HelloNeighbour!

TBA

Motivation

We wanted to create a local chat software that connects people on a more intimate level than other chat tools. We wanted to create an environment where people could have a low barrier to start short conversations, form meaningful connections, meet the people around them or just quickly ask for sugar on a sunday for their cake. It was also a great exercise for us to create something in such a short amount of time with partly new technologies!

What it does

HelloNeighbour! is a web application that invites its users to start a chat. Everyone around (500meters~) who has an account will then be asked to join that chat. Using GPS we fetch the location of users and created chats. The chat is bound to the location it was created on and will only be available for a short amount of time (customizable).

How we built it

The app consists of a flask server that takes in the data via websocket and saves it in a NoSQL database. The frontend was build with TypeScript, React and Framework7.

Challenges we ran into

We actually intented to use different technologies, but had to admit, that we could not make use of these effectively in the short time given, due to our lack of experiences with these (nextJS, Tailwind). This took a lot of time out of our schedule.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to say, that the basic chat software actually works and looks good! You can write a message and it appears immediately on all connected devices!

What we learned

We had the opportunity to enhance our knowledge about data transfer and expand our understanding of the various social implications of connecting through online chatting.