How Switchback is different - you're the customer, not the product.

§ 1 · What we don't do

The road-trip-app playbook, side by side.

A typical "family travel game" app earns its keep by pulling your attention back, selling you more, and quietly profiling your trip.

A typical app

Switchback

Banner ads, between-round full-screen ads, "watch a video for a hint" prompts.

No ads. Ever.

In-app currency: coins, gems, sticker packs, daily login streaks to milk.

No coins, no gems, no streak. The game is the game.

Daily-streak shame. Push notifications. Pulls kids back to the phone even when the car is parked.

No push notifications outside the car. The app is for the road, not the couch.

Three SDKs sending analytics + crash + ad telemetry to four different companies.

No tracking SDKs. No analytics. The dev does not see what you do.

"Sign in with email" to start playing. Marketing emails to follow.

No accounts. No email. Open the app, start a trip, that's the whole setup.

If you ever uninstall, your trip data goes with it - there's no export.

You own your trip: export the journal as PDF, the data as plain files, delete with one tap.

§ 2 · What you actually pay for

Pay at most once. Never with data or attention.

There is no subscription. Two things have prices, and they're spelled out below in full.

Free core game + journal

Plate spotting, photo bingo, the trip journal, the on-device book preview - all in the free app. No "limited to three trips" wall. No "premium" plates.

$5 → $10 one-time unlock · price locked at purchase

A single in-app purchase. We will publicly warn before any price increase. There is no subscription tier - monthly, annual, or otherwise. Founding-beta families stay free for good.

$29 / $69 softcover / hardcover · the printed book

The keepsake of the trip, printed and shipped through our print-on-demand partner. Buy the book if you want it; don't if you don't. The on-device preview is the same content.

§ 3 · What we do with your data

Your data, your keys.

Your trip lives on your device. When it syncs, it's end-to-end encrypted - we only ever hold scrambled data we can't read, and you hold the keys.

Offline-firstPlate spotting, the journal, the book preview, the bingo cards - all of it works in a tunnel, a campground, the middle of Wyoming. No connection required for anything you do in the car.

No accountsYou don't sign up, sign in, or wait for a confirmation email. You open the app and tap "Start a trip."

No trackingNo analytics, no telemetry, no third-party SDKs. The developer cannot tell you opened the app today. They cannot tell which features you use.

Your route stays yoursIf you turn the route recorder on, your drive is captured on your device to draw your keepsake map. It only ever syncs end-to-end encrypted - we can't read it. A persistent indicator while recording, and one-tap stop.

Encrypted before it leavesWhen sync is on, your trip is end-to-end encrypted on your device before any of it travels. The scrambled copy moves through our systems to reach the rest of the crew's phones - but the only thing that ever passes through our systems is ciphertext we have no key for. The keys live on your family's devices, not on anything we run.

One-tap leaveExport the journal as a PDF. Export every trip's data as plain files you can read with anything. Delete a single trip or the whole catalog with one confirmation. Nothing held hostage.

§ 4 · How the shelf actually stacks up

The competitive field, honestly.

A real comparison against the actual apps families download.

Feature	Switchback	PlateSpot	Travel Bingo	Polarsteps	Day One
Works fully offline	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Partial
No ads, ever	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
No subscription	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
No account required	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Tracks the whole family	Yes	No (1 player)	No (1 device)	Solo / couple	Solo
Plate spotting	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Road / sign bingo	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Per-trip journal + photos	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Printed keepsake book	Preview now · ordering after beta	No	No	Yes (€36+)	Yes ($30+)
Export your data as plain files	Yes	No	No	Partial (gripes)	Yes

~ = partial / with caveats.

§ 5 · Verifiable, not just claimed

Every promise on this page is something you can check.

No tracking. No accounts. Your trip is end-to-end encrypted - we can't read it, and you hold the keys. Read the architecture page for the plain-English version of what runs on your phone and what doesn't. None of this is a brand claim - it's a property of the code.

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