I built a location-based chatroom with Discord-like servers. This started as a portfolio project to learn WebSockets but has spiraled into something else entirely.

How it works.

There are two features right now:

Drop - Single chatrooms that can only be seen within a specified radius and only last for a time less than 48 hours chosen by the user.

Hubs - Geofenced servers modeled after Discord. These are not time restricted. They can be created by anyone and the creator becomes the admin able to add channels and set rules. When a user enters the location’s area, they can join the hub and continue seeing messages even after leaving. Hubs cannot overlap, so once one exists in an area another cannot be created on it. The hub will persist as long as it is being actively used. If unused for two weeks, it will be deleted. (Still implementing this deletion aspect, so that is not in the landing page at the moment)

Why I built this.

I do not like the feel of most social media anymore, but I really like my university’s discord server. I wanted something more general that provided similar interactions. So I thought something that might work is a more general social app tied to location.

I think if it is done right it can recreate the atmosphere that I liked. I thought a lot about what that atmosphere is. I think for social media to feel natural it needs a “third thing”: a shared interest or object that creates a connection between two people, or a neutral ground for communication.

Having something in common just makes the interactions better and more useful. I think location can serve as general thing in common, especially if the servers are curated by locals. It could also be a good way for people to immediately connect in a new place.

Right now, I’m just having fun building this thing. I would honestly like to use it if other people were on there… and it was built better and an app.

Feedback

I’m looking for any feedback. What’s a good idea or what’s a bad idea. This is really just a prototype, so there are some rough edges, and I am actively working on it. If you find any bugs and feel like communicating them, please do. You can reach me at nhowar@uwo.ca