Groupvie: A Movie Matchmaker

Joseph DeMario, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Computer Science and minor in Cinema Studies

My initial idea for my capstone project was to combine my computer science major with my cinema studies minor in the form of an iOS mobile application, where I would implement both the back-end and front-end functionality. The purpose of the app would serve as a bridge between Tinder and Fandango, where users could create an account and match with other users according to their movie interests and preferences. 

In order to display a number of films, I turned to The Movie Database API (TMDB) to grab data for movie and TV posters, release dates, and summaries. Even with these ideas in mind, I found it difficult to come up with a name for the application. It was not until the end of the development that I came up with a name: Groupvie (combining the words “group” and “movie” together). The name fully encapsulates the overall objective of the app which is to connect users based on movies. 

In regard to front-end implementation, I achieved just that through the use of Xcode and its ability to design the user interface of the app. In terms of my intended UI design for the app, there are still some things I would like to work on. I originally wanted the main home screen to follow that of Tinder’s; the only difference is that users would swipe left or right on movies rather than people. After a number of swipes, users would match with each other based on their movie preferences. The final product has users add a movie to their favorites list which other people on the platform can see to determine if they want to interact with them. The Tinder algorithm matches users automatically, whereas Groupvie needs the user to essentially do the matching for it. 

For the back-end implementation I utilized Firebase, a database that stores user accounts and messages. Additionally, future plans and improvements for the app include extending the capability of the chat screen to group chats rather than just a single user and finishing development on an events screen so users can view scheduled watch parties and movie nights with each other.

Overall, I believe I achieved everything I wanted with this project and I will look to continue to improve it in the future.