feed-focused intro.

Profiles

• Redesigned profiles with a posts section, activity categories, and upcoming activities shown as cards.
• Added a followers list you can open from any profile.
• Enlarged and centered the name in the profile header.

Activities & Places

• Replaced per-place and per-activity chat with feed-style discussions — comments and reactions.
• Decluttered activity and place detail bars into labeled actions with an overflow menu.

Privacy

• Hid your email from other users.
• Added a confirmed display name at sign-up.
• Added profile sharing.

Sign-in

• Made password the primary sign-in, with an email code as the secondary path.
• Clearer split between signing in and signing up with email.

Fixes

• Fixed hidden and followers-only activities leaking to viewers who shouldn’t see them.
• Fixed place deletion being blocked.
• Fixed the activity menu staying open after reporting a post.
• Made the discussion composer stay above the keyboard.
• Fixed chat back-navigation when returning from a cross-tab conversation.

Skene is officially out — on iOS and Android. Here’s what’s in the first release:

General

• See a live map of what’s happening — who’s going, and join with one tap.
• Looking for group? Post an LFG and get notified when something’s brewing.
• Create an activity, time, and place in as few as four taps — invite friends or leave it open.
• Broadcast a status from People & Messages so your followers can tag along.