Bytes

Inspiration

Our project, Bytes, introduces a short-form news application motivated by modern generations and their increased desire for what's eye-catching giving birth to the term "doom scrolling." Bytes acknowledges the shifting media consumption patterns among these groups and seeks to deliver a dynamic, interactive news platform that mirrors the user interfaces of popular entertainment apps (e.g. Instagram Reels, Tiktok, YouTube Shorts, etc).

What it does

It's an app compatible with Android and iOS where you initially log in and are sent to the landing page with local articles. Swiping up generates new articles with their picture, title, and brief description. From there there's a text-to-speech functionality as well as a link to the full article. Moving on, you can swipe left to filter for certain categories or swipe right to edit your profile and user experience. Possible edits are your profile name, email, school, dark/light mode, or to sign out entirely.

How we built it

We leveraged a plethora of technologies to make this project work. Starting off, we settled on React Native as our language to enable our app on both platforms iOS and Android. Next, we scouted NewsAPI to source meaningful and consistent news headlines between categories. After settling the groundwork for our frontend contributors, we used platforms inspired by HooHacks to put together our backend. Those platforms being MongoDB, a simple tool to store our data in the backend, and PropelAuth, an authentication tool administrators will use to post immediate, crucial news to students. Lastly, we capitalized on Cloudinary to store and ship images.

Challenges we ran into

It was genuinely difficult to maintain a streamlined workflow without running into issues when merging branches in Visual Studio Code. Because our project began with a messy design, we had to scrap our code and start from scratch to make sure we implemented all the features we could before noon. This doesn't tap into the myriad of issues with Expo Go (mobile app simulator) we worked through when simulating and integrating our admin front/backend. The idea of creating extensive administrator tools we felt was essential in making a functional news app to combat fake or bait news. As a result, it took a lot of research to iron out errors in web development and mobile development when compiling code.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of the final product as none of us knew each other before we met on campus. Despite all of us having separate backgrounds, we were able to go back and forth thinking of and bringing ideas to life. All of us are first-timers to the Hackathon experience but one. One of us had never used JavaScript, yet we pooled our knowledge to keep our short 24 hours together productive, fun, and most importantly, memorable.

What we learned

We gained a considerable amount of experience when factoring in what it takes to produce a functioning app. It was one thing to produce concept art, ideas, and connecting thoughts between brainstorms, but an entire other beast trying to bring it to life. However, our team bonding and coordination helped keep our drive and passion going for finishing what we started. Whether it was covering for another shortcomings, or having to study up on packages we weren't familiar with, it was all an invaluable and unforgettable group experience.

What's next for Bytes

As for the future of our project, we are looking forward to creating a more tailored application for students and enhancing accessibility by incorporating additional features. Those features include but are not limited to geospatial zoning, SSO login for private boards, adjustable text font sizes and styles for dyslexic folk, view count, likes (+ comments, bookmarks, and shares), canvas integration, and detailed profile customization.