Sckat | Local Social Discovery App

Sckat, built for Amsterdam-based Manifex B.V., makes meeting people nearby feel less forced. Users build an honest profile, send Waves to people in their area, match, chat and share Stories that keep them visible to the community around them.

The big platforms had become overwhelming, performative and exhausting.

The brief asked for location at the core, but with the feel of walking into a neighbourhood café, not browsing strangers.

Safety had to be credible from day one.

Honest profiles and a nearby surface that favours fresh, local activity over stale profiles across the city.

Waves, a lightweight way to signal interest without committing to a full chat.

Stories that keep the community visible without pulling people into a doomscroll.

Chat built for short, natural exchanges.

Moderation, reporting and blocking, image moderation pipelines and an internal admin tool for the trust-and-safety team.

Build. Native-feel Flutter app on a Node.js backend with geospatial indexing in MongoDB and Mapbox for location.

Notifications. Firebase Cloud Messaging for Waves, matches and messages.

Data. A privacy-conscious model designed for region-by-region scaling.

Launched with the light, local and spontaneous feel the founders wanted.

A safety stack that kept the early community trustworthy as it grew.

A technical foundation that scales region by region without losing its hyperlocal feel. Delivered in eight months.