Social Discovery Gamified: Where Energy Meets Connection
Project Details
Industry
Social Discovery / Mobile AppService
Mobile & Web DevelopmentTimeline
10 WeeksTech Stack
Dating apps focus on appearances. Networking apps feel corporate. Balune wanted to create connections based on energy and authentic expression.
The social discovery space is saturated with apps that reduce humans to profile pictures and job titles. Yosef envisioned something radically different: a platform where people connect based on mood, energy, and authentic self-expression — gamified to feel playful, not performative. The technical challenge? Build a sophisticated mood-matching algorithm that felt magical, create real-time interactive experiences that didn't drain batteries, and design an interface that adapted to each user's emotional state. 'We're not building Tinder and we're not building LinkedIn,' Yosef said. 'We're building something entirely new.'
Every feature they built had soul. This isn't just code — it's a new way of bringing people together.
Yosef Milot
Founder & CEO, Balune
We created a living, breathing platform where connections happen through energy, not algorithms.
Using React Native for the mobile app and Next.js for the web companion, we built an experience that shifts with your mood. The core innovation is our mood-driven discovery engine — combining user behavior, timing patterns, and explicit mood signals to introduce people whose energy complements theirs. We implemented real-time multiplayer mini-games (built with Socket.io) that turn ice-breaking into actual fun. Profiles go beyond photos — voice notes, video snippets, creative prompts — all designed to show personality, not perfection. The interface color scheme and interaction patterns literally change based on how active and engaged users are in the moment. Everything runs on a high-performance Node.js backend with Redis for real-time updates and PostgreSQL for deep relationship mapping.
From cold swiping to warm connections — users spend 3x longer than traditional social apps.
Balune launched to 50,000+ downloads in the first two months. Average session time is 18 minutes (compared to 6 minutes on traditional apps). Users report feeling 'actually seen' for the first time on a social platform. The gamification works — 75% of users engage with interactive features daily. The mood-matching algorithm has a 68% acceptance rate for introductions. 'People don't just use Balune,' one user wrote. 'They vibe with it.'