geochat

A location based groupchat app developed for Highfield Hack 2021 by Liam Byrne, Lucas Warwick and Sam Watson

Hackathon Submission Devpost
Demo Youtube Video:

Inspiration

Recent events have emphasised a diminishing feeling of community that existed even before lockdown. We were surprised at the ease to make a connected the other side of the world but the distinct inability to build genuine connection within a local community.

What it does

It uses location to provide group-chats of your closest location, allowing for the organisation of local events, advertising for local business, and being able to ask for recommendations etc...

How we built it

We used android studio to make it into an android app, with Google Firebase as the back-end, taking care of database issues. We consulted our friends at university the full length of the project about what features they would like to see.

Challenges we ran into

This was our first team programming task so we had lots of issues with branching and merging on git.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Managed to build a functional and aesthetic app in a weekend! The app achieved the goals we set out, and provides a unique take on social media.

What we learned

How to use (and the importance of) Git. How to use Android studio and Firebase. Architecture for NoSQL serverless apps. What reverse geocoding is.