Align

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  Login and Sign Up

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  Chat with AI message recommender

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  Find others at events

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  Find events

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  Connections page

Inspiration

Align was inspired by the challenge of social anxiety and how it often prevents people from engaging with their communities. We’ve seen first-hand how people are far less likely to attend events if they don’t know anyone, even when they genuinely want to go. Many people long for social connection but are held back by fear, uncertainty, or the pressure of making the first move. We wanted to reduce these barriers and make connecting feel easier and more natural.

What it Does

Align allows users to discover and select events they plan to attend, and then connect with other attendees in a way that reduces social pressure. By centring the experience around events rather than direct messaging, Align helps users meet new people in a context that already feels shared and familiar. The platform is designed to encourage real-world interaction, not replace it.

How We Built It

We built Align as a responsive web application using modern web technologies, focusing heavily on clean UI, strong typography, and an intuitive user journey. The project includes event discovery, connection flows, chat functionality, and AI-assisted conversation starters using the Gemini API. We also designed an NFC-based feature intended to confirm real-world meetups, reinforcing the transition from online interaction to in-person connection.

Challenges We Ran Into

One of the biggest challenges was deciding what to prioritise within the limited hackathon timeframe. Balancing technical ambition with stability meant making difficult trade-offs. While we designed and implemented the NFC flow conceptually, we were unable to fully get NFC working reliably within the time constraints. Ensuring the product remained polished and cohesive while moving quickly was also a key challenge.

Accomplishments That We’re Proud Of

We’re proud to have built a functioning MVP that clearly demonstrates our core idea: helping people connect and meet new people with less anxiety. Despite time constraints, we delivered a professional, end-to-end experience with a clear purpose, strong design, and thoughtful features.

What We Learned

Through this project, we learned how to incorporate the Gemini API to support users with AI-generated conversation starters, especially for those who may struggle with initiating conversations. We also gained valuable experience making architectural and product decisions under pressure.

What’s Next for Align

Next, we would focus on fully implementing and refining the NFC functionality to reliably confirm real-world meetups. Beyond that, we would explore deeper personalisation, improved safety features, and expanding Align to support a wider range of community-driven events.

Built With

• consistent-design-shadcn/ui-?-accessible
• cursor
• gemini
• nextjs
• postgresql
• postgresql-database
• professional-ui-components-supabase-?-authentication
• scalable-development-next.js-(app-router)-?-frontend-framework-for-building-a-responsive-web-application-react-?-component-based-ui-development-tailwind-css-?-utility-first-styling-for-a-clean
• supabase
• typescript