Working with no signal: offline-first in practice

Part 32 of 39 of Building TradeYoke, the story of how the platform was built, from January 2024 to today. Previous: January 2026: trails and replay, and what a day's route can tell you. Next: March 2026: Plan my day, decide, order, go. See every part on the build timeline.

Quick answer

Quick answer: In TradeYoke's phone and Windows apps, which are in pilot, changes made without a signal are saved on the device in a queue and sent when the connection returns. Each change is safe to send twice, and unsent work is never overwritten by something older from the server. The web app needs a connection.

Key takeaways

Changes made offline are queued on the device and sent when signal returns.
Each change is safe to retry, so a flaky connection cannot create duplicates.
Unsent work is never overwritten.
The apps are in pilot; the web app needs a connection.

The idea, put to work

In June 2024 we wrote that the phone would hold what it needs and queue changes. By February 2026 the machinery to do it was working in the installed apps, and this article is the practical account of what it does.

How it behaves

Your round is on the phone. Daily rounds for window cleaning and gardening are available without a connection, and you can create a new customer on the spot.
Changes go into a queue. Marking a visit done, adding a note or a new customer saves on the device at once.
The queue is sent when the signal returns, on opening the app, when the network comes back, and on returning to the app.
Safe to retry. Each change carries a unique identity, so if the connection drops half-way and the change is sent again, it is applied once.
Order is kept. If a customer was created offline and a job was added to them, the job waits for the customer. Dependent changes are held until what they depend on has gone through.

When two people change the same thing

The hard case is a conflict. The office changed a job while you were out of signal and changed it differently on your phone. The rule is that unsent work is never overwritten. Your change is kept, the difference is visible, and a person decides. That rule matters more than any cleverness in how conflicts are merged.

An honest status

Offline support covers a limited set of things today: window cleaning and gardening rounds, and creating customers. It does not cover everything, and certificates, quotes and invoices are not yet available offline. The Android, iPhone and Windows apps that carry it are in pilot and not yet in the app stores. The web app is the always-online office surface. If you want to try the pilot, email hello@tradeyoke.net.

Update, November 2026: quotes, invoices, payments in cash, messages and certificates now work with no signal too, and the web app keeps working with no signal after one visit.

Why it still matters

Most days, signal is fine. The days it is not are the days a round gets lost. A tool that works on those days is a tool you trust on the others. Why offline-first matters more than any feature says the same thing from the owner's side.

March: the morning flow, Plan my day.

Questions people ask

Does TradeYoke work without a signal?

The phone and Windows apps, which are in pilot, keep your round on the device and sync when the connection returns. Update, November 2026: the web app now keeps working with no signal after one visit too.

What happens if I and the office change the same job?

Unsent work is never overwritten. Your change is kept, the difference is shown, and a person decides.