DineVote - Changelog

v3.0

March 2026

International Edition

New Features

17 languages supported — English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Czech, Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian New
Language auto-detection — automatically detects your language from browser settings, Yelp locale, or previous selection
Language selector — switch languages from the top of the page; persists your choice across sessions
Full app translation — all screens, buttons, toasts, status messages, confirm dialogs, and share text are translated
OpenTable reservations — "Reserve" button on swipe cards and results for restaurants that support reservations, linking directly to OpenTable in 15 supported countries New
50+ countries supported — expanded from 30 to 50+ countries including Latin America, Asia, Middle East, and Africa with appropriate Yelp locale mappings

Improvements

Country and locale detection from geocoding results for more accurate distance units (km vs miles)
Yelp API requests now include locale parameter for localized restaurant names and categories
Language selector positioned in top-right (mobile + desktop topbar) following standard UX patterns

v2.1

March 2026

Elimination Rounds

New Features

Elimination rounds — narrow down restaurants through multiple voting rounds until a winner emerges New
Configurable top results — host can choose how many top picks to display (3, 5, 6, 10, or all)
Voting mode selection — choose between "Show top picks" (single round) or "Elimination rounds" in session settings
Round banners — visual indicator showing current round number and remaining restaurants

Improvements

Redesigned host settings panel with collapsible sections
Desktop lobby uses 2-column grid layout
Elimination target slider for fine-tuning how many restaurants to keep

v2.0

February 2026

Nominations, Yelp & Real-Time

New Features

Nominate Favorites mode — participants search and pick up to 3 restaurants via Yelp autocomplete instead of auto-discovering New
Yelp Fusion integration — replaced Overpass/OSM with Yelp for restaurant discovery, ratings, reviews, photos, and price levels
WebSocket real-time updates — instant state sync across all clients, with HTTP polling as fallback
Host end session — host can permanently destroy a session from any screen
Restaurant photos — real Yelp photos on swipe cards, with chain logos and cuisine fallback images
Star ratings and reviews — Yelp rating stars, review counts, and price level on cards
Transaction badges — shows Delivery, Pickup, and Reservations availability

Improvements

Desktop 3-column swipe layout with side map and participant sidebar
Liked restaurants sidebar on desktop shows your picks in real-time
Swipe map highlights current restaurant with animated marker
Image prefetching for smooth card transitions
SEO improvements with Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags
Admin dashboard with API usage tracking for free tier monitoring

v1.5

January 2026

Desktop & Polish

New Features

Desktop layouts — full-width topbar, wider card layouts, and side-by-side views for screens over 900px New
Keyboard swiping — use arrow keys or H/L to swipe left/right on desktop
GPS privacy offset — 1200-1500m random offset applied to shared coordinates so your exact location is never revealed
Yelp transaction filters — delivery, pickup, and reservation info on restaurant cards
Personalized distances — card distances calculated from your location, not the group center

Improvements

Desktop swipe screen with restaurant map panel
Outside-range badge when a restaurant exceeds your travel radius
Admin-configurable GPS offset via /admin/config endpoint

v1.4

January 2026

Activity & Timers

New Features

Live activity feed — see who's swiping, done, or waiting in real-time during voting New
Vote timer — host sets a countdown; auto-submits votes when time expires
Swipe progress tracking — per-person progress bars show how far each person has swiped
Host force-end — host can end voting early and show results to everyone
Anonymous voting toggle — hide voter names in results for private ballots

Improvements

Progress bars in waiting area with percentage completion
Confirmation dialog before ending voting early shows who's still swiping

v1.3

December 2025

Sharing & Invites

New Features

Link sharing — share session via SMS, WhatsApp, native share, or copy link New
Invite banner — joining via link shows host name and session details
Results sharing — share ranked results with vote counts via native share or clipboard
Header share buttons — quick share from preferences and swipe screens
Session code in headers — tap to copy session link from any screen

Improvements

View last results button on landing page to revisit previous session
URL updates with session code for easy bookmarking

v1.2

December 2025

Maps & Results

New Features

Interactive results map — Leaflet map showing ranked restaurants and participant locations with colored markers New
Cuisine emoji matching — swipe cards show cuisine-appropriate emoji
Chain restaurant logos — recognizable logos for major chains (McDonald's, Subway, etc.)
Match alerts — "It's a Match!" badge when you and someone else both like a restaurant

Improvements

Results cards show detailed voter names (who liked each restaurant)
Distance display in results (km or miles based on locale)
Google Maps and Yelp links on result cards

v1.1

November 2025

Location & Preferences

New Features

Location picker — interactive Leaflet map with search, GPS button, and draggable marker New
Radius slider — set your travel distance (1-25 km) with visual circle overlay
Cuisine grid — 15 cuisine categories with emoji icons for quick preference selection
Postal code support — Canadian (A1A 1A1), US (90210), UK, Japanese, and European postal codes
IP geolocation fallback — automatic location detection chain (ipwho.is, ipapi.co, freeipapi.com, ip-api.io, ipbase.com)

Improvements

Photon (Komoot) primary geocoder with Nominatim fallback
Map hidden until location is set to avoid Leaflet tile loading issues
Date and time picker for preferred dining time (used to filter open restaurants)

v1.0

November 2025

Initial Release

Features

Group restaurant voting — create sessions with 6-digit codes, invite friends, swipe on restaurants
Tinder-style swiping — swipe right to like, left to pass on restaurant cards
Session lobby — real-time participant list, host controls, session settings
Restaurant discovery — nearby restaurant search based on group location and preferences
Ranked results — restaurants sorted by total group votes
Mobile-first design — responsive UI optimized for phones with touch swipe gestures
No sign-up required — just enter your name and a session code
AWS serverless backend — Lambda + API Gateway + DynamoDB with SAM deployment
Toast notifications — contextual bottom-of-screen notifications for all actions