Native iOS features

Build an iPhone app with Apple Maps and location

Borel builds iPhone apps with Apple Maps and the phone's location built in. Describe the places your app is about, and Borel writes it in Swift with MapKit and Core Location: a real Apple Map with pins, where you are on it, and how far away things are. There are no map keys or accounts to set up.

Ideas

What you can build with maps and location

A few apps people make with it. Describe yours in your own words.

  • A parking spot saver

    One tap saves where you parked, and the map shows how far away it is.

  • A favourite places list

    Cafés, viewpoints and shops you love, as pins on a map.

  • A trip map

    Every stop of a trip as a pin, with notes and photos.

  • A run club map

    Where this week's run starts, on a map the whole club opens.

Try it

A prompt to start from

Copy it, or start with it and change it to fit your idea.

The prompt
“A parking spot saver: one tap saves where I parked and shows it on a map with the distance from me.”

From words to your iPhone

Three steps, no code

  • 1

    Describe it

    Say what the app does in plain words, or start from the prompt above. No code, and no Mac.

  • 2

    Watch it build

    Borel writes the Swift, compiles it with Xcode on its own Mac and opens it in the iOS Simulator, streamed into your browser.

  • 3

    Put it on your iPhone

    Borel Companion installs it over a cable the first time, then over Wi-Fi, and while it runs it puts each new version on by itself.

How Borel handles it

Written in Swift, with Apple's own frameworks

What Borel takes care of for you, so the feature works the way iPhone owners expect.

  • Apple Maps, built in

    Maps are Apple's own MapKit, with pins, the person's position and the familiar pinch and pan.

  • Location while it's open

    The app asks for location the first time someone uses it, with a sentence Borel writes, and only while the app is in use.

  • Ready for a no

    If someone says no, the app explains what's off and offers a button to Settings, and the rest keeps working.

The map and its pins show in the iOS Simulator in your browser while you build. Where you really are comes from your iPhone, once Borel Companion puts the app on it.

Your Apple ID

Works with a free Apple ID

Yes. Borel Companion puts the app on your own iPhone with a free Apple ID, which keeps up to 3 of your apps there, and Companion renews them every 7 days for you.

Frequently asked questions

No. The app uses Apple Maps, which comes with the iPhone and needs no key or account.

Borel builds location for while the app is in use, so that is exactly what iOS asks people to allow.

Yes. It measures from where you are to any pin, and can show the distance on the map or in a list.

Yes. Ask for it in the chat, or choose Location from Device in the chat's + menu.

Build your app with maps and location

Start from the prompt above, change it to fit your idea, and Borel builds it while you watch.