Sidechat

SideChat

In Progress

Sidechat is a movie / tv show companion, offering a full suite of features to enable conversations among movie / tv show fans. The platform offers a redit style discussion forum for each movie / tv show with time-coded comments to ensure that you can follow along with the conversation as you watch. Sidechat also offers a 'watch together' feature which allows users to synchronize their video playback with friends and family while chatting in real time through the platform.

Features

iOS & Android Mobile Application

  • Cross-platform iOS and Android mobile application built with React Native and Expo.
  • NativeWind (Tailwind CSS for React Native) for consistent, utility-first styling across both platforms.
  • React Native Reanimated for smooth spring and keyframe animations throughout the app.
  • Safe area handling, keyboard avoidance, and proper insets for notches and bottom bars on all devices.

User Accounts, Login & Onboarding

  • Email and password authentication plus Google OAuth single sign-on, powered by Clerk.
  • Multi-step registration wizard: email verification, profile photo upload, and age gate (13+).
  • Genre selection onboarding step — users choose a minimum of 3 favourite genres from 18 options before entering the app.
  • Friend discovery onboarding step to find and follow friends immediately after signing up.
  • Edit account screen for updating display name, bio (150 character limit), and profile picture at any time.

Movie & TV Show Browsing

  • Full TMDB API integration surfaces trending, now playing, top rated, and upcoming movies and TV shows.
  • Dedicated Movies and TV Shows tabs with horizontal carousel sections and expandable 'See All' paginated lists.
  • Genre filtering across 18+ genres for both movies and TV shows.
  • Full-text search for movies and TV shows by title.
  • Detail pages show poster, backdrop, overview, cast (top 20 with photos), similar content, TMDB reviews, and community ratings.

Synchronized Watch Comments

  • Post comments tied to a specific timestamp in a movie or TV episode — comments appear in-sync as other viewers reach that moment.
  • Nested reply threads on any timestamped comment.
  • Upvote and downvote system on all comments with live vote counts.
  • Filter comments to show only friends' reactions or all users watching the same content.
  • Full season and episode awareness for TV shows, including an episode picker modal with stills, runtime, air date, and overview.

Watch Sessions

  • Start, pause, and resume watch sessions with persistent state saved to the database.
  • Session tracks started_at, paused_duration, and status (idle / watching / paused).
  • Supports both movies and individual TV episodes within a single session model.
  • Friend filter mode lets users watch with only selected friends' comments visible.

Reviews & Ratings

  • Rate any movie or TV show on a 0–5 star scale with 0.1 decimal precision.
  • Optional written review accompanies each rating.
  • Edit existing reviews at any time — rating and text both updatable.
  • Community review feed on every detail page shows all user reviews with expandable long-form text.
  • Own review is highlighted with a 'You' badge in community feeds.

Points & Rank System

  • Ten-tier rank system from Lurker (0 pts) through Legend (8,000 pts), each with a unique icon and colour.
  • Earn points for every action: +1 per comment, +5 per new review, +2 per movie watched, +2 per new follower, +3 per friendship formed.
  • Rank-up modal celebration triggers automatically when a user crosses a rank threshold.
  • Progress bar on profiles shows current rank, points to next rank, and overall standing.
  • Top 5 highest-ranked users are surfaced with a recognition badge across the app.

Social Features

  • Friend request system with send, accept, decline, and cancel flows — two-way confirmation required to become friends.
  • One-way follow system independent of friendships, with follower and following counts on every profile.
  • User search with case-insensitive full-text lookup by username.
  • Public profiles display bio, avatar, stats (reviews, movies watched, followers, following), and a feed of their watch comments and reviews.
  • Profile buttons dynamically reflect current relationship: Friends, Follow, Add Friend, Pending, or Unfollow.

Notifications

  • In-app notifications for comment replies and incoming friend requests.
  • Unread badge count on the notifications tab updates in real time.
  • Notifications auto-mark as read when the screen is opened.
  • Dedicated pending friend requests section with one-tap Accept and Decline actions.
  • Notification items link back to the movie or show where the interaction occurred.

Watchlist

  • Save any movie or TV show to a personal watchlist with a single tap.
  • Watchlist screen shows all saved items with movie/TV indicators and quick-remove option.
  • Persisted to the database so the watchlist is available across devices.

Project Details

Status

In Progress

Timeline

2026-05-01 → Present

Technologies

React NativeExpoTypeScriptNativeWindClerkPostgreSQLNeonTMDB APIReact NavigationReact Native Reanimated