Stranger Says

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  Home Page

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  Ask a Question Page

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  Answer a Question Page

Inspiration

We have all been there. It is Friday night. You are staring at your phone trying to decide between getting spicy meatballs at a restaurant or just hanging out at a cafe. 20 minutes pass and you are still hungry. Decision fatigue is entirely real. We spend so much mental energy on school projects and coding assignments that making one more choice feels impossible. We realized that people do not want an algorithm to optimize their lives. Sometimes they just want someone else to take the wheel. We wanted a human solution to a human problem. That is why we built Stranger Says.

How It Works

Stranger Says is a completely anonymous and extremely fast decision delegation tool. Here is exactly what happens when you jump on the site:

• The Dilemma: You type in your two options. Buy the new mechanical keyboard or save the money.
• The Surrender: You hit the submit button and your dilemma enters the public queue.
• The Stranger: On the other side of the screen, a random user sees your choices with zero context and clicks one.
• The Verdict: Your screen updates instantly with their pick. You are now morally obligated to follow their advice.

Main Features

• Total Anonymity: Zero profiles, zero logins, and zero bias. It is just you and a stranger.
• Instant Matchmaking: Powered by real time WebSockets, your screen updates the exact millisecond the stranger makes their choice.
• Frictionless Interface: No complicated menus or settings. You just type two options, hit submit, and wait for the verdict.

Technology Stack

We focused on a completely frictionless user journey from the very start, stripping away all unnecessary menus, profiles, and settings to keep the interface clean and intuitive. Once this minimalist layout was established, we built the core system using a modern stack:

• Next.js App Router: Provided incredibly snappy routing and server side rendering for a seamless user experience.
• Supabase: We utilized their Postgres database alongside real time subscriptions to handle the live matchmaking queue.
• Tailwind CSS: Allowed us to rapidly style the components and keep the interface looking sharp without bloated CSS files.

Intended Audiences

This app is designed for chronically indecisive individuals, students experiencing mental burnout from heavy academic workloads, and anyone suffering from daily decision fatigue. It is built for people who need a quick, low stakes way to resolve minor dilemmas without relying on a soulless random number generator.

Challenges we ran into

Getting the real time matchmaking to feel instant was much harder than we thought. At first, the database subscriptions were firing multiple times or missing updates entirely if users disconnected unexpectedly. We had to spend a lot of time debugging the WebSocket connections and managing component states to ensure the UI did not break if a chooser left the page early. We also had to figure out how to handle the empty room scenario so choosers would not just stare at a blank screen if no one was asking a question.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Shipping a fully functional real time application from a blank canvas to a deployed product within the hackathon time limit.
• Nailing the user experience. The transition from submitting a dilemma to watching a stranger solve it feels genuinely exciting.
• Keeping the code structure clean and organized despite the fast paced hackathon environment.

What we learned

We leveled up our Next.js skills significantly, especially when it comes to integrating server actions with third party databases. We learned that handling asynchronous states requires a lot of patience and very careful error handling. More importantly, we learned that the best solutions to modern tech problems are not always complex algorithms. Sometimes the best solution is just connecting two random people for three seconds.

What's next for Stranger Says

We have big plans to keep growing this project after the hackathon:

• Categories: Allowing users to tag their questions to specifically ask for fashion advice, food picks, or coding help.
• The Aftermath: Adding a feedback feature where askers can report back and tell the stranger how the decision turned out.
• Scaling Up: Expanding the matchmaking logic to handle thousands of concurrent users without any database bottlenecks.

Built With

• next.js
• supabase
• tailwind