Bonfare

Inspiration

We’ve all sat down for dinner with family or friends only to watch everyone disappear into their phone screens. We built Bonfare to turn putting devices away into a fun, shared game rather than an awkward rule or chore.

What it does

Bonfare lets anyone create a shared table pact in seconds with just a 4-letter code—no accounts or passwords needed. Once everyone sits down and taps "I'm ready," a shared countdown begins for 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. While phones rest on the table, the host can send fun questions and conversation starters to everyone’s screen. If anyone picks up their phone before the timer ends, the app immediately catches the breach, names who broke the pact, and gives them a fun forfeit challenge

How we built it

We built the mobile app using React Native and Expo so it works smoothly on both iOS and Android with a clean, dark design. On the backend, we used Supabase and a PostgreSQL database in the cloud. We used live real-time sockets to keep all phones in the room synced down to the millisecond, with the central server acting as the ultimate referee.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was keeping everyone's screens and timers perfectly in sync. Phone clocks often differ by a few seconds, which could cause confusion.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating an onboarding flow where anyone can join a game in under 5 seconds with zero friction. We also built a tamper-proof real-time sync system that keeps multiple devices aligned without needing to fake data or guess what happened.

What we learned

We learned that social apps only work if they get out of the way: if joining takes more than a few seconds, people lose interest and go back to scrolling.

What's next for Bonfare

Next, we plan to connect the phone’s motion sensors to automatically detect when a device is laid flat on the table. We also want to add cozy ambient background sounds that cut out if someone touches their phone, let users create custom question decks for date nights or team gatherings, and launch Bonfare on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Vid in the github repo