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settings2
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settings
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map screen
Inspiration
Many people are interested in going to the gym, but lack the motivation or find it hard to get into without someone there beside them. With that being said, many people don't have someone to go to the gym with. This app intends on solving that problem. This app is designed to help someone find a gym partner.
I found that people had attempted to create an app like this previously, but had failed, for one major reason: It was structured too much like a dating app. The goal when creating this app was to allow individuals to find gym partners without it being structured in a swiping manor and without the idea that it is similar to a dating app.
What it does
When you load into the app, you're able to immediately sign in using a google account. Once you log in, you see a map of your local area, with gyms shown as pin-points on the map. (The data is taken from OSM) Once in the app, you're able to select a gym and place yourself there. Once you're listed there, other users may view your profile by clicking on the same gym. They're able to then send you a "Spot" request. Once you accept the spot request, you're then able to message back and forth. (Not implemented yet) You now have a gym partner.
How we built it
The app was built using React Native and the Expo framework. This allows the app to be cross-compiled to iOS and Android. The server-side is written purely in NodeJS.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenge was finding a way to allow users to find a gym partner without it feeling like a dating app. Once we figured out how to do this, it just become an issue of implementing the ideas.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud to have identified an easy way to draw the gyms on the map. This was an interesting problem, especially with the lack of easy-to-understand documentation on the OpenStreetMap API.
What we learned
This was a great learning experience as it is the first mobile app that we've written. Additionally, we hadn't used React Native prior to this project, so we learned a lot of things along the way; this includes how to manage local data on mobile applications, grab location data, and so much more. This was really fun to work on, and we're excited to grind on a lot more, polish out the bugs, and bring it to a public release at some point in the future.
What's next for Spotter
We intend on finishing some of the lacking features. There are many bugs that need worked out, but we believe that with a little bit of ironing we'll be ready for our first public release. The market for this app is just niche enough to make it very marketable. There is a tremendous amount of growth with this app and many good potential avenues for achieving user growth and traffic. (Posters at gyms, targeted ads, etc.)
In the future, we definitely see this app as becoming relatively popular with many opportunities for monetization. We intend on adding features allowing users to hire personal trainers through the app in the future, once we gain a decent userbase.
Notes
Source code available upon request.
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