A Social Messaging App Built for Real-Time Groups, Events, and Communication
The client came to Intuz with a concept for a social messaging app that went beyond standard chat – combining real-time messaging, audio calling, group lounges, event listings, and contextual user data like mood, local time, and weather. Intuz built ALW for iOS and Android, including deep QuickBlox SDK customisation for real-time communication and a highly animated, personality-driven UI.
PLATFORM FEATURES
What We Built to Power Real-Time Social
Interaction at Scale
A Personalised User Profile Built Around Context
We built user profiles that go beyond a name and photo. Each profile displays the user’s mood, local time zone, current weather, and location – giving connections a live, contextual picture of where someone is and how they are feeling. The My Board section surfaces personalised content across Next BigThing, Hooked On, My Zone, and Tips, bringing together the user’s social activity, interests, and upcoming events in one scrollable view.
Group Lounges and Event Management
We built a Lounges feature that lets users create and join interest-based groups with their own events, discussions, and member lists. Each lounge displays upcoming events with date, time, and an accept, decline, or not sure response – giving users a structured way to organise real-world and virtual gatherings directly within the app.
Custom QuickBlox SDK Integration
We integrated QuickBlox into the AWS backend to enable real-time chat and audio calling. The default QuickBlox code did not support the app’s custom requirements, so we worked directly with the QuickBlox team to gain permission for code customisation, develop the new SDK, get it approved, and have it delivered – resulting in smoother performance across all communication features.
Real-Time Audio Calling
We built real-time audio calling directly into the app alongside the chat system. Both features run on the customised QuickBlox backend, giving users a single platform for text and voice communication without needing to switch between apps or services.
ALW Mates and Connection Discovery
We built an ALW Mates feature that lets users find and connect with others on the platform. Connections are enriched with live contextual data – mood, time zone, weather, and location – so users know more about the people they are connecting with before they even start a conversation.
Event Listing with RSVP Controls
We built an event listing system within the Lounges feature that lets group members create events with a date, time, and topic. Members can respond with Accept, Decline, or Not Sure – giving organisers a clear picture of attendance and giving users a way to manage their social commitments within the app.
Granular Privacy Controls
We built full privacy controls into the user profile and content sharing features so users can decide exactly what they share and with whom. The client’s brief required users to have complete control over their privacy – from profile visibility to content sharing – and we built that control into every relevant part of the platform.
Advanced Animations and Creative Interface
We built the full UI to the client’s specification, which called for advanced and complex animations throughout the app. The interface was designed to feel distinct from existing social platforms – with a strong visual personality, smooth transitions, and a layout that makes contextual user data like weather and time zone feel natural rather than cluttered.
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Tools & technologies
Built on a Proven Stack to Handle Real-Time
Communication at Scale
We used native mobile platforms alongside a Yii-powered backend and Linux-based server infrastructure to
keep ALW fast, stable, and ready to support a growing social network.
What Our Client Says
Intuz has an excellent team of project managers and developers. They are very prompt in responding and always try to understand more from a business perspective and convert that into technical solutions. The Intuz team really went beyond, acting as consultants and partners with a full commitment to materialize this vision. In multiple occasions, they proposed better solutions than what we had envisioned. Ultimately, with the enterprise level message aggregator solution developed by Intuz, we were able to achieve what we were expecting with a final product that we are really proud of.
Founder · ALW · United Arab Emirates · Via Clutch Review
