{
  "id": 13888490,
  "title": "Every \"touch grass\" app assumes you can walk. Mine asks how far you can go today.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/12/every-touch-grass-app-assumes-you-can-walk-mine-asks-how-far-you-can",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-12T06:08:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/imarpan/every-touch-grass-app-assumes-you-can-walk-mine-asks-how-far-you-can-go-today-3o7a"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Doorstep is a touch grass app that asks users a single question: \"How far can you walk today?\" Unlike other apps that assume motivation is the barrier to outdoor activity, Doorstep focuses on the physical limitations of its users. The app takes the user's body's current capacity into account and seeks places within that range. Doorstep holds two key pieces of information: the user's daily walking limit and the starting point for the walk. The app is built using the Gemma 3 4B language model running locally, with OpenStreetMap data for the user's neighbourhood. The model filters the list of potential destinations based on the user's walking limit, ensuring that only safe and feasible options are presented. At the end of the walk, the user confirms if they went on the planned walk, providing a simple feedback loop. Doorstep is built for users who may have limitations such as surgery recovery, chronic pain, or old age, and acknowledges that distance is not an ambition but a constraint set by the body. The app aims to be inclusive and considerate of the diverse needs of its users.",
  "summary": "This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass What I Built I read the other entries to this challenge before I wrote a line. Around ninety of them. Quest generators, trail guides, bird call identifiers, foliage route planners, apps that lock your phone until you go outside. Every single one assumes the thing stopping you is motivation. None of them are…",
  "key_points": [
    "Doorstep app asks users how far they can walk today",
    "Focuses on physical limitations, not motivation",
    "Uses local language model and OpenStreetMap data"
  ],
  "editors_take": "By centering physical constraints rather than motivation, Doorstep shifts the focus of outdoor activity apps from driving ambition to supporting users managing chronic pain or mobility limitations.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}