Kaze Mesh

Kaze Mesh turns your friend group into a real-time safety network using proximity estimation, silent alarm features, and instant nudges to help friends stay safe and connected.

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Inspiration

Going out with friends should be fun, but crowded venues, parties, and nights out can make it easy to lose track of someone. More importantly, being physically nearby doesn't always mean someone is okay. We wanted to build a solution that helps friends actively look out for one another, turning a group of friends into a connected safety network rather than relying on someone to notice that something is wrong.

What it does

Kaze Mesh is a friend-group safety app designed to help people stay connected during nights out. It combines location sharing and instant nudges so friends can check in on one another in real time. When someone becomes separated or needs attention, the app helps notify their group and allows the group to easily find their friend's location and get the help they need. Our goal is to make it easier to recognize when a friend may need help and coordinate support before a situation escalates.

How we built it

We are building Kaze Mesh using Android Studio with Kotlin and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite. Firebase serves as our backend, using Firebase's real time database to store user information, status, location data, and safety-related events. This architecture allows us to develop individual features while working toward an integrated, real-time safety network.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was figuring out how to make proximity detection useful without treating it as a complete measure of someone's safety. A friend can be nearby and still need help, while a temporary connection loss or traveling too far doesn't necessarily mean someone is in danger. We also had to consider source control, merge conflicts, and how to structure our backend so devices can communicate reliably. These challenges pushed us to think beyond simply tracking locations and toward a more thoughtful verification and response system.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have developed a clear vision for a proactive, group-based safety tool. Rather than focusing only on locating separated friends, Kaze Mesh emphasizes communication, check-ins, and coordinated responses. We are also proud of our innovative safety features such as the duress pin, a false passcode that silently notifies other users in your friend group and emergency contacts of your last known location without giving away the alarm to present threats. We have also established our technical direction around Android native functionality and Firebase, giving us a foundation to develop and test individual features such as nudges and location tracking.

What we learned

We learned that building a meaningful safety app requires more than connecting devices and sharing coordinates. Reliable communication, user privacy, and careful handling of uncertain situations are all essential. We also learned the importance of separating individual features into manageable components and designing backend systems that can support real-time communication between users.

What's next for Kaze Mesh

Our next steps are to develop Bluetooth proximity detection between devices for a consistent way of monitoring proximity even offline. We plan to build out group check-ins, configurable safety alerts, and a cautious verification flow that distinguishes between finding a friend and confirming they are okay. Ultimately, we want Kaze Mesh to become a reliable safety companion with attention to privacy that helps friends look out for one another without interrupting the fun of going out together.

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