Reef -- Social Moments App

Reef is in active development. This page is a living document and gets updated at the end of each sprint.

Reef is a private social app for close circles. Instead of chasing public likes, it invites friends to set gentle challenges, share proof through "Moments," and build evolving Time Capsule Chains together. My job has been to guide the product vision, design, and iOS implementation while keeping the experience grounded and authentic.

What success looks like

• Moments feel effortless to post--no retakes, no pressure, just proof of life.
• Challenges are collaborative prompts that bring people together rather than stack rankings.
• Time Capsule Chains create a sense of shared history without overwhelming people with feeds or algorithms.

August 2025 -- November 2025. Each milestone happened within a single sprint cycle, taking Reef from a gamified betting concept to a quiet social garden.

August 2025 -- The Social Competition Era ("Rysk")

• Concept: Rysk was a high-energy challenge and betting platform. Users created dares, staked points, and friends verified outcomes.
• Goal: Make everyday life feel like a friendly competition.
• Takeaway: The competitive tone was fun but exclusionary, and the "betting" framing limited long-term brand trust.

September 2025 -- Pivot to "Moments"

• Insight: People loved sharing proof of experiences more than winning.
• Change: Introduced quick "Moments" posts tied to casual challenges--"Prove it. Post it. Live it."
• Result: The app shifted from wagers to expressive validation within friend groups.

October 2025 -- Birth of Reef

• Rebrand: Adopted the name Reef to signal growth, connection, and shared ecosystems.
• Mission: Build an environment for collaborative experiences rather than leaderboards.
• Feature redesign:
  • Challenges became co-created prompts instead of competitive bets.
  • Moments became the primary social unit--spontaneous, authentic, real.
  • Time Capsule Chains emerged as a signature story mechanic that evolves over time.
• Aesthetic: Transitioned to a calm, elegant dark palette to emphasize depth and creativity.

November 2025 -- Reef Social Today

• Identity: A private social platform where moments matter again.
• Core experiences:
  • Challenges -- Shared goals to spark activity with close circles.
  • Moments -- Immediate proof that something happened, captured without polish.
  • Time Capsule Chains -- Collaborative timelines that unfold slowly.
• Product philosophy: No public feeds, no algorithmic noise--only intimate, intentional sharing.

• Moments Pipeline: SwiftUI front-end backed by Core Data for offline-first posting. Combine pipelines sync to CloudKit when connectivity returns.
• Challenge Framework: Declarative schema that defines prompt type, required proof, and reminders. Keeps the experience flexible for future prompts.
• Time Capsule Chains: Each chain is a linked list of Moments across friends, rendered as a timeline carousel. Background tasks keep new entries in sync.
• Tone & Visual System: Deep blues, soft gradients, and minimal chrome support the calmer brand identity without losing usability.

• Challenges are live in invite-only beta with ~40 active friend groups. We're measuring how often prompt threads complete and where friction appears.
• Moments and Time Capsule Chains are in active development for the next sprint release. Design prototypes and data models are finished; UI work is underway.
• Retention loops are focused on in-app cues, not notifications, to preserve the calm tone.

1. Ship the first public build of Moments with offline capture, quick reactions, and background sync.
2. Light up Time Capsule Chains with collaborative timelines and gentle reminders when a chain stalls.
3. Expand the beta cohort with a guided invite flow and instrumentation that tracks conversion without ads or feeds.

• Validate the pacing of Chains once real-world groups start adding entries daily.
• Rework typography tokens if Dynamic Type testing shows layout strain.
• Evaluate a web read-only surface once the second cohort requests it.