We wanted to make a platform where people can uconnect with others in a novel way through video letters. We were inspired by the concept of pen-pals and wanted to emulate it for a modern world with the usage of technology.
What it does
The platform utilizes several tools to make new friends through video correspondence. The app starts by prompting the user to upload their introduction which is then sent to OpenAI servers to create a transcript. This is used to generate tags and these tags are compared among uploads to create a best match for the user. After being assigned a best match the user can then choose to add their match to their PingPals list and continue video correspondence or go to their next match!
How we built it
Frontend: React/Next.js (TypeScript) for the app experience.
Video pipeline: Mux for uploads, processing, playback, and webhooks.
Data & auth: Supabase for user accounts, metadata, and storage pointers.
Matching: basic embedding + cosine similarity to surface similar people.
Challenges we ran into
Starting from scratch was the most difficult part of the project. Deciding which tools to use and then learning the basics in a short period of time was quite hard. The API/webhook side (especially understanding payloads and signatures) came with a steep learning curve and wiring all the services together without breaking the flow took time and a lot of trial-and-error.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We connected several unfamiliar services into one working system. Getting video upload, transcode, playable stream, and basic matching all functioning together felt like a big win.
What we learned
The basics of working with large-scale APIs and stitching them together.
How to integrate Mux and Supabase in a clean, end-to-end flow.
What's next for PingPals
We want to complete the full implementation and scale up storage so we can support more users and videos, likely by moving beyond our current Supabase setup for heavier workloads. From there, we want to refine matching, add better discovery and moderation tools, and polish the overall UX.
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