syncUp

syncUp is a web application designed to help users connect with friends or meet new local people based on proximity, shared availability, and interests.

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Inspiration

In today’s fast-paced world, staying connected with friends and meeting new people nearby can be challenging. We noticed that coordinating social activities often involves multiple apps, manual scheduling, and uncertainty about who’s available and when. There is no simple way to know when friends are free, nearby, or engaged in an activity you could join. Coordinating social time can be stressful, especially with conflicting schedules and last-minute changes. Busy lifestyles also make it difficult to keep up with friends without fear of avoid overcommitting.

We were inspired by the desire to strengthen human connections and make social coordination effortless. Urban neighborhoods and campuses can feel particularly isolating, where residents and students rarely interact meaningfully. As such, we wanted to build a solution that makes connecting easier, more spontaneous, and stress-free.

Our Solution

syncUp aims to support connections both old and new, by providing the user with two toggleable modes at the top of the interface:

Friends Mode (“My Circle”)

Designed for supporting existing social circles. Users can connect with friends, view availability, and coordinate hangouts between schedules effortlessly.

Core features:

  • Friend System: Add friends via username, contact sync, or QR code.
  • Live Map View: Display approximate friend locations using Mapbox API.
  • Availability Sync: Import Google/Apple Calendar to mark blocks as free, busy, or social.
  • Activity Sharing: Post “Join Me” invites visible only to friends.
  • Privacy Controls: Toggle location visibility or restrict sharing per friend.

Community Mode (“Discover”)

Focused on expanding one’s social network by connecting users with shared interests nearby.

Core features:

  • Interest Profile: Select tags/interests (music, coffee, hiking, etc.).
  • Proximity Matching: Show nearby users with overlapping interests.
  • Event & Hangout Discovery: Join open micro-events (e.g., “study session at the library”).
  • Chat In-app chat
  • Safety Layer: Verified accounts and radius-based location to protect privacy.

Essentially, syncUp aims to turn urban isolation into connectedness, fostering both personal and community growth by making social coordination seamless, fun, and meaningful.

Our Process

We utilized Google's AI Studio to generate a very simple basis/foundation for our Vite-powered web application. Then, we connected user inputs to back-end storage using FireBase databases, set up authentication, and set up our API calls for Mapbox location services. We created custom webpages using TypeScript and React for the different user interactions (user login page, toggle modes, chat box, profile, and notifications) . Finally, we utilized Tailwind CSS to format our front-end UI design.

Our Challenges

Working with Google AI Studio was a challenge for the both of us, as this was our first time working with prompt engineering at this scale. One of the challenges we faced related to this first phase was building the right base. We wanted to make sure that we weren't just "vibe-coding" and only automating the simple parts of the development process, like making a starter code base. We experimented with a variety of prompts and platforms until we had reached an appropriate base to develop upon.

Our Accomplishments

Working as a team of two, we are incredibly proud of the amount of progress we in carrying out our app's implementation. While there is still much to improve for syncUp, we are proud of our app's design and its approach to solving modern issues in the social world, all within such a tight deadline.

Our Lessons

A key lesson that our team learned during the development of syncUp is the power of AI, when used strategically. When experimenting with prompt engineering, we found it was vital to plan out our app concept in heavy detail, including implementation details and file structure, as this improved the quality of the resulting foundation. We also learned a lot about working with multiple APIs, as this was our first times using location related data and live tracking features with mapbox api. We also learned a lot about web development and working with vite and tailwind in the frontend, as we completely created a UI system.

What's next for syncUp?

AI Enhancements

  • Use smart clustering and embeddings to match users by activity patterns & interests
  • Predict best hangout windows based on friend calendar overlap
  • Learn from sentiment & engagement patterns to recommend hangouts and check-ins between friends ### Calendar API Integration
  • Automatic Google/Apple calendar import & integration
  • Parse social, busy, & free time blocks from user's existing calendars ### Mobile Push Notifications
  • Utilize push notifications to encourage spontaneous situational hangouts with nearby friends

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