Inspiration
The isolation we each experienced during COVID meant that it was difficult to stay in touch with our community, friends, and loved ones. We wanted to create an application that encourages people to connect with their community through common interests.
What it does
LinkUp is a video-chat application that allows you to choose a topic of interest (anything!) and discuss this topic to your heart's content. LinkUp will randomly match you with someone with the same (or similar) interests and provide a video-chatting platform.
How we built it
We built this app with node.js for the backend server, and React.js for the user interface. The video chat functionality will be implemented with WebRTC and socket.io (once complete).
Challenges we ran into
We originally attempted to implement the video-chatting functionality with WebRTC, but ran into numerous bugs that we did not have time to fix. For now, we have left the video-chat functionality as placeholder boxes where the video should go.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Within such time constraints, we are proud that we have created a product to be able to present. While it is by no means complete, we believe that it is a good framework for what we ultimately want to create.
What we learned
Instead of focusing too much on the video-chat functionality and spending hours trying to debug that, we should have left it as placeholders and moved on to other features.
What's next for LinkUp
We plan on implementing the video-chat functionality fully, as well as developing an algorithm to match people who have chosen similar or the same topics to discuss. We are excited to complete this project!
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