October 21, 2026
Version 1.3.8: see which way you’re facing, hunter alerts with the app closed, and better battery
The map shows which way you’re facing, hunter alerts reach you even when Lackin is closed, and Lackin is much easier on your battery.
- On iPhone and iPad, your dot on the map now shows which way you’re facing, like Apple Maps, while the map stays where it is. The radar button still turns the map with you.
- Senior Assassin hunter nearby alerts (Lackin Pro) now arrive as a notification even when Lackin is closed, so you know when your hunter gets close without keeping the app open.
- Lackin uses much less battery in the background. It used to keep waking up to update your location while you weren’t using it.
- Tap the name in “Liked by” under a post to open that person’s profile, and tap anyone in the list of likes to open theirs.
October 19, 2026
Version 1.3.7: opens again on iOS 16 and 17, and screens no longer start under the header
A fix-only release for iPhone and iPad.
- On iOS 16 and iOS 17, Lackin 1.3.6 closed as soon as you opened it. 1.3.7 opens normally again.
- On iOS 26, Settings, Groups, your profile and other screens opened with their first rows hidden behind the header at the top, and scrolling couldn’t bring them back into view. They now start just below the header.
- If you’re on 1.3.6 with iOS 18 or later, the header fix also reaches you as a quick in-app update the next time you open Lackin.
October 18, 2026
Version 1.3.6: stories, new Messages, music on posts, and hide and seek
Lackin gets stories and a rebuilt Messages, posts can carry a song, hide and seek joins Senior Assassin as a game mode, and the map shows what floor your friends are on and how they’re getting around.
- Stories: post a photo or video to your story, draw and add text on it, and watch your friends’ stories from the tray at the top of Home. You can also send a story straight to a chat.
- Messages was rebuilt: reply to a message by swiping it, react with an emoji, double-tap to heart, edit or unsend, and see when someone is typing and when they’ve seen your message.
- Send photos, videos, voice notes, GIFs, stickers, animated emoji, polls, drawings, saved posts and your location in a chat. New messages and reactions now arrive as notifications.
- Add a song to a post: listen to it before adding it, then pick which 15 seconds of it plays. Tap the album art anywhere to play or pause.
- Hide and seek is a new game mode. Seekers catch hiders, seekers can start a Reveal that shows every hider on the map, and hosts can let hiders tag seekers back or reveal the last hiders standing.
- In Senior Assassin, you can message your target without them knowing who you are, and everyone in the game gets alerts for claims and eliminations, even with the app closed.
- When a friend is up in a building, the map shows their floor, like “5th Floor”. On iPhone, zooming in turns the map 3D: friends float at their real height and friends on the move ride a bike, scooter, car, motorcycle or plane, now for everyone and not just Pro.
- Zoom far out and the map turns into a globe.
- The Home feed has rounded photos and videos and a soft blur under the status bar, and the comment box was redesigned.
- Fixed a crash that could replace the whole app with an error screen when a video post left the screen.
October 4, 2026
Version 1.3.5: weekly Pro, Pro on the web, and notifications with faces
Pro now comes weekly or monthly, and in the US you can subscribe on the web as well as in the app. Notifications show who they’re from, permission prompts wait until you need them, and Lackin is ready for iOS 27.
- Lackin Pro now has a weekly plan at $6.99 alongside the monthly plan at $19.99.
- In the US you can choose to subscribe on the web instead of through the App Store or Google Play, paying with a card, Apple Pay, Link, Google Pay, Cash App Pay, Klarna, Amazon Pay, or your bank. A web subscription unlocks the same Pro features.
- Notifications show the photo of the person who sent them, and notifications about posts show a preview of the post.
- New accounts are asked for permissions after signing in and picking a username, not before. Anyone who already went through the permission screens isn’t asked again.
- Lackin asks for the camera and microphone only when you open the camera, instead of as soon as the app starts.
- Lackin is ready for iOS 27.
September 12, 2026
Version 1.3.4: the permission screens stay put, Home stays Home, and likes are one tap again
A fix-only release. The screens you see on first open keep their place, the Home tab stops sending you to the map, other people’s profiles match your own, and the like slider is gone.
- The permission screens on first open no longer jump back to the location step after you answer one. They now remember where you were, even if the app reloads behind the system permission dialog.
- You can still continue past any of those screens without granting anything, exactly as before.
- The Home tab stays on Home. If your app opens on the map, the first tap on Home used to send you straight back to the map.
- Follow, Message, and the follow button on other people’s profiles now match the buttons on your own profile instead of staying translucent pills.
- Likes are a single tap again: tap the heart to like a post, tap the count to see who liked it. The like slider has been removed from the feed, the post screen, and the likes list.
September 10, 2026
Version 1.3.3: a rebuilt share sheet, real link previews, and post options that let you delete
Sharing a post now moves a link rather than a copy of the photo, that link unfurls with the post in Messages, and the post menu finally has Delete.
- The share sheet was rebuilt to match the rest of the app: a search bar, a grid of people and groups with a tap to select, and a message you can type before you send.
- Every share hands over a lackinapp.com link. Copy link, Messages, WhatsApp, Snapchat, X, Messenger, Facebook, Reddit, and Share to... all send the post itself instead of a detached photo with no way back.
- Texted links now show the post in the message preview instead of the Lackin icon.
- The page a shared link opens shows the post, who shared it, and the caption, with buttons to open the app or install it.
- Post options were rebuilt as a short sheet with plain rows, and your own posts can now be deleted, from the feed or from the post itself.
- The post menu also carries Copy link and Share to..., and Remove me from this post when someone tags you.
- Inviting someone from the upload composer sends them the post you are about to share, with a link that opens it, rather than a bare download prompt.
- Videos and photos shared into a chat keep working when the original post is deleted, instead of leaving an empty message behind.
September 7, 2026
Version 1.3.2: post share links, lackinapp.com, and a faster, cheaper backend
Posts now have public links you can copy or send, the website moved to lackinapp.com, and a backend pass made feeds, chat, and friend suggestions faster while cutting database cost.
- Share any post with a link: tap Share to copy a lackinapp.com link or send it in a message. Links open straight to the post when the app is installed and land on a hand-off page otherwise.
- The website, legal pages, and store listings now live on lackinapp.com. lackin.app redirects there; [email protected] is unchanged.
- Suggested friends on your profile scroll as a horizontal card strip.
- The Pro screen now appears every third launch instead of every time.
- Dark-mode settings rows are black with gray section headers, so groups of settings are easier to scan.
- Friend suggestions were rebuilt around indexed contact hashes and capped fan-out, removing the single largest source of database reads.
- Feed, profile, notification, and chat queries are bounded instead of reading whole tables or threads.
- Live location writes are coalesced and stale or clock-skewed fixes are rejected.
- Follow, post, comment, message, report, and group creation are rate limited to blunt abuse.
- Authentication libraries were upgraded to patch a published account-linking vulnerability.
August 31, 2026
Version 1.3.1: camera editing, group settings, and college mail from [email protected]
Capture and edit got a real upgrade before you post, group admin flows got clearer navigation, and college verification now sends from Lackin’s support address.
- Camera preview uses framed aspect ratios (photo ~4:3, video 9:16), liquid-glass controls, cinematic video stabilization, and distortion correction on supported devices.
- New post Edit opens a full editor: Instagram-style filters with strength, brightness/contrast/saturation/warmth/tint/fade, vignette on photos, crop presets, rotate, mirror, and video trim.
- Edits apply with progress for video exports, and reopening Edit always starts from the original capture instead of a flattened copy.
- Upload composer is caption-first with a media thumb, multi-shot picker rail, and a single bottom Share action (no duplicate top-right Share).
- Group Details now opens Edit Group, Members, Game Format, Blocked Hours, and Target Assignments as dedicated location-settings screens.
- Assassin member and target lists show name then @username more consistently, including PDF exports where relevant.
- College verification codes now send from Lackin Support <[email protected]> instead of a personal iCloud mailbox.
- Join-college verify styling and App Settings open-to order (Map, Home, Camera) were polished.
April 4-9, 2026
Elimination points, better onboarding, and more flexible account settings
This stretch focused on making Assassin progression clearer while smoothing out onboarding, identity, and appearance preferences.
- Confirmed tags were renamed to elimination points throughout the app.
- Bounties can now reward a custom number of elimination points.
- A new welcome screen now asks what you are using Lackin for.
- Welcome and onboarding screens got more polish and accessibility improvements.
- The old 10-person free group limit was removed.
- People suggestions got smarter with shared-contact ranking.
- Auth domain and auth URL handling were improved for migration.
- Pending or temporary usernames are handled more cleanly across the app.
- Appearance settings now include a System theme option alongside Light and Dark.
April 1, 2026
Replies, Assassin Arsenal, and smarter location controls
The latest sprint tied social chat and live gameplay together more tightly across the app.
- Chat threads now support replies with clearer sender labels and message previews.
- The new Assassin Arsenal adds power-ups, countdowns, and more active match mechanics.
- Location settings and pro access flows were expanded so map behavior, alerts, and premium controls are easier to manage.
March 31, 2026
Group settings became a real control center
Admins now have a much deeper surface for running groups and preparing games cleanly.
- Rules management landed directly in group settings.
- Blocked hours, members, and target assignments were moved into dedicated flows.
- Assassin game state now includes start-time management for more controlled launches.
March 30, 2026
Admin chat, target systems, and group creation all moved forward
This was a big day for group organization, moderation, and live Assassin setup.
- Group admins can now work out of dedicated group admin chats.
- Assassin target system options, participation settings, and bracket layouts became more flexible.
- The Create Group flow was refined with clearer headings, sections, and interaction polish.
March 27-28, 2026
Nearby discovery and onboarding got more polished
The app kept investing in getting people discovered, connected, and permissioned faster.
- Bluetooth nearby presence detection was pushed deeper into the camera and discovery experience.
- Permissions onboarding became more intentional, including lazy-loaded onboarding components.
- Version 1.2.3 shipped with onboarding and platform-readiness improvements.
March 24-25, 2026
Sharing, uploads, and chat quality all improved
Social sharing and communication got noticeably stronger in this stretch of work.
- Posts can now be shared through chat threads and out to external platforms.
- Uploads became more resilient and store review prompts were hooked to meaningful in-app actions.
- Voice memo recording and playback landed inside chat.
March 23, 2026
Discovery and college growth features expanded
Lackin continued improving how people find each other and connect through campus context.
- Contact sync now helps people discover friends more quickly.
- Bluetooth nearby behavior and tagged-user interactions both received improvements.
- College join language and related onboarding surfaces were streamlined.
