FriendsFirst

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  A look at the frontend of our app

Inspiration

Uni students need a way to connect with other uni students.

What it does

Combine the power of Hinge and LinkedIn, we aim to connect students to other uni students and facilitate life long friendships.

University can be isolating, especially for new or international students who struggle to find study partners or make meaningful connections. Traditional networking happens randomly or through large, impersonal group chats, making it difficult to find the right people to collaborate with.

Solution – FriendsFirst is a friendship-first matching app designed specifically for university students to find study buddies and social connections based on their courses, interests, and study habits. Think Hinge meets LinkedIn – but for campus friendships and academic support.

Key Features:

Smart Matching: Connects students based on shared courses, study preferences (silent vs. collaborative), and extracurricular interests. Icebreaker Prompts: Encourages meaningful conversations beyond “What unit are you in?” Study Session Planning: Built-in scheduling to set up study sessions at UNSW libraries, cafés, or even online. Verified Campus Network: Only for students with a UNSW email, keeping the community safe and relevant. Why It Matters:

Enhances academic collaboration (better grades through effective study groups). Tackles student loneliness and mental well-being by fostering real connections. Scalable – can expand to other universities and integrate with student societies or university events. The Ask: We’re looking for mentorship and support to refine our MVP, validate demand, and explore potential partnerships with UNSW student services or societies. Would love your insights on making this a reality! 🚀

How we built it

We built our app through the power of ReactNative, a Firebase database and the ExpoGo App with Expo to launch it onto iOS

Challenges we ran into

We ran into issues with pushing in data into our database and finding the time to finish an MVP.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to accomplish a partially complete frontend that is simple to use, aesthetic and is easy to use.

What we learned

We learnt about Firebase, a database that simplifies database for first time users. Plus we learnt how to potentially develop mobile apps ourselves.

What's next for FriendsFirst

We continue on with the prototype, refining it to further be able to include user profiles and a matching algorithm.

Built With

• firebase
• javascript
• reactnative