Question 1

Does Layag move money between people?

Accepted Answer

No. Layag works out who owes what and records that a settlement happened — it never holds funds, never touches a payment rail, and is never a party to the transaction. When you settle up, the transfer happens in your own banking app. You can publish a GCash or Maya receive-money QR so whoever owes you can scan it instead of retyping your details, but the money goes directly between the two of you.

Question 2

Is there an app to download?

Accepted Answer

Layag is a web app that installs. Open it in a browser on any device; on a phone, add it to your home screen and it behaves like an app — its own icon, full screen, and the itinerary and travel wallet still work with no signal. There is nothing to fetch from an app store, and companions you invite can just open the link.

Question 3

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

Nothing. Layag is in a pilot with a small number of groups, and it is free to use. There is nothing to buy yet, and we would rather say that than invent a price list.

Question 4

Is it finished?

Accepted Answer

No. Layag is early, and a few groups are using it on real trips while we build. Expect some rough edges. If something gets in your way, that is exactly what we want to hear about.

Question 5

Can I book flights or hotels through Layag?

Accepted Answer

No, and that is deliberate. Layag is where a booking goes after you have made it — the confirmation gets filed, the flight lands on the right day of the itinerary in the right time zone, and the cost can become an expense the group shares.

Question 6

Do the people I travel with need accounts?

Accepted Answer

Not to see things. A read-only itinerary, a settle-up sheet or a trip recap can be handed to someone as a link, which is how you give the friend meeting you at the airport the plan without making them sign up. You can also add someone by name alone as a placeholder — they can be put on itinerary items and included in splits straight away, and their history follows them if they join later.

Question 7

How does it handle more than one currency?

Accepted Answer

Every expense keeps the currency it was actually paid in. The exchange rate is captured and stored on that expense when you enter it, priced on the day the spending happened, and never quietly re-fetched afterwards — so a balance you looked at last week does not change because a rate moved. If your card charged you a different rate, the payer can overwrite it with the real one.

Question 8

Does it work without signal?

Accepted Answer

The parts you need on the day do. The itinerary is cached, documents you flag are kept on the device, and the travel wallet is built to be opened at a gate — which is the only state it is ever opened in. Itinerary edits made offline are queued and replayed when you reconnect.

Question 9

Is my trip visible to anyone else?

Accepted Answer

No. Layag has no public profiles, no feed, and no way to discover other people's trips. A trip is visible to the people in it. Links you deliberately create — a recap, a read-only itinerary, a settle-up sheet — are unguessable and can be revoked, and each one only discloses what you opted into. Shareable is not the same as public.

Question 10

What is a kitty, and do I have to use one?

Accepted Answer

A common fund: everyone sends money to the organiser up front and things get paid out of the pot. It is how a lot of group trips in the Philippines are actually run, so Layag supports it properly — a live pool balance, expenses paid from the pot, and a close-out that returns what is left pro rata. It is optional, like most sections of a trip.

Question 11

What does “Layag” mean?

Accepted Answer

It is Filipino for “to sail.” The logo says the name out loud: it is a sail, whose straight mast edge and foot also read as an L, with a two-tone band at the bottom borrowed from the vinta — the bright-sailed outrigger of Mindanao and Sulu.

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