PlayMate — Pickup Sports, Organized
Organize pickup games and find players near you
Project Overview
PlayMate is a SoftX venture — a social app that makes it easy to organize pickup sports games and discover players nearby. It pairs a React Native / Expo mobile app with a Next.js web experience, backed by Supabase. Geospatial matchmaking is powered by PostGIS, and realtime updates keep games and lobbies in sync as players join.
The Challenge: Getting a Game Together Is Harder Than Playing It
For casual players, the hardest part of a pickup game isn't the game itself — it's the coordination. Finding enough people, at a convenient place and time, and keeping everyone updated as plans change is tedious with group chats and manual organizing.
Key Pain Points:
Casual players struggle to find enough people for a game at a convenient time and place
Group chats and manual coordination don't surface who is actually nearby and available
Location-based matching needs efficient geospatial queries, not simple distance math
Game lobbies must stay in sync in realtime as players join, leave, or cancel
The experience has to work equally well on phones and on the web
The Solution: Geospatial Matchmaking with Realtime Lobbies
PlayMate turns coordination into a few taps. Players discover nearby games and people through geospatial matchmaking, and realtime lobbies keep everyone on the same page from either mobile or web.
Our Approach:
Built a cross-platform product: React Native / Expo for mobile, Next.js for web
Used Supabase (PostgreSQL) as the unified backend for data and authentication
Implemented geospatial matchmaking with PostGIS to find nearby players and games
Added realtime lobbies so game state updates instantly across devices
Designed a shared data model so mobile and web stay consistent
Key Features
The core capabilities that make it work
Nearby Discovery
Find pickup games and players around you using PostGIS-powered geospatial queries, so matchmaking is based on real proximity.
Realtime Game Lobbies
Lobbies update live as players join, leave, or cancel — everyone sees the current state instantly across devices.
Cross-Platform
One product across iOS, Android and the web, built with React Native / Expo and Next.js.
Organize & Manage Games
Create games, set the sport, time and place, and manage who's in — without wrangling a group chat.
Technology Stack
Cutting-edge technologies powering the solution
Mobile
Web
Backend & Data
Product Highlights
Factual highlights — what the product does and how it is built
Live in production at playmate.now
Realtime geospatial matchmaking powered by PostGIS
A single product spanning iOS, Android and web
Realtime game lobbies that stay in sync as players join
More Success Stories
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