Case Study

www.netsolutionsindia.com

Breaking Ice

For further information, please contact us at presales@netsolutionsindia.com

How Net Solutions helped Attaboy Productions in developing Breaking Ice App, a dating app for iPhone and iPad users

Overview Breaking Ice is a free social networking and dating app that helps

you instantly meet people at the same location where you are,

such as a bar, restaurant, coffee shop, party, or sporting event.

The Breaking Ice app is available in 71 countries and is mainly

targeted toward youngsters who are looking to meet new people,

on the go.

Case Study

www.netsolutionsindia.comFor further information, please contact us at presales@netsolutionsindia.com

Attaboy Productions, the company behind the concept of Breaking Ice app, approached Net Solutions to develop a mobile social networking and dating app based on Apple iOS platform. The app would allow users to connect with new people around them, not miles or states away. However, there is also an "x country" setting in the Search Criteria page that allows travelling users to set up a date before getting to their destination.

THE PROBLEMTHE CHALLENGE

Geo tagging and profile search

The basic concept behind Breaking Ice app was

to make new connections, find people who

match your likes and dislikes. Therefore,

intuitive profile search functionality was needed

so that search parameters set by users can

match with user profiles available in the

Breaking Ice network.

In addition, the app had to be able to determine

the exact location of the user and tag them

based on their location. This was the key feature

of Breaking Ice because the app was meant to

connect people that are in close proximity to

each other. Of course users also have the option

to make their location invisible if they so desire.

Their profiles will still appear on other users'

Search, but their relative distance and location

is cloaked.

Admin panel

A comprehensive admin panel was required to manage

the app and configure settings, such as adding and

deleting prohibited messages. The app had a

user-friendly interface, so the backend functionality also

had to be simple to ensure smooth admin operations.

Privacy and spamMaking a highly secure app was the priority of Attaboy

Productions. Being a social networking app, Attaboy

team was well aware of the possible vulnerabilities

associated with such apps. Hence they wanted the

privacy and security features to be foolproof.

Memory crashesMemory crash is one of the most common issues found

in any mobile app, which arises because of fixed amount

of physical memory and limited battery life of handheld

devices. It also affects overall performance of the app.

Attaboy Productions wanted to overcome this issue in

Breaking Ice app.

Case Study

www.netsolutionsindia.comFor further information, please contact us at presales@netsolutionsindia.com

THE SOLUTIONImplementation of geo location tagging

The GPS capabilities of the device running the

app are used to fetch the user's current latitude

and longitude, which are then used to update

user's location on the server. Similar profiles are

then filtered on the basis of searched criteria.

The filtered and selected profiles are then sent

to the user looking for friends nearby. Apple's

push notification is used for sending and

receiving messages.

PHP-based, user-friendly admin panel

A PHP-based admin panel was built at the

backend to manage the app. The admin panel

provides the option to block prohibited words

manually. Whenever any app user uses the

prohibited words listed in the admin settings, the

administrator gets a push notification automatically.

Privacy and spam control

The Breaking Ice app was customized in such a

way that if the prohibited words are used in the

messages more than twice, the app automatically

sends a warning message and temporarily blocks

the user. If the number of prohibited words

reaches 5, the user is blocked permanently, and

re-installation of the application on that

particular device is automatically prevented.

Automatic Reference Count (ARC) for better memory management

In order to avoid the memory crash issues

associated with mobile devices, Automatic

Reference Count (ARC) technique was used. It

allows memory management a lot simpler by

assigning memory management tasks to the

compiler, and provides a significant performance

increase as well.

Case Study

www.netsolutionsindia.comFor further information, please contact us at presales@netsolutionsindia.com

THE RESULT

Unique dating experience

The biggest benefit of the Breaking Ice app is that

users not only get notified when people in their

network are located within a radius of X miles of

their own location, but they also discover the

exact location of those people.

This is especially helpful in scenarios like dating,

where a user need to know the exact location of

the person whom he/she wants to date.

Spam-free experience

Spamming is a major concern of most social app

users and they usually refrain from using or

installing apps that fail in controlling spam or

profanity. However, Attaboy Productions was very

particular about spamming and they delivered a

spam-free app.

The Breaking Ice app uses a special algorithm,

which allows it to not only block any user sending

spam messages, but also deny any attempts of

re-installation on that particular user’s device.

This helps keep spammers out of the Breaking Ice

app network.

Easy backend configurations

The admin panel of the app was developed in

such a way that there are provisions to configure

app settings both automatically and manually.

App management was made easier which helped

reduce the workload of admin users.