Veilcabulary

An SMS messaging app concealed under a Wordle-esque video game.

Comment

Inspiration 💡

Our inspiration for creating Veilcabulary came from a news story one of our group members saw in the news that pertained to domestic abuse. Additionally, our group strove to make improvements upon two previous ReadySetApp submissions, Magnolia and EATS. We found their concepts rather interesting; however, there were features that we wished could've been added to them, so we gathered together our supplies and started to innovate upon their designs.

What it does 💬

Veilcabulary is a concealed SMS messaging application that hides itself under a wordle-esque video game. It is targeted towards victims of domestic abuse and prides itself in its ability to be undiscovered by watchful individuals. It makes all attempts possible to conceal itself under its game as well as its icon and installed name. We wanted to have our user be able to dynamically alter our app's name; however, now due to technical limitations, our app's name is --> ⠀ when installed. Do you see it? that's because it is a zero-width Unicode character. We figured that for the sake of inconspicuous and plausible deniability, we would use a creative solution to prevent abusers from recognizing our app off the internet. Furthermore, our app's icon is only a white backdrop and blends into many light-mode themes. The idea here is that victims in a worst-case scenario will have the ability to play off out app as simply incomplete, corrupted, or even malware. If there is nothing to recognize about our app, then it can't be recognized.

How we built it 🔨

When starting the development of Veilcabulary, we were initially set on exclusively using Android Studio; however, as time dragged on and the deadline became closer and closer, we decided that it would be a good idea to switch to an alternative solution for the simpler pieces of our app. In our search, we found MIT App Inventor. Here we were able to code the majority of the UI and and functionality of our app; however, there were pieces that required the use of another software called APK Editor Studio. In order for us to provide the best privacy we could regarding text messaging, we would have to edit the Android manifest.xml file and make other file changes after exporting from MIT App Inventor. What APK Editor Studio did for us was that it allowed us to decompile our already compiled APK from MIT App Inventor. From there, we could implement and test what changes there need to be to the manifest among other files. Going back to speaking of Android Studio. It was primarily helpful to us by allowing code testing and debugging. It's emulator is highly featured and provided us many tools that aided in finalizing our app.

Challenges we ran into 🚧

While developing Veilcabulary, there were numerous hurdles we had to overcome along the way. One notable problem was our group's ability to easily share code between one another. As we mentioned previously, we originally dedicated our efforts towards using Android Studio; however, one of the problems we mentioned was that we had issues transferring files and code between one another. Many of our group members did not have a personal computer available to them at home, so many of us had to use what software we could get permitted on our school computers. The restrictions on what files and software could be downloaded made this process unbearable, however. Our initial solution to this though was that we would use Windows computers provided to us by one of our group members who works in electronics refurbishment; however, we took an easier path in the end and decided to assign coding responsibilities primarily to those who had their own computer at home. Secondly, another hurdle we faced was feeling isolated from each other due to our minimal in-person meeting schedule of only Mondays and Fridays. Our solution to this was to create a text messaging group and to make it a habit between our group members to put their ideas and work in there for others to discuss. Furthermore, to meet our in-person meeting demands, our club established optional Wednesday meeting times so we could keep more up-to-date with everyone's progress and ideas.

Accomplishments that we're proud of 🏆

What our group is most proud of is the sense of togetherness, community, and collaboration we received from this project. Through the hurdles we overcame, we found a sense of actually making a difference. Furthermore, being part of a group focused on one central and commonly desired goal was an empowering feeling. Our independent learning regarding the various types of software we used is also an achievement we're proud of. Our application has the ability to help many not just in our community but around the globe and we're unbelievably proud of the hours upon hours of work we put in to accomplish that goal.

What we learned 📖

During the development of Veilcabulary, our group learned manifold personal, coding, and communication skills. In the beginning, we weren't concerned with what this project would provide us, but now that it's coming to a close, we recognize the important skills and lessons it taught us. For one, we've identified the various software we've all learned: Android Studio; MIT App Inventor; APK Editor Studio; and Figma. They all contributed to furthering our understanding of code and app development as a whole. Secondly, we learned personal and communication skills. As we've touched on before, we had hurdles regarding communication; however, those hurdles are what enabled us to learn. They allowed us to reflect on our problems and innovate new solutions. In the words of Confucius, "Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous."

What's next for Veilcabulary 🚀

Moving forward, our group hopes to add many more features to Veilcabulary. Many of our ideas can't be listed here for the sake of brevity; however, notable features we wish to implement in the future would be dynamic app icons and names, more accessible UI options such as a larger or smaller text selector, and more communication methods disguised under our game such as MMS, E-mail, and perhaps even a web browser. With these implementations in place, our app could better serve our userbase overall and perhaps provide an entirely disguised communication ecosystem.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates