Inspiration
Everyone deserves to feel welcomed and be happy.
What it does
Welcomr provides a way for displaced LGBTQ peoples to connect with other LGBTQ members in their area of choice.
How we built it
We used Twilio to host an SMS number and send SMS messages. We used the unofficial Grindr API to send and receive Grindr messages. Here is how it works. A refugee texts our Twilio number with a location, the location is converted to a geological location. We then used the unofficial Grindr API to find users in this geolocation that have a tag #Welcomr in their bio.
We now have a communication tunnel set up between the refugee and the Welcomr with our web server as a middleman.
As a result, the refugee can easily communicate with someone in the LGBTQ community in their area of choice.
In addition, if the refugee and the Welcomr speak different languages, our application uses langdetect and goslate to translate the messages so they can easily communicate.
Challenges we ran into
Problems with the Grindr API, encoding errors.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Making our application accessible to people without smartphones.
What we learned
We learned about problems that the LGBTQ community faces.
What is next for Welcomr
More in-depth processing before we select who you are matched with.
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