Soapstone

A social app where users drop short, location-locked messages—turning the world into a living feed of local thoughts and stories.

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The problem

In today’s fast-paced digital world, communication is often disconnected from real-world experiences. While social media allows global interaction, there are few platforms that encourage simple, meaningful exchanges between people within their local communities. We saw an opportunity to create a fun, location-based way for individuals to share notes, jokes, tips, and memories to foster a stronger sense of social connection.

Our Solution

Inspired by the iconic messaging system from Dark Souls, we developed Soapstone, a location-based message board that lets users leave and discover messages pinned to an interactive map. When others pass nearby, they can uncover and engage with these hidden messages. Soapstone offers a playful and community-driven way to interact with those around you.

How we built it

We built the web app using Next.js for the frontend and server-side logic, paired with MongoDB for data storage. To create a smoother and user-friendly UI, we used libraries such as TailwindCSS for styling, Lucide for icons, and Motion for animations. The interactive map was implemented using Leaflet, and we deployed the application via Vercel.

Challenges we faced

We faced some challenges obtaining accurate geolocation data from the browser with slight inaccuracies sometimes placed users up to 300 meters away from their real position on the map. We also encountered UI inconsistencies across different browsers and devices, which required further testing and adjustments to ensure a consistent experience for all users. Completing the video and the code was also tricky within the 2 day timeframe but in the end we managed to put something together just in time!

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