NowAndThen

App Menus
Main map, viewing a post, viewing a location

Inspiration

Places hold memories, but they usually vanish the moment you leave. We wanted to give everyday locations a lasting sense of self by letting people leave small traces behind, building a place's character over time.

What it does

NowAndThen is a map that reveals nearby memories. You can leave a comment, photo, or video tied to your exact location, browse what others have left around you, and replay trails by tracing someone’s posts through space and time. You can also add friends, react with likes, and view an AI summary that captures the personality of a location.

How we built it

We built a React Native app with an interactive map, live location tracking, and custom UI elements. For the backend, we used Node and Express with MongoDB to store comments and query them by distance so the app can fetch nearby posts quickly.

Challenges we ran into

We dealt with mobile networking issues, merge conflicts during fast iteration, mobile dev debugging, and tuning location updates to feel smooth.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Identity is an abstract theme with many different interpretations. We’re proud to have planned and developed a clear, concrete concept, and translated it into a product that truly demonstrates it. We shipped a polished map experience with radius controlled comment discovery, friends, likes, AI analysis, and a trail animation that turns comments into stories to follow.

What we learned

Mobile dev, working with different operating systems (iOS + Android), Android Studio, real-time location data, database management, video editing, and so much more!