What is place discovery in a planner app?
Place discovery is a planner feature that suggests real venues for an event with a fuzzy location — turning “dinner Saturday” or “coffee near work” into a ranked list of nearby restaurants or cafes pulled from a maps provider. Composed implements place discovery on iPhone via the search-places edge function backed by Apple Maps.
How does place discovery work?
When the user creates an event without a specific address — “dinner Saturday at 7pm” with no venue name — the planner detects the missing location and runs a places query against a maps provider. The query takes the event category (dinner), the user’s location, and the event time, and returns a ranked list of candidates filtered by rating, distance, and opening hours. The user picks one and the event’s location field is filled in with the venue name and coordinates, which then enables the leave-by alert to calculate accurate departure time.
What’s the difference between place discovery and generic map search?
Generic map search asks the user to type a venue name, scroll a list, and tap one. The query is initiated by the user, the results are not scoped to the event context, and the venue is not connected to the calendar entry afterward. Place discovery is initiated by the planner — it notices the location gap, runs the search with category and time context (no point suggesting a brunch place at 8pm), and writes the chosen venue straight into the event with the coordinates that drive travel-time math.
Why does place discovery matter?
Most casual events are remembered with the activity but not the specific place — “dinner with Sam,” “coffee tomorrow.” Without a venue, no travel-time math is possible, no leave-by alert can fire, and the user shows up late or has to research a restaurant in the moment. Place discovery closes that gap by turning the missing location into a one-tap pick, so the leave-by alert and prep checklist work for ad-hoc events the same as for fully specified ones.
Get Composed
Composed surfaces venue suggestions for any event with a fuzzy place. Download Composed on the App Store and try it free.
Related: voice-to-calendar · leave-by alert · screenshot-to-calendar · voice-first planner