About the app:
Meshenger was initially a Java based android app, which allowed users to make p2p audio as well as video calls over local networks i.e no server or Internet access needed.
Goals for GSoC 2022:
As the app was built initially using Java, our priority was on converting it to Kotlin for better performance and stability. The app didn’t had a very good UI, so designing the new UI and its implementation was another thing we wanted to focus on. There were several crashes that needed to be fixed along with fixing the deprecated dependencies, fixing the Call feature and cleaning up the Address Management screen were all a part of our 12+ weeks of efforts put into making the Meshenger app functional, removing the extra features that aren’t functional as of now and polishing the app to an extent that we are able to make a new release for it.
Goals Achieved:
After the midterm evaluations, I had a version of Meshenger with updated UI and Codebase converted to Kotlin but the Calls were still not working, we were unable to identify the reason why the calls aren’t working and as Google has officially stopped maintaining the WebRTC library which acts as a backbone to the Meshenger app we decided to start over with the Master branch as in that branch calls were working.
Now I had to convert the Master branch Codebase to Kotlin, implement the UI I designed earlier, add all the features that were in the Development branch and not in the Master branch, polish the app so its good enough to make a new release and restructure the Address Management screen.
It was a huge task with a very little time left to finish, but with great assistance from my mentor Moritz we have accomplished all the above mentioned goals for the project, without the guidance and availability of my mentor it would have been impossible to complete on time.
My overall experience in Google Summer of Code 2022, as a contributor was full of challenges, I learned a ton of new things and enjoyed it a lot.