About this app
What Civicwatch does
Civicwatch is a personal subscription to the goings-on of your city: city council meetings, school board meetings, planning commission hearings, and public comment windows. Each one is a card with the date, the location, the agenda topics, and a one-paragraph plain-English summary written by you, the user, after you watch — turning a public-meeting watch into a journal that future-you can search. What's in v1: — Subscribe to one city: enter your city + state. Civicwatch ships a starter pack of 5 sample meeting types (City Council, School Board, Planning, Parks, Library). Add your own. — Calendar: upcoming meetings with date/time/location and a link to the public agenda PDF (if you've added one). — Add an agenda: paste a URL or import a PDF; tag the topics that matter to you (zoning, school budget, housing). — Watch journal: after the meeting, write a 200-word summary of what was decided. Bookmark for FOIA follow-ups. — FOIA log: track open-records requests — submitted-to, date, request text, status. The civic-Newsletter calendar that doesn't yet exist as a personal tool. — Plain-text export: every entry exports as Markdown for your own newsletter / Substack / Notion. Free. There is no paid tier in v1.
Features
Built to be useful, not noisy.
Meeting calendar
Per-city upcoming + past meetings.
Agenda + tags
Paste a URL, tag topics.
Watch journal
Post-meeting 200-word summary.
FOIA log
Submitted requests + status.
Why it exists
The problem
1,800+ US counties are news deserts (Northwestern Local News Initiative). 2,900+ newspapers lost since 2005. The civic information vacuum has measurable consequences (corruption up, participation down). Ground News $15M+ on aggregation, Patch struggling. The mobile-native, personal-civic-watch app doesn't yet exist.
What's different
How Civicwatch stands out
Civicwatch is the only iOS app whose primary surface is YOUR city's public meetings, with YOUR notes attached. Not a news app (NextDoor, Patch). Not a journalism tool (Hoodline, Ground News). A personal civic journal — for the resident, the parent, the freelance reporter.
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FAQ
Questions about Civicwatch
How much does Civicwatch cost?▾
Civicwatch is free. All features are included from day one — no subscription, no in-app purchases, no paid tiers. Everything you see in this listing works the moment you install it.
Where does Civicwatch store my data?▾
On your device. Civicwatch is built privacy-first: no account is required, no analytics SDKs, no third-party trackers. Nothing is uploaded to a server we control — the app works without one.
What platforms does Civicwatch support?▾
iOS, on iPhone and iPad. You can find the latest availability on this page.
How do I get support for Civicwatch?▾
Use the Support link on this page, or email support@allthingsn.com. We answer every message and keep responses on the same thread.
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