Meet Geocaching HQ: The company behind global adventure
Geocaching HQ, is the Seattle-based company behind Geocaching.com and its companion apps. Since 2000, they have powered the world’s largest treasure-hunting game, supporting millions of players in 190+ countries. Known inside the community as “Lackeys,” the HQ team builds the platform, events, and tools that make geocaching possible, from the website to mobile apps to real-world gatherings.
Why Geocaching HQ needed live, location-based chat
The geocaching activity has always been about discovery and connection. But Geocaching HQ saw an opportunity to strengthen that community with a standalone companion app called Lily Chat that would let people communicate in real time while out in the world. Think regional chat rooms at live events, hashtag-based threads for specific challenges, and private groups for friends on the same hunt. The challenge? Building scalable, reliable chat for potentially millions of users is no small feat, and HQ needed a partner that could deliver without adding technical overhead.
How Geocaching integrated CometChat
To bring Lily Chat to life, HQ’s development partner in Ukraine focused on mapping, location sharing, and privacy controls, while CometChat provided the chat backbone. With CometChat, the app could:
Spin up regional chat rooms automatically (for example, “Seattle” or “Berlin”).
Support hashtag-driven conversations within regions.
Enable public or private groups for clubs, teams, or event participants.
Handle video, text, and audio messages without HQ needing to reinvent the wheel.
This setup freed Geocaching’s developers to concentrate on the unique parts of the experience, like privacy modes that let users go invisible, restrict visibility to friends, or toggle sharing at events, while knowing chat would just work.
The impact: Safe, scalable, and event-ready
With CometChat running under the hood, Geocaching was able to:
Scale with confidence at community events from Spring Fling with hundreds of users to GeoWoodstock and Giga-Events with thousands of participants worldwide.
Protect player privacy with flexible visibility controls that make location sharing safe and comfortable.
Foster spontaneous communities through real-time regional and hashtag chats that bring players together on the ground.
Plan for growth without surprises, thanks to clear forecasting of MAUs and concurrency, plus CometChat’s support in monitoring usage and preventing overages.
Conclusion: A stronger community, powered by connection
For Geocaching, the adventure has always been about more than just finding caches. It is about the people you meet along the way. With CometChat woven into Lily Chat, HQ can give players the tools to connect instantly, safely, and at scale, whether at a local meetup or a global Giga-Event. It is one more way HQ is helping the world’s treasure hunters feel like a true community no matter where they roam.
