Vera Connect

Privacy-first community app with native calendar integration

SS 24
Vera Connect

Skills

  • Expo
  • Git
  • GitHub
  • Jest
  • React Native
Role
Software Engineer
Type
Mobile App

Overview

Vera Connect is a privacy-focused social media app for iOS and Android, built with React Native. I joined the team for four months to build out native calendar integration on both platforms, enabling communities to schedule and coordinate events directly through the app.

Details

Vera Connect is a mobile social media application with a strong focus on communities and user privacy. The app allows users to organise around shared interests while keeping full control over their own data and connections. I worked on Vera Connect from July to November 2024 as a Software Engineer, contributing to the React Native codebase for both iOS and Android. **Native Calendar Integration** My main focus was connecting the app to the native calendar systems on iOS and Android. This involved bridging React Native with the platform calendar APIs — EventKit on iOS and the Calendar Provider on Android — so users could create, view, and manage events without leaving the app. **Community Event Scheduling** On top of the native calendar bridge, I built the community event scheduling feature: the ability for community members to create events, invite others, and have those events sync directly to their device calendars. This was the primary new feature during my time on the project. **Cross-platform Consistency** Working with two distinct native calendar APIs meant handling platform-specific differences in permissions, event formats, and recurring event behaviour, while presenting a single consistent UI in React Native. The app is built with TypeScript, React Native, and Expo, with React Query for data fetching.

Key Features

  • Native calendar integration on iOS and Android

    Built the bridge between React Native and the platform-native calendar APIs — EventKit on iOS and Calendar Provider on Android. Users can create and manage community events that sync directly to their device calendar, with correct handling of permissions, event formats, and recurring events on each platform.

  • Community event scheduling

    Designed and implemented the community event scheduling flow, allowing community members to create events, invite others, and have those events appear natively on attendees' device calendars. The feature works consistently across both iOS and Android despite the underlying platform differences.