Universal journeybot – Privacy-First Travel Planning with On-Device Packing Lists

[MikeFerak]

Hi everyone,

I'm an indie developer and I've just launched journeybot, a native iOS and macOS travel planning app focused on calm organization and smarter packing.

The idea came from personal frustration - I travel often and kept forgetting small but important things. I wanted something that turns trip details into a concrete packing list without requiring accounts or sending data to external services.

What journeybot does:

• Create and manage journeys (currently single-destination; multi-leg support is planned)
• Generate intelligent packing lists powered fully on-device using Apple Foundation Models
• Suggest items based on destination, duration, activities, weather, and luggage type
• Automatically detect international power plug types
• Sync across devices using iCloud
• Offer widgets with countdowns to upcoming trips
• Work offline for core features

There are no ads, no accounts, and no external LLM calls. All data stays in your iCloud.

I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from this community - especially around UX, feature priorities, and travel workflows.

Happy to answer any questions.

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/app/journeybot-packing-travel/id6756543673

Website: https://journeybot.app

 

[MikeFerak]

Get a promo code for unlocking lifetime premium for a special discounted price: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/journeybot-ios-macos-premium-promo-code.2478123/

 

[it wasnt me]

Coincidentally, I was just hunting for an app like this. Curious!

The website seems to have quite a few redundancies: The "header screenshot" appears again later on that page, and this is not quite elegant either:

Is multi-language support planned or already in the app?
edit: I have just installed the app on a German-language iPhone and it is, indeed, translated, with a few quirks though.

Good first impression. I'll play with it.

 

[MikeFerak]

Coincidentally, I was just hunting for an app like this. Curious!

The website seems to have quite a few redundancies: The "header screenshot" appears again later on that page, and this is not quite elegant either:

View attachment 2607487

Is multi-language support planned or already in the app?
edit: I have just installed the app on a German-language iPhone and it is, indeed, translated, with a few quirks though.

Good first impression. I'll play with it.

Thanks for the first impressions! Yep, the website definitely needs a bit more love - I was so focus on getting the app out there that I sidetracked the website and need to tweak it a little. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[it wasnt me]

Thank you for the batteries-in-your-luggage update! A killer feature, really.

 

[MikeFerak]

Thank you for the batteries-in-your-luggage update! A killer feature, really.

Thanks for letting me know! Actually found out from you it has been approved earlier than I noticed Apple approved the update 🙂.

Glad you like it. I had to make this because I just got two of my camera batteries I forgot to remove from my checked baggage confiscated by airport security... 😀

 

[it wasnt me]

I don't travel by plane that often (next time, probably, next October), but I surely hate airport security. 😀
"I will hijack this plane with 101 ml of bottled water! Mwa-ha-ha!"

... Ah, anyway. My portable battery was an annoying piece last time as well.

 

[MikeFerak]

New in journeybot v 1.1.0:

Currency conversion widget

Based on your home location's currency, get a quick glimpse of how much to expect to pay in your destination's currency. The utility supports basic arithmetic operations and once the rates are fetched, they are cached for offline use - so no need to stress if you don't have WiFi or data available while you're out and about.

 

[it wasnt me]

Thank you for the new time widget. It is quite handy, I keep forgetting certain time zones, no matter how often I travel there (especially London).

Found another small “bug” in the German translation: it’s “40 Tage”, but “in 40 Tagen”. I know, German is hard. 🙂

 

[MikeFerak]

Thanks for your feedback! Oh, localising "counters" is always tricky in most languages. In Slovak/Czech it's even worse because we have 3 different options:
- 1 = 1 deň
- 0, 5+ = 5 dní
- 2,3,4 = 3 dni

Will double check all the cases in German, thanks! 😉

 

[MikeFerak]

Also, I made major website updates. Would be happy if you took a look. I will also add a German translations for the homepage too.

Smart Packing List & Travel Planner for iPhone | journeybot

Plan journeys and build smart packing lists tailored to your destination, weather, and activities. journeybot works offline, stays private, and needs no account.

journeybot.app

 

[it wasnt me]

Looks less weird now. 😀

 

[MikeFerak]

Coming from a German person, I'll take that as a compliment 😅

 

[it wasnt me]

Rightfully so!

 

[it wasnt me]

Congratulations for maintaining a 5-star rating by the way. It is well earned!

 

[MikeFerak]

@it wasnt me thank you for your continued support! 🙂

The app now contains a Summer Travel pack with cute summer icons, summer-tailored packing templates, and overall general improvements!

Summer Travel Pack

Get ready for the vacation season with sunny icons and ready-made templates for beach breaks, festivals, and road trips.

apps.apple.com

 

[MikeFerak]

New in journeybot:

Visual Packing
Packing lists are usually just walls of text. Now you can snap a photo of any item and it turns into a sticker on your list, with the background removed for you.

Your packing list ends up looking like your actual stuff. Easier to scan, and weirdly satisfying to put together.

 

[it wasnt me]

Unless you have a few dozens of items you’ll need to pack, which is when it becomes tedious. I’ll stick with text for the time being.

 

[it wasnt me]

It’s nice to have a CSV import functionality. I wish it was more obvious to know 1) where and 2) how the CSV needs to be formatted.

What am I missing?

 

[MikeFerak]

It’s nice to have a CSV import functionality. I wish it was more obvious to know 1) where and 2) how the CSV needs to be formatted.

What am I missing?

So I left it intentionally without instructions to see how it behaves with whatever users have. You get an option to import when creating a fresh packing list, or from the … menu in an existing packing list. It should handle various cases automatically but if you do experience some sort of discrepancy where you’d expect it to work, and feel comfortable sharing the csv, I’d be glad!