What is Kafumu?

Kafumu answers one question: what is near me right now that I would want to know about? Friends you've met who happen to be in town, meetups in a language you speak or a hobby you have, and what people around here are saying.

☕ Ni kafumu is Esperanto for “let's have a coffee together”: the language was made for meeting people across borders. Curious? esperanto-kurso.net teaches it for free, from the same maker.

#geo cells: location as text

Your device turns your position into the first six characters of its plus code, for example #geo9f469v for central Amsterdam or #geo8ccgqw for Parque das Nações in Lisbon. That is an area of about 5.5 × 5.5 km. Coordinates never leave your device; only the cell does.

Because a cell is just a word, “what's near me” becomes a hashtag search that works on any network. Add #geo… to a Bluesky post and everyone nearby using Kafumu can see it — no account here needed.

How the Open Location Network works →

Private by construction

Private things (people you've scanned, their contact details) stay on your device. Public things live on public networks you control. The Kafumu server keeps only what it must, and most of that expires within days. We can't leak what we don't have.

Free, forever

Finding people, friends nearby, and hosting meetups will always be free. Kafumu is run by one person; if it helps you meet someone, you'll be able to chip in.