Inspiration
As people who have family overseas, my teammate and I are very familiar with WhatsApp, and it's hold globally. Although every culture is different, they can all agree on WhatsApp's infuriating contacts rule: not everyone wants to save a new number on their phone just because they're messaging them once! Our grandmothers both struggle with this, especially since filling out all the textfields distract them from whatever task they're trying to complete.
What it does
Our app, WhatsApp ByPass, lets users instantly message any number on WhatsApp without having to save it as a contact. Users simply enter a phone number, hit Enter, and the app automatically opens a WhatsApp chat with that number. Our main goal was to create a simple, intuitive, and accessible way for older users or those who communicate across many countries to nullify a common inconvenience.
How we built it
We built the frontend using SwiftUI for a clean and user-friendly iOS interface, focusing on clarity and large, readable elements. The backend was written in Python, using a lightweight API to generate and return the correct WhatsApp chat URL. The SwiftUI app communicates with this Python API through HTTP requests. Our backend constructs a wa.me link in the form and returns that URL to the app. When the user taps Enter, the app opens the returned wa.me URL — WhatsApp (or WhatsApp Web) then handles opening a chat with the given number. Because wa.me requires no special API keys or authentication, it lets us implement the core feature (start a chat without saving a contact) quickly and reliably.
Challenges we ran into
This was our first time utilizing and implementing an API, so it was a pretty steep learning curve. We were able to work through the logic, and were able to complete on time! Although it's able to work on the locally-hosted simulator on our app, we at first weren't able to test it on an external device like iPad due to university-WiFi issues :( HOWEVER, we still navigated that issue by connecting our laptop and iPad to a hotspot to which the app fully loaded and worked and directed the user directly to a new WhatsApp chat within the app as shown in the demo!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud that we got a fully functional iOS app working end-to-end with a Python backend. This is our first time using API's and we're so proud that we were able to complete our projects with them! We also love that our design focuses on accessibility and usability, not just functionality. Making an app that our grandparents can use one day is really exciting!
What we learned
We learned how to connect mobile frontends (SwiftUI) with Python APIs, handle device network issues, and design with empathy for users outside our own tech comfort zone.
What's next for WhatsApp ByPass
We plan on deploying our publicly, expanding support for Android and possibly turn it into a browser extension, and eventually make it accessible to anyone who wants to bypass WhatsApp’s contact limitation with one tap!
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