Yalova Konuşuyor App: the city's news and an AI that knows the city
One app for Yalova residents: local news as it is published, live city information (ferries, minibuses, on-duty pharmacies, weather) and Yalova Yapay Zekası, an assistant that answers questions about the city in Turkish. Built by bfpstudio. Claude Haiku powers the assistant's language layer.
The problem
In a city like Yalova, everyday information is scattered. Local news lives on a news site and social media; ferry times on the operator's site; the on-duty pharmacy on another page; minibus routes and fares somewhere else. General-purpose chatbots don't know the city and can confidently make things up about local people, places and schedules.
Yalova Konuşuyor App puts the city's news and daily information in one place and adds an assistant that answers from local sources.
What the app does
Local news feed
Stories from yalovakonusuyor.com flow into the app automatically, with personalised ordering; a story you have read does not come back. Between 5 and 7 October 2026 the newsroom published 184 stories, about 61 a day.
Live city information
Next ferry, minibus routes, on-duty pharmacies, weather, prayer times, exchange rates, emergency numbers and disaster assembly points, job listings and municipality contacts.
Yalova Yapay Zekası
Residents ask in plain Turkish: "When is the next ferry?", "Which pharmacy is on duty today?". The assistant combines news, verified sources and live city data, and sends questions it cannot answer to a source queue instead of guessing.
The app also lets residents send photo reports about city problems, vote in local polls and receive push notifications.
The assistant runs on Claude Haiku
Claude Haiku powers the assistant's language layer: it understands the resident's question and writes the answer. Live city data comes from structured sources, not from the model.
Haiku fits the job: residents expect answers in seconds, questions are short and local, and a city app has to keep model cost low as usage grows.
Where people stay in the loop
Humans write the news
Every story in the feed is written and published by the Yalova Konuşuyor newsroom. The AI does not publish news.
Unknown questions are queued
When the assistant can't answer from its sources, the question goes to a learning queue in the admin panel rather than being answered with a guess.
Moderation from the admin panel
Comments, citizen reports and polls are managed by the team from the app's admin panel.
Status
- iOS and Android builds (version 1.1.0) are in internal testing; the iOS app is distributed through TestFlight.
- Public App Store and Google Play release is being prepared.
- The assistant is live on the web at ylv.com.tr.
- AI engine: Claude Haiku powers the assistant's language layer (question understanding and answer writing).
Frequently asked questions
Who is the app for?
Residents of Yalova, Turkey: people who want the city's local news, ferry and minibus times, on-duty pharmacies and other everyday information in one place, in Turkish.
Does the AI write the news?
No. News in the app comes from yalovakonusuyor.com and is written and published by its newsroom. The AI ranks the feed and answers residents' questions using news, verified sources and live city data.
Which model does the app use?
Claude Haiku powers the assistant's language layer (question understanding and answer writing). Live city data such as ferry times and duty pharmacies comes from structured sources, not from the model.
Where can I get the app?
The iOS app is in TestFlight testing and the public App Store and Google Play release is being prepared. The assistant is available on the web at ylv.com.tr.