# RealTalk [Canonical page](https://jeffd.org/work/realtalk/) An iOS app for making new friends through conversation starters and pixelated video messages. Period: 2016-03-24 to 2017-01-17 [Visit the 2016 website](https://web.archive.org/web/20160729203856/http://www.getrealtalk.com/) ![RealTalk's purple video reply screen, with a sunrise-or-sunset question above a pixelated camera view and a press-and-hold recording control.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/screen-shot-2019-10-22-at-7.12.25-am.png) Replying to a conversation starter. ## Joining RealTalk I joined [Alexandre Roche](https://www.alexandreroche.com/) at Successful Business Co in 2016. He had founded RealTalk, and Daniel Smith and Keegan Jones were already working on it when I joined. RealTalk started in 2015 as video messaging between friends. By early 2016, it had become a way to make new friends through short, pixelated videos. My work on the iOS app covered its interactions, inbox, and video-message delivery. I later worked on joining and leaving groups and revised parts of onboarding. ## Something to talk about Everyone had a conversation starter. It could be a question about your favorite place to visit or what you were reading that summer. To answer, you held down a button and recorded a short video. Pixelating the video was a way to take some of the pressure off being on camera. You could still hear someone's voice and see their expressions. You chose an alias and an interface color, and picked an emoji to go with your question. I built a new emoji picker with pages and category controls. I also animated the send transition so the conversation moved upward as the next view scaled and faded into place. I added the "New Humans" discovery view, which loaded people to talk to and brought up another conversation after you sent a message, skipped someone, or closed a conversation. I expanded the existing navigation to move between discovery, friends, and the inbox. ![RealTalk's coral invitation screen, with an envelope emoji and options to enter or request an invite code.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-invitation-2016-04-13.png) An invitation to meet someone new. April 2016. ![A RealTalk conversation question above a grid of food emoji and category controls.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-emoji-picker-2016-03-22.png) Choosing an emoji for a conversation starter. March 2016. ![RealTalk settings for an alias, location, notifications, and interface color, shown on a red background.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-settings-2016-03-21.png) An alias and a color of your own. March 2016. [Recording and sending a reply in RealTalk](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-message-sent.mp4) ![A pixelated RealTalk video reply beneath a purple conversation-starter screen.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-message-sent-poster.jpg) Recording a reply and returning to the inbox. ## The inbox Your question sat at the top of the inbox, with new messages and friends below it. I rebuilt the inbox to bring messages and friends into one view, with shared code for loading, refreshing, empty sections, and errors. Messages expired after 24 hours so your inbox wouldn't fill with conversations you felt obliged to answer. Once you became friends, messages no longer expired, and you could send another without waiting for a reply. I reworked the delivery code to track multiple queued messages to the same person. I also changed how playback waited for downloads and how the app reused cached videos and cleared files it no longer needed. ![An early RealTalk inbox with a conversation starter, replies, message expiry times, and friendship percentages.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-home-2016-04-07.png) An early inbox layout. April 2016. ![The RealTalk inbox with a summer reading question, a horizontal row of message cards, and a friends list.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-inbox-2016-07-15.png) Message cards above the friends list. July 2016. ## Becoming friends The more you talked with someone, the higher your friendship percentage climbed. At 100%, you became friends. A star-shaped portrait marked your progress, and a rainbow and a yellow star celebrated the new friendship. I animated the friendship percentage and built the celebration with its rainbow and 3D star. I also connected these moments to the inbox and chat, tracking which dialogs someone had already seen, and built the flow for sharing a new friendship as a video, GIF, or image. ![A RealTalk friendship celebration prototype with a rainbow background, a yellow star, a pixelated portrait, and a Yay button.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-friendship-celebration-2016-08-11.png) A new friendship, celebrated with a star and a rainbow. Development prototype, August 2016. [RealTalk halfway-to-friendship animation](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-friendship-halfway.mp4) ![A RealTalk dialog showing a star-shaped portrait and 50 percent friendship progress.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-friendship-halfway-poster.jpg) Halfway to becoming friends. [RealTalk internet-friend share animation](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-internet-friend-share.mp4) ![A RealTalk friendship share with a yellow star, pixelated portrait, and rainbow background.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-internet-friend-share-poster.jpg) A little celebration to share. [RealTalk friendship celebration animation](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-friendship.mp4) ![A RealTalk friendship celebration with a yellow star, pixelated portrait, rainbow background, and Yay button.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-friendship-poster.jpg) A rainbow and a spinning star celebrate a new friendship. ## The team Here we're celebrating the end of Sasha's internship at Bobo's, a clown-themed steakhouse in San Francisco's Marina District. ![Six members of the RealTalk team seated together around a restaurant table, with Sachin's trophy and decorated cake in front of them.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-team-2016-09-15.jpg) Left to right: Roche, Olivia, Sachin, me, Daniel, and Keegan. September 2016. ### The trophy ![A 3D reconstruction of the gold Intern of the Year trophy, with a blue column, black base, and Sachin's engraving.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-intern-trophy-preview.jpg) A stylized reconstruction from our photos. A stylized reconstruction from our photos. [3D model](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-intern-trophy.glb) ### The cake ![A 3D reconstruction of the round cake with white frosting, red piping, and the original Insanely Great Intern artwork.](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-intern-cake-preview.jpg) Our cake artwork, on a reconstructed cake. Our cake artwork, on a reconstructed cake. [3D model](https://jeffd.org/media/work/realtalk/realtalk-intern-cake.glb)