CloseTalk

Logo
Intro/Profile Screen
Discover Users Around You
Chat

Inspiration

We have often found ourselves waiting in long lines for our favorite movies or at the airport. Wouldn't it be fun to complain about it together anonymously. The inspiration for our app comes from the desire to foster connections among people in proximity without compromising their privacy. In today's digital age, where sharing personal information online can lead to privacy concerns, our solution offers a safe haven. It's designed for individuals who want to engage in conversations, share ideas, or collaborate on projects without the need to exchange phone numbers or social media profiles. This app is a testament to the belief that privacy and connectivity can coexist, providing a platform for users to connect on their terms, whether for leisure or professional purposes.

What it does

Our innovative app seamlessly connects individuals in close proximity without the need for exchanging personal contact details. Utilizing Bluetooth technology and NearBy protocol, it creates a secure and anonymous network where users can engage in conversations, share ideas, or collaborate on various projects. *This also means that our app can function completely without an Internet connection! * The essence of the app lies in its ability to maintain user anonymity, making it an ideal platform for those who are cautious about privacy yet eager to connect with others nearby. It has also use-cases for people suffering from severe Agoraphobia (social anxiety) and enables them with a platform that gently navigate social connections

How we built it

We have used Flutter to build a cross platform app which could run natively on Android and iOS. We used Hive which is on-device database, to store the chat related information on the device of the user. We thus, eliminate the need of backend server and we are not storing any chat details on the cloud. Furthermore our data is encrypted by AES256 enabling further security on our application. We use NearBy Protocol to establish and facilitate communications between the devices.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was the learning curve for Flutter. Most of our team was experienced with Web Development, so switching to Mobile Development was a bit daunting but a fun experience. We faced some issues while gettting the NearBy protocol to work for real devices

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are really proud of the UI designs we created and the seamless flow integration we created for different screens. We are super proud of how we were able to deliver an end to end running app. We followed strict guidelines over the structure and quality of the code.

What we learned

This Hackathon really helped us learn a lot about Flutter and Mobile App Development in general. It also gave us a good experience of collaborating as a team and brainstorming ideas.

What's next for CloseTalk

Our next step is to create Global Chatroom for people to create groups and converse. We are also planning to design a notification screen for seeing past connects that come in range yet again.