RockUp
mobile
A messenger where your position decides who you can talk to
In RockUp, chat groups belong to places rather than to people. Walk inside your reach and the room opens; walk out and it seals — you keep the history, you lose the mic.
The whole mechanic in one pass.
Situation
A true zero-to-one, with limited budget, time and team.
Task
I set out to build a Telegram-like messenger, but with proximity-based mechanics at its roots.
Action
It was relatively easy to build proximity-based mechanics, but to achieve the same convenience as Telegram, it required a deep dissection and analysis.
Result
I designed the core MVP in three months, along with the identity, the design-system foundations, the tone of voice and the launch materials.
The map is not only a means of navigation in this case, but also a tool for exploring and discovering new places and people.
The user can easily adjust how far his curiosity extends.
There are more traditional ways of research and navigation.
You can always decide in advance whether to go there or not.
Down the list — in reach, then out of it and locked — and a pull at the top where the droplets gather, fuse and turn while it scans.
Recreating the classic mechanics of Telegram was a rather unexpectedly difficult and technically expensive task.
Naturally, the messenger supports the exchange of photos and files.
Hold a message and the reactions come up as a magnetic lattice hanging in the air, each on its own little body, with the actions on a card of their own below; pick one and it lands under the bubble.
The composer is liquid: the send button walks out of the field as you type, and the reply lands at the foot of a long thread.
Role
Product Designer
Period
2026
Platform
iOS
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