Feature
The Apex app
Where a meet starts, alongside pairing, Wi-Fi setup and the Showcase editor.
Meet a Panel
Meet a Panel: make friends at the meet, even with no signal.
You end up next to someone whose car you have been circling for ten minutes, and then comes the awkward part: hand over a phone, spell a handle, hope you both remember later. Meet a Panel does it with the panels instead. Hold them together, confirm the same four-digit code in your own apps, and you are friends — with no network involved.
No signal needed at the meetBoth owners confirm one 4-digit code60-second windowSyncs next time the panels are online
The flow
Two phones, two panels, one code.
A meet is driven from the phones rather than from a button on the panel. You start it in your app, the other owner starts it in theirs, and each phone is talking to its own panel over Bluetooth while it happens.
Then hold the two panels together. They put out a short-range beacon and listen for each other, and once they agree they are genuinely in contact, both panels and both phones show the same four-digit code. Each owner taps These Match — Become Friends, on their own phone. The app comes back with You're friends, or Met again! if the two of you had already met before.
There is a sixty-second window, and the meet deliberately gives up when four or more other panels are in range. At a packed meet that is the difference between introducing two panels and guessing; when it happens, the app tells you to hold the panels right up against each other, away from any other Apex panels.
- Started from
- Both owners' apps, not from the panels themselves
- Distance
- The two panels held together
- Confirmation
- The same 4-digit code on both panels and both phones
- Window
- Sixty seconds, then it gives up and you start again
No network
Nothing here needs a signal.
The handshake is connectionless. The panels never pair with each other and never open a connection between them; each one simply puts a short beacon in its Bluetooth advertisement and watches for the other's. That is why it works in an underground car park, at a track an hour from anywhere, or anywhere the venue Wi-Fi has quietly given up.
Each panel remembers up to eight friends it has met, and holds up to eight claims it has not managed to send yet. The next time it gets online it sends them, retrying roughly once an hour until it gets an answer back.
The friendship itself is created by our servers rather than by the panels, and only once both halves have arrived: two matching claims, from two panels, paired to two different accounts. Until then nothing exists on either side. Claims are kept for thirty days — so if one of you does not get a panel onto Wi-Fi within the month, that meet expires and you would simply do it again next time.
Consent
Nobody gets added without saying yes.
The design goes out of its way to make a meet mutual. Being near another panel does nothing. A code appearing on the screen does nothing. The only thing that creates a friendship is both owners tapping confirm on the same code, in their own app, on their own phone.
Our servers then apply the same rule a second time: they will not build anything from one side. Two matching claims, from two panels, paired to two different accounts, or nothing happens. An account you have blocked stays blocked, and a friend request that was already pending is upgraded rather than duplicated.
Radio proximity is a convenience, not proof. It is what stops you meeting a panel three cars away by accident. The code the two of you read out loud is what actually establishes that you both meant to do this.
Afterwards
What a meet actually gives you.
The result is an ordinary Apex friendship, marked as met in person with the date you met. Both owners get a notification saying you can message each other now, once both panels have checked in.
Messaging lives in the web panel rather than the app: up to three messages a day to a given friend, up to seven days ahead, five hundred characters each. They arrive in the notification feed on their Apex Mini, which holds three entries and shows the first hundred and sixty characters of the body.
Two honest notes on that. The panel downloads everything queued for the next seven days and shows it as it arrives, so the morning, afternoon and evening slots are an order rather than a delivery time. And group messages do not reach an Apex Mini at all — this is a one-to-one channel.
What you need
Both sides need the same kit.
Meet a Panel is app-only. The web panel has no Bluetooth, so there is no browser version of it, and there is no way to do this with someone who does not own a panel. If you already know the person, an ordinary friend request in the web panel gets you to the same place without any of this.
What makes it worth the ceremony is the situation it was built for: two strangers, no reception, and about forty seconds before someone's mate calls them back over to their car.
- Two Apex Minis, each paired to its owner's account — two accounts, not one
- The Apex app on both phones, each connected to its own panel over Bluetooth
- No Wi-Fi and no reception needed at the meet itself
- Both panels online at some point in the next thirty days for the friendship to complete
Meet a Panel at a glance
The rules the handshake plays by.
All of it is what the shipped firmware and backend do today.
The friendship appears once both panels have been online and both claims have reached our servers.
Meet a Panel
Started fromBoth owners' apps
PanelsHeld together
ConfirmationOne 4-digit code, confirmed by both owners
Timeout60 seconds
Crowded meetsGives up when 4 or more other panels are in range
Network at the meetNone needed
Stored on the panelUp to 8 met friends, up to 8 unsent claims
RetryAbout once an hour until it syncs
Claim lifetime30 days
ResultAn accepted friendship marked met in person
MessagingFrom the web panel, three a day per friend
Where it runsThe Apex app only
Questions
Questions about meeting.
How do I add someone I met at a car meet?
If you both have an Apex Mini, start Meet a Panel in each of your apps, hold the two panels together, and confirm the same four-digit code. That creates a friendship between your two accounts, so you can message each other afterwards.
Does Meet a Panel work with no signal?
Yes. The panels talk to each other over short-range Bluetooth beacons, with no Wi-Fi, no reception and no connection between them. Our servers finish the friendship off later, the next time both panels are online.
Can a stranger add me without my permission?
No. Nothing happens until both owners confirm the same code, each in their own app. Our servers will not create a friendship from one side, and an account you have blocked stays blocked.
How close do the panels need to be?
Held together. The panels only accept each other at very short range, and a meet gives up when four or more other panels are in range, so in a crowded car park the two panels want to be right up against each other.
What happens after two panels meet?
You become ordinary Apex friends, marked as met in person with the date. Both of you get a notification, and you can then send each other messages that appear in the notification feed on each other's panels.
Do both people need an Apex Mini and the app?
Yes. Both panels have to be paired, to two different accounts, and each owner runs the meet from their own phone. There is no browser version, because the whole handshake is Bluetooth.
When does the friendship appear if we had no signal?
Once both panels have been online. Each panel keeps its unsent claim and retries about once an hour until it gets through. Claims are kept for thirty days; after that the meet expires and you would need to do it again.
Can I message a panel friend from the app?
Not yet. Messaging and friends live in the web panel in your browser. The app handles the meet itself, your panels and the calendar.
Early access
First batch, first served.
We're building the first run now. Get on the list for first access when it ships — plus the early pricing that comes with it.