"ME"chelin Guide

profile
Tipping
Adding pins
Trending
Each pin
App layout
AI search feature

Inspiration

So, you dream of visiting NYC one day, and that day actually comes. You visit the Empire State Building, walk across Central Park, take a selfie at Times Square, and so on... You run out of "Landmarks" to see. What if you knew where all the "Locals" went to chill? At the same time, what if you could monetize from your local knowledge?

What it does

"ME"chelin guide lets people monetize from sharing their knowledge about their neighborhood. People can pin places on a map and add tags and a simple description about that place. Name dropping the place is not allowed because it ruins the "discovering" part of the fun. Users have options on how they want to "discover" the city.

Just looking around the map
Searching using Tags 3.Using the AI search engine -> You can just yap at the AI, and it will find the pin that suits the description the most. Users can up/down vote each pin on whether they liked it. They can also save the pin in their profile and also tip the "poster" if they really liked it. We added this feature to motivate people to explore the neighborhood more. The logic behind this: You find a "hidden gem" in your neighborhood -> You post it on the "ME"chelin guide -> people like it -> people tip you -> you want to find more "hidden gems" in the city.

How we built it

React Native + Expo -> Frontend Supabase -> Backend OpenAI -> AI search

Challenges we ran into

Building the frontend took FOREVERRRRRRRRRR We were a bit too eager to make it JUST THE WAY WE WANTED. It was the first time using Stripe on a project. So the tipping process took a while to get right.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Actually finishing this project? We would usually go for a web app, but building a mobile app was so much fun! Proud of trying something new!

What we learned

Prabin- I learned a lot about mobile app dev, react native in particular. I usually go for a slick modern UI style, but I tried a Windows 95 vibe this time. I think I might have cooked. Ji - Creating and storing all the pins and organizing them using PostgreSQL was definitely challenging, but I learned a lot about Supabase, and setting up Stripe taught me a lot about APIs.

What's next for "ME"chelin Guide

We want "ME"chelin Guide to become a social platform where people can meet new people. In order to achieve this goal, we would like to create "Squad"chelin Guide. (This is definitely not the final name for it) The goal is to create parties of 4-5 that explore the pins together. We hope this results in more people socializing outside their social bubble and establishing more social connections. (A new way of meeting people in the digital age, without romantic purposes. We would also expand by creating passes that give parties on the platforms group discounts at local businesses.