Mobile · Real-time · Streaming
Akcru
A social app built around watching films together. We engineered the synchronised watch parties: real-time playback sync, low-latency delivery and live chat, in a four-week sprint.
Client: Akcru
The problem
Akcru is not a streaming app and not a dating app. It calls itself connective entertainment: films as a way to actually spend time with people.
Its core mechanic is the Movie Invite Ticket. You send an invitation with intent, chat only unlocks once it is accepted, and then you watch together. That only works if watching together feels like being in the same room. If one person's film is two seconds ahead, the shared reactions fall apart.
What we built
We joined the internal team as core full-stack engineers on the streaming and watch-party features, in roughly a four-week sprint.
- Real-time playback synchronisation, so play, pause and seek stay in step for everyone in the room.
- Low-latency delivery, so the stream holds up on ordinary mobile connections.
- Live chat and reactions alongside the film.
Around that sits the rest of the product: nine genres, a social feed and a coins economy.
The result
Akcru is live on Google Play under the client's own developer account, with watch parties working as the centre of the product rather than a bolt-on.
It is a good example of the kind of feature that looks simple in a design and is genuinely hard to get right: real-time state shared across many devices.