Insta-SOS

Need immediate assistance ? Insta-SOS sends a quick SOS message along with your live location to your contacts with the tap of a button!! Add as many people as you want!!

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Inspiration

My sister has started attending her coaching classes which require her to stay till late in the evening. This is the case with a lot of young students and high schoolers as well. A lot of these students rely on public transport to travel back and forth. Travelling alone late in the evening has its risks. Students should be able to quickly reach out for assistance in case they feel threatened or in danger. This is where Insta-SOS comes in.

What it does

Insta-SOS sends a quick SOS message along with the user's live address to multiple contacts. The user can add a custom message, add new contacts and remove contacts who can receive this SOS message.

How we built it

I used native android with java to build this application. I used the Location feature to grab the user's location, the Geocoder feature to reverse geocode the lat and longitude to an address, and the SMS feature to send a quick SMS to all saved contacts. To save phone numbers who can receive this message, I have used ROOM database (this is a local database built on top of SQLite). Hence contacts are stored inside room database.

Challenges we ran into

  1. Testing sms and location functionality on emulators was slightly tricky.
  2. Understanding how Room Database works.
  3. Reverse geocoding.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  1. Was able to create all the features I wanted for the MVP.
  2. Learnt a lot of new core android features.
  3. Proud that I could create a good MVP in 36 hours.

What we learned

  1. Learnt core android features, (SMS, device location, reverse geocoding).
  2. Learnt how to implement Room Database for storing data locally on the device.
  3. Got better with RecyclerView, transitions.

What's next for Insta-SOS

Insta-SOS will also be able to send a Whatsapp message if the user's internet is available. This app should also be able to contact the police in some way in the future. There is also scope for the UIs improvement.

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