Inspiration
We are passionate about learning new languages, but realize that it is difficult to improve at a language if there is no opportunity to practice. So, we created Argula to be able to learn languages along with others who share the same goal.
What it does
Like Tinder, Arugula takes in basic knowledge about the user (location, proficiency in languages spoken, etc.), and will present potential matches who wish to learn the same language. The user then has the ability to select who to 'swipe' on and get together with to practice!
How we built it
Our app mainly relies on the intersection of Firebase and XCode to provide various features for the user. The features we currently have are:
- a login (enabled through a Google account, Firebase built-in)
- profile page (to enter basic information about the user)
- swiping gestures to navigate between potential matches
WIP Features:
- an in-app messaging and WebRTC video chat service (built with Twilio)
- integration of the match generator with our Flask backend
- a 'previously seen matches' page to review those that were passed on before
Challenges we ran into
None of us really had experience with Firebase or XCode going into the hackathon, so everything we used to create our app was very new. We had to go through a lot of documentation and watch online tutorials to understand how things worked. Another challenge we had was figuring out how to collaborate on all of the different platforms we were using-- XCode, in particular. We realized that the XCode had to be done on one laptop since collaborating with it would be very complex. We also didn't all have Macs, so not everyone had XCode, or even the same version.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of the idea for our app; it's something we would all actually utilize in real life. We are also proud of the fact that we were able to learn and create so much during this hackathon, despite not knowing XCode or Firebase beforehand.
What we learned
We learned how to design an app, and integrate APIs and other packages to build off of so that we didn't have to make everything from scratch. We also learned how to intertwine front-end and back-end in a way that was user-friendly and not to difficult for us to accomplish.
What's next for Arugula
In the future, we hope to implement more features to Arugula such as video-call, a more advanced swiping system that includes some sort of swiping algorithm (to show best matches), more places to input information (aka a more detailed database), and perhaps someplace to actually practice the language in the app. This would entail something like Duolingo, as well as Python's NLTK, to create some sort of learning situation within the app.
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