How it works
A beacon is a small radio that says "there is something here".
Nothing about Dealiteful requires the shop to know who you are, or requires us to know where you have been. The whole system is one transmitter, one phone, and a match made on your device.
The beacon transmits
A coin-battery Bluetooth Low Energy device, a few centimetres wide, stuck near the entrance or on a shelf. It broadcasts an identifier a few times a second and receives nothing back. It has no camera, no microphone, no network.
Your phone listens
Dealiteful watches for identifiers it recognises and estimates rough distance from signal strength — immediate, near, or far. That estimate never leaves the handset.
The deal surfaces
In range and in a category you have not muted: one notification. Tap it and you land on the deal, with everything else at that location below it.
Hotspots tell you when it is worth looking up
The home screen has one job: say whether you are somewhere with offers. Inside a hotspot you get a count and a way in. Outside one, the app stays quiet — and Compare still works anywhere.
- Deals — everything currently in range, closest first.
- Saved — the ones you kept, ready to redeem at the till.
- Compare — any product, online versus the shops around you.
Redeeming, four ways
Saved deals carry their validity with them, so an expired one says so before you walk over. What happens when you tap redeem depends on what the merchant chose for that deal.
- Show it. A full-screen card staff can read: offer, merchant, valid hours. No hardware needed at their end.
- Barcode. A scannable code the existing till reads like any coupon, so the discount is applied in the transaction.
- QR code. Same idea for scanners and phone-based checkouts — also how perks like a late checkout get unlocked.
- Link out. Some offers are information — the story behind the monument you are standing at — and some send you to the shop's own site to buy.
What the app asks for, and why
| Permission | What it is for | Optional? |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth | Hearing beacons at all | Required for nearby deals |
| Location | The system gate on Bluetooth scanning; used on-device only | Required for nearby deals |
| Notifications | Telling you a deal is in range without you opening the app | Optional — browse by hand instead |
| Nothing else | No contacts, photos, camera, microphone or calendar | — |
Full detail in the privacy policy.