Parsegram

Background

I built Parsegram to learn the basics of building a social app. I wanted to see if I could create something that allows users to sign up, take photos with their camera, and share them with others in a common feed. It was a chance to practice working with a backend service and handling media on a mobile device.

Solution

The app uses a backend service to manage user accounts and store the photos that people post. I built a simple feed where you can scroll through all the recent posts and added a pull to refresh feature to check for new content. I used the device camera to let users take pictures directly within the app and then add captions before posting them to the shared timeline.

Process

I started by setting up the connection to the backend and building the login and sign up screens. Then I focused on the photo capture logic, making sure the app could access the camera and display a preview of the image. I spent a lot of time on the main feed to make sure it loaded posts efficiently and showed the captions correctly. I tested the app by creating multiple accounts and posting different types of images to see how the feed handled them.

Final Product

Reflection

Building this was a useful lesson in how to connect an app to a cloud service. I learned how to handle background tasks so that uploading a photo does not freeze the interface. If I were to work on this more, I would add a way to like or comment on photos and find a way to compress the images so they upload faster.