So, what's a Smylest?

Smylest | /Smile-lest/ | noun.
A hero who makes the world a better place fashioning one smile at a time

Everyone deserves a smile. But sometimes, it's not so easy to get one. Whether you're feeling great or looking for a confidence boost, Smylest is here to connect smile-bringers to smile-needers to save the day, one smile at a time.

As an Android app, Smylest empowers users to seek and share happiness quickly, easily, and anonymously. In the final product, requests for smiles and responses alike will be passed through a hate/harassment/profanity filter that automatically blocks inbound and outbound messages that would do more harm than good.

Inspiration

In a world where technology, stress, and hustle culture produce some of the highest rates of isolation and depression we've seen, the power of a smile is too often overlooked. With all that time spent alone and technology an arm's reach away, why not bring the power of smiles to you?

Smylest is born from the belief that positive comments from those outside your friend group or family are the ones that resonate the most. As a mobile app that brings positive people straight to those who need it most, Smylest aims to combat the issues of loneliness and depression while providing a means for everyone, no matter who they are or how they feel, to feel a bit better and make the world a bit better, one smile at a time.

What it does

Feeling down? Open the Smylest app to compose an anonymous message that anyone in the world (or targeted groups) may reply to, giving you a personalized response that'll make you go :D in a matter of minutes.

Feeling great? Use that superpower! Become a Smylest for a day and browse anonymous smile requests that you may respond to, sharing the power of a :D. Making a positive impact has never been so easy!

Hackathon Details:

Made for UGA Hacks 9

Theme: Be the hero of your own story | Competition Period: 2/9/24, 7:00p - 2/11/24, 8:00a

Team:

-Just myself :D (Justin Brand)

Tools Used:

-Languages: Kotlin, Java
-Frameworks: Jetpack Compose
-Software: Android Studio, Photoshop, Draw.io, MS Whiteboard

Problems Overcame:

Despite having worked with the Jetpack Compose framework quite a bit in the past and through ACM@UGA's Open Source Project, there was still a decent amount of unexplored features that were tough to work out at first. Particularly difficult at first for me was handling navigation. I also spent a considerable amount of Saturday evening attempting to figure out Android's data storage methods so I could allow my components to read/write data from files, but I shifted priorities when I exhausted all options, so a half-win if you will(?).

Credits:

-Jetpack Compose UI Framework