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CASE STUDYOTHER · OPINIONATED SOCIAL NEWS APP

Opinito

An opinion-first social news app that ingests articles automatically, personalises every feed by interest, and builds a social graph from Love/Hate reactions on each story.

56Weeks operated
4k+Hours of work
8Engineers

The brief

Build and launch a full-featured cross-platform mobile application (Android + iOS) for a consumer opinion-and-news platform — including automated content ingestion, personalised interest-based feeds, a binary opinion-reaction mechanic, social networking based on shared opinions, user-generated discussion threads, and multi-auth profile management — from scratch to production on the App Store and Google Play Store.

What we built

Opinito is a dual-platform (Android + iOS) opinion-first social news app. At its core: automated Python scrapers ingest news articles via cron into an AWS-hosted MySQL database; users build a personalised 'interest cart' of topics and keywords that filters their news (Instream) and discussion feeds; every post requires a binary Love/Hate reaction before commenting, generating an opinion-based social graph of 'like-minded' and 'opposite-minded' connections. The app supports multi-profile accounts, Google/Apple/OTP/guest authentication, user-created discussion threads with media uploads, bookmarks, deep-linked post sharing (migrated to Branch.io), a daily 'Show Fresh Content' re-engagement flow, and push notifications. The backend runs PHP APIs with stored procedures on AWS RDS, managed by a dedicated DevOps engineer. Both apps are live on the App Store and Play Store with remotely-controllable force-update via Firebase Remote Config.

⊛ Live in production

Both Android and Play Store builds are live in production. The app features: active news instream fed by Python scrapers on AWS; interest cart personalisation with trending keywords; opinion (love/hate) reactions on all content; discussion threads with media upload; social network screen (like-minded/opposite-minded users); multi-profile with Google, Apple, and OTP auth; daily Show Fresh Content onboarding loop; deep-linked post sharing via Branch.io; push notifications (dev-validated, prod rollout in progress at project close); and remotely-controlled force update.

How it was built, phase by phase.

8 workstreams across 56 weeks of operated delivery

  1. (001)BUILDWeek 1–56

    News Feed & Instream Content Engine

    Core news aggregation pipeline: Python scrapers ingest articles via cron jobs into the database, while the mobile apps surface content through a paginated 'Instream' feed with topic-filtered tabs.

    ✓ Stable news instream feed live in both Android and iOS with automated content ingestion from external sources

    PythonCrontabMySQLPHPAndroid (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)
  2. (002)STABILIZEWeek 1–56

    Opinion & Reaction System (Love/Hate)

    Core differentiator allowing users to express binary opinions (love/hate) on news and discussion posts.

    ✓ Binary opinion system live on both platforms with like-minded/opposite-minded user counts surfaced in feed headers

    Android (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)MySQL Stored ProceduresPHP APIsCrashlytics
  3. (003)BUILDWeek 1–56

    Discussion & Community Posting Module

    User-generated content layer allowing creation of discussion posts (text, images, videos), threaded comments, bookmark functionality, post reporting, and a 'Show Initial Discussion' onboarding flow.

    ✓ Full discussion creation, commenting, bookmarking, and reporting live on both Android and iOS

    Android (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)MVVMFigmaTestFlightGoogle Drive
  4. (004)BUILDWeek 4–56

    Interest & Topic Cart (Personalisation Engine)

    User-personalisation system where users build a 'cart' of interest topics and keywords. Topics drive the content feed.

    ✓ Dynamic personalisation cart driving topic-filtered news and discussion feeds with trending keyword suggestions

    Android (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)PHPMySQL Stored ProceduresFigma
  5. (005)BUILDWeek 5–56

    Multi-Profile & Authentication System

    Multi-profile architecture allowing one account to have multiple personas. Auth supports Google login, phone/OTP login, Apple Sign-In, guest mode, and Facebook login (investigated then disabled).

    ✓ Robust multi-auth system supporting Google, Apple, OTP, and guest profiles with cross-platform parity

    Google Sign-In SDKFirebase AuthApple Sign-InOTP/SMSAndroid (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)
  6. (006)INTEGRATEWeek 10–50

    User Network & Social Graph

    Social layer surfacing 'like-minded' and 'opposite-minded' user connections based on shared opinion patterns.

    ✓ Network screen showing opinion-matched connections, with per-post like-minded/opposite-minded user counts

    PHPMySQLAndroid (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)
  7. (007)INTEGRATEWeek 15–56

    Deep Linking & Content Sharing

    Shareable post links that open within the Opinito app. Covers copy-user-cart deep links, WhatsApp preview cards, and migration from deprecated Firebase Dynamic Links to Branch.io.

    ✓ Post-sharing with in-app deep link resolution and WhatsApp link previews; cart-copy viral sharing implemented

    Firebase Dynamic LinksBranch.ioAndroid (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)
  8. (008)BUILDWeek 40–56

    Show Fresh Content (Daily Discovery Flow)

    Onboarding and re-engagement mechanic showing users new discussion topics each day or on login, prompting them to indicate opinions on fresh content and saving selections to their cart.

    ✓ Daily re-engagement loop live on both platforms, showing fresh discussion topics each login and saving user reactions to cart

    Android (Kotlin)iOS (Swift)PHPMySQLFirebase Remote Config

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