Jar is live — here's everything that's in it Big update: Jar is now live on the web. No app store, no install — just open the link and it works. Anyone can drop a question into the jar, see what people nearby are thinking, and answer anonymously. Questions expire in 24 hours. Then they're gone.
Here's everything that went into this build.
How it works You open the app, and it silently figures out roughly where you are using IP geolocation. No permission prompt, no exact coordinates — just enough to show you questions from people in your city. Your raw location never hits the database. Everything is stored as a geohash. From there you get a ghost identity — a random pixel art avatar and a rotating name like CrystalWolf or RisingDream. Nobody knows it's you. You can switch to a permanent username if you want people to recognize you across sessions, but ghost mode is the default.
What you can do Browse the feed — Questions from people nearby, ranked by a mix of distance, reaction velocity, freshness, and view activity. Tap any card to answer or react.
Drop a question — Pick from 9 themed categories (Deep Thoughts, Hypotheticals, Fears, Romance, Secrets, Childhood, Philosophy, Just for Fun, Hot Takes). Stuck? Hit Mrs. Question and the AI generates one for you. React — Instead of likes: Bold, Deep, Funny, Felt this.
Answer with visibility control — Each answer you write can be ghost (anonymous), private (only you see it), or tied to your profile.
Build a streak — Answer questions consistently and your streak grows. Post between 10pm–4am and you get the Night Owl badge.
Secure your account — Link a phone number so you can recover your identity from any device without losing your streak. Tech Breakdown: Expo + React Native on the frontend — runs natively on iOS/Android and now as a full web app via expo export --platform web Express 5 API on the backend with PostgreSQL + Drizzle ORM Geohash-only location — precision 5 for city radius, 6 for GPS. 2-char prefix = ~30mi feed OpenAI GPT-4o-mini powers Mrs. Question Ghost identity uses device ID as the identity primitive. Pixel art avatars are generated from a stable seed so they look the same across sessions even though the name rotates Phone recovery — dev mode logs the OTP to console; production hooks up to Twilio Smart feed ranking — distance 30%, reaction velocity 25%, view velocity 20%, freshness 15%, streak boost 6–15% Everything deployed on Replit with a PostgreSQL database, two services (API + web frontend) behind a shared reverse proxy What's next Push notifications when someone answers your question DMs between users who've interacted Public profiles with question history Possibly native app builds if there's interest Drop a question. See who answers.
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