Announce of Release of Help Each Other App

EtainClub

5 min readSep 29, 2019

Hi, This is etainclub.

Today it is very happy to announce that the app that I designed for several years has been released.

Basically the app is to help each other.

I briefly explain a short story of this app development.

Our Neighbors for Now

There are so many different people in our villages. We have different knowledge and backgrounds. Thus, some people might have difficulty to just search something they don’t know on the Internet, which can be very easy task for someone else. Based on what you type in the search bar, you might not be able to find what you really need.

In this case, someone knows the field can easily help you when you need help!

Help it Forward Movement

There can be so many similar cases in our daily life. You can get helped or you can help others. You help someone, and then the person helps someone else, and in a short time this movement spreads in a village so that you can get help when you need.

Here are a few example cases:

Telling the content of photo (for the low vision, the deaf, elders, and kids)
Translating technical documents
Searching a term on the Internet
Helping to install/setup apps and gadgets
Helping to assemble PCs
Fixing electric devices in home
Anything that can be helped

What you need is to notice that you want to help others, and notice that others also want to help you! Our villages will become much wonderful places.

Safe Movement

It is hard to deceive our neighbors, especially when you interact with them. This is the stepping stone of this movement. We trust our neighbors more. Here are three key points:

Verify the location. Limit the physical help within a village range
Verify the IDs. Record users’ location and fields to help on a immutable storage such as blockchain.
Verify users’ activities. Record users’ activities on a immutable storage such as blockchain.

Blockchain part will be implemented in a near future. On a blockchain, charging some fee to update user’s information can be used to prevent malicious users from abusing this movement.

Help Each Other App (Android only for now)

I implemented an app that can be used to help each other. I call this ‘etainclub” app. “etain” means an altruist in Korean. It just means that anyone willing to help others. It is working very similar to how Uber app works. A client types what he/she wants, and then wait for anyone who wants to help it.

Supported devices: Android
Tested devices: Android 8 (oreo), 9 (pie), 10(x)
Supported languages: English, Korean
Test status: minimum functionalities are tested. There might be several bugs.
For now, the installation can only be done through files. So you have to allow unknown source to be installed through the setting menu.
64-bit device Installation files: https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/etainclub-896c9.appspot.com/o/apk%2Fetainclub-arm64-v8a-release.apk?alt=media&token=27743058-0746-4643-8165-5020dd0a47f9
32-bit device installation file: https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/etainclub-896c9.appspot.com/o/apk%2Fetainclub-armeabi-v7a-release.apk?alt=media&token=84ec176e-8cd0-4cf0-b10b-b84bf03da847
The app is developed using react-native platform, which is the android and ios cross platform. ios app can be built easily but I don’t have development environment for now. Welcome to help for this!

Recent smartphones are 64-bits. I am using Samsung Galasy S9+, ether file is working.

How to use the app

[Client] Type what you need
[Client] Wait for the request to be accepted or cancel the request
[Helper] Accept or decline when a notification of the request message
[Helper] If a helper accepts the request, then the client and the helper are connected through a chat only between them.
[Client, Helper] They discuss the details of the request and how to help.