Inspiration
We have always been dealing with splitting up our expenses when we go for a group trip. Someone buys all the tickets, someone pays for travel etc. And then when the trip ends, we have to figure out who spent what and then split with complex calculations. This needs to end. We can't deal with this in 2020.
What better way to manage this problem than with a mobile app?
What it does
Coconut is an app that can be used to keep track of your spendings during a group trip. Whenever one person in a group spends for everyone (i.e. tickets, travel or anything that has to split among everyone), he can add that to the group on our app.
The app keeps track of all transactions done during the trip and when the trip ends, which any person in the group can trigger, all the transactions are analyzed and then a list of payment links is given to each user, using which each person in the group makes payment to each other using Google Pay. There's no middleman involved and all payments once complete end up dividing all expenses equally.
How We built it
A minimalistic UI made for the ease of an average user-built with the help of Flutter that is highly compatible with the features of Firebase which makes it easier to integrate the Frontend and the Backend. All the data is held in a secure cloud and the application fetches these data on the run as it requires. Apis provided by UPI providers are used to redirect to the payment for fast and seamless transactions.
The backend for the app is serverless and we have made use of Firebase functions' incredible ease of use to develop various functions for the client app to authenticate users, create groups, join groups, add transactions and foremost get a list of payments to be done.
Challenges We ran into
One of the major challenges was to develop an interface that feels natural to use and easy to navigate around. Since we didn't want to end up making a complex calculator or a spreadsheet. It had to be as easy as to just grab your phone and tell the app what you spent when you did. So, we came up with the idea that we should make it like a messaging app, where the user could simply just state that "Hey, I spent this on that" and be done with it. And that is what we did.
Accomplishments that We're proud of
Being able to build this app in such limited time was something that we all had doubts about. But we did end up building a working prototype that is minimally functional(Yet to be fully functional). We all learned how to collaborate in a team effectively, especially when we are short on time. We learned how to manage tasks effectively.
What We learned
This has been a great learning experience for all of the team -
- Anish : "I learned about using firebase to build quickly without the need to setup a server from scratch"
- Hemanth : "Learnt about new platforms, writing cleaner code, managing time and to handle payments effortlessly via in-app payment APIs"
- Amal : "StateManagement using Cubits and time management"
What's next for Coconut
We have plans to expand Coconut for not just being an expense splitter but a complete trip management app. Some of the features we plan to add are -
- Sharing of photos taken during the trip
- A small messenger for exchanging short communications
- A planner to plan the trip collaboratively before starting the trip
- A scheduler to create schedules and remind people of schedule during trip
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