[jstrafy]

Super simple, I didn't know how to code 18 months ago so when we started (was just I at that point), I stared building with what I could.

The front end is built with React Native (JS) as it provides a way for us to more or less maintain two OS with one codebase. It also is somewhat simple for us to convert out code for web with react-native-web. We do use a series of community build packages (more than I would like) but that's how its went for us early stage.

The back end is built with Rails as a simple API layer, keeps it simple to make models and controllers and build lightly with the focus on the architecture. Phone verification integrated through Twilio and we use Lockbox for at-rest encryption.

Hosted serverless on AWS EB (if going back I would stick to Heroku at least until this point and beyond).

As an experiment we also were building on top of the Matrix protocol (https://matrix.org/) with their Ruby SDK, but the cons outweighed the benefits in the end. Would love to figure out a solution here, and love the idea of interoperability championed by products like beeper.com.

Overall, I think that React/React Native and Rails is a good stack for hacking MVPs and would recommend.

[cvwright]

Aw man, sorry to hear that Matrix didn't work out for you. There's definitely a cost to building on an early-stage technology with a lot of its own complexity. (Heh, ask me how I know...)

Still, super impressed at what you've built.

Looking forward to syncing up soon!

[jstrafy]

Definitely!

The main reason was because we were building with the Ruby SDK and it didn't have bridging (future chat...) nor a direct E2EE solution included. In that, we had a bunch of business and product solutions we wanted to understand and Matrix was clouding our ability to do that.

Would still be very keen to see a consumer grade social network built on Matrix, though.

Chat soon!