This page was last updated 24th February, 2025.

Our current milestone: Prepare for v1 (to leave the Beta-phase) (Q1 2025)

We are currently (Q1 2025, January to March) preparing to get out of the beta-phase and are readying for a v1 "launch".

Achievements since Q4 2024

Our last milestone was centered around Safe & Active community, here is a short list of some of the bigger things we achieved for this milestone:

• We sent out a Volunteer Newsletter to re-engage previous contributors.
• We rolled out "Strong Verification" for passport verification in feature preview.
• We completed translating Couchers.org to German, Portuguese (Brazil), and mostly Simplified Chinese.
• We set-up Zulip for community builders to exchange ideas and allow for better engagement between communities.
• We released Badges and the ability to see users by badge.
• We addressed major tech debt in our front-end codebase to bring us up-to-date.
• We implemented granular notification settings, pretty notification emails and push notifications (currently in feature preview).
• A huge number of bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements.
• A bunch of other smaller features and enhancements.

Milestones for Q1 2025

Here are the main things we are focussing on before the v1 launch. We are a bit optimistic, so some might end up in Q2 or even later!

• Rebuilding the map search to improve filter and sort options, highlighting active members, and showing more information on the map, making it easier to add features.
• Building a system of "activeness probes" to keep track of who is still interested in hosting Couchers, making it easier for users to find active members even if they haven’t signed in for a while.
• Building a notification feed into the main app and moving push notifications out of feature preview.
• Rolling out of "Strong Verification" and "Phone Number Verification" to everyone to increase safety and help build trust on the platform.
• Blog revamp with monthly Dev updates and useful and informative posts.
• Language picker to change preferred language per-user.
• Updating the reference system with private feedback to mods and an option to indicate if you didn’t end up meeting up with your host/surfer.
• A number of non-dev tasks to promote Couchers and appeal to new users in order to build momentum and grow the community.

Github Project Boards

Explore the latest updates and detailed information on our ongoing projects by visiting our project board views for Development and Operations on Github which we update regularly. Note that some of the information there may be highly technical in nature and not be accessible to all audiences; and dates or timelines listed there are by no means guaranteed and are only an indication. Please keep in mind that Couchers is a volunteer project built, maintained, and operated entirely by volunteers in their free time!

How we structure our strategic and development goals and roadmap

We currently build around a quarter-based system of strategic milestones. We divide the year into calendar quarters, Q1 (Jan to Mar) to Q4 (Oct to Dec) and choose a strategy and development focus that we call a milestone for each quarter. This helps the various teams at Couchers to rally behind a common goal and have clarity on what they should be working on together. Each strategic milestone is brainstormed and chosen by the Board of Directors along with the core volunteer team using input from the community.