konnect

Landing Page
Sign up
Profile Creation Page
Category chooser
Safety Precaution Page
Home Page
Home Page #2
Nearby Page
Google Maps SDK Page
Events Page
Messages/Community Page
Leaderboard Page
About me page
About me page #2

Inspiration

We were all lone bums—doomscrolling, eternal swiping, and trapped in patterns of online disconnection. We all yearned to connect more authentically. And yeah, we were all single as hell too. But something shifted. We learned that networking is the entire thing in the new world. The right connection is the push and the pull between the successful and the unsuccessful. And that's when it struck us: nobody remembers how to craft genuine, in-person connections. This sparked the motivation to experiment with this project ourselves. We needed to create an app that's all-in-one and brings the people back together—because genuine human connection isn’t an extinct art form.

What it Does

Konnect is an earth-centered, real-world social network that turns proximity into opportunity. When registered members are in range—just a few feet away—they both receive a push notice with the individual's headshot, concise description, common interests, and fun facts. One swipes to connect or dismisses the notice. Both agreeing, they’re urged to go look for one another in real-time with the assistance of a “look around” feature. Upon connecting in person, the application creates an electronic entry into the log that contains the date and time, location, and image of the individual's page. Members craft an onboarding page that contains photos, fun facts, experience highlights, and interests—crafted with the intention of initiating the conversation.

Everything earns XP, which enters the level-up program that unlocks cosmetic badges, leaderboard ranking, and features. All encounters, successful and unsuccessful, get recorded in the Konnect Log to reach an audit trail and possible follow-up. The application contains day and week quests that compel exploration, such as “connect with 3 new members” or “attend a networking event." Events receive treated as hot spots on the map, which get verified public world engagement via barcodes for XP and badges.

Upon connecting, members get to chat directly with one another, save contacts, and view common connections—all within the application. Global leaderboard is the XP, connections count, quest completion, and events attended count—driving the community aspect. User Interface is minimalist, colorful, modern with professional-looking and feeling and gamified, whimsical features. It contains an earth-orientated map with augmented features of members and events in the area. Revenue streams are premium profiles, event insights, and sponsored quests.

How We Constructed It

Using Android Studio with Kotlin and Java, we developed Konnect, utilizing the Google SDK for Android in conjunction with essential APIs such as Google Maps, Geolocation, Geocoding, and Places to enable real-time location tracking, map rendering, and event discovery. Our backend was managed by Supabase, which offered real-time syncing, authentication, and a PostgreSQL database for storing user information, events, and Windows logs. For effective data transfer throughout the app, we used JSON. Each tool was selected based on its ease of use, functionality, and capacity to facilitate smooth, real-time location-based interaction.

Problems that Face Us

We hit the number of roadblocks that we scheduled. Merging between API keys between collaborators and environments was tedious-ier than anticipated. Teamwork was finicky to initiate—getting the entire team lined up consistent with Git workflows took its sweet time and several attempts. Dependency hell also reared its ugly head: Compose integration, SDK versions, and third-party packages didn’t always play nicely together. Most problematic of all, the backend required extreme forethought and frantic iteration in order to reach an MVP that behaved with good security, matchmaking, and user-state management.

Benefits We Are Particularly Proud Of

We are quite satisfied with the fact that we did manage to accomplish. Natural and nice execution of map functionality is evident. The UI fell into being refined and responsive, with nice, non-cluttered design that balances best between too serious or too playful. We did manage an all-inclusive, whole-system—integration of networking, gamification, safety, and social discovery—system. Our integrated SOS functionality, validated users, and privacy features allow people to connect safely in the physical world.

What We Learned

We learned beaucoup—some the hard way. There's no punch developing an application that has rich backend logic and real-world location data. There's collaborative cleanliness and future architectural direction of an application talk that save lives learned. And, most importantly, that connections aren’t always something that must be learned from zero, it simply must get more accessible, safer, and fun.

What's Next with Konnect Next?

Just the beginning. There'll be running of the phone-enabled, AR-capable user discovery such that users will see one another in real time over the phone. AI-composed icebreakers will eliminate the awkward moments and naturalize the interaction with new folks. Networking modes appropriate for professionals will offer filtered, professional-first discovery. Seamless and more secure online follow-up will be offered via voice and video calls. Monetization features like premium boosts of the profile, event insights on behalf of the host, and branded quests are something that we'll be building too. The goal? Make the Konnect the very best app to forge real connections in an internet-first world.