Child control
This is it. This is the very first proyect that I #buildinpublic and the first in this blog. I am keen to post updates and to see what will be the future of this development.
The idea
Is simple, my dad does not really understands how to use a phone and how to get into an app nor close it. His main uses of the device is to watch F1 and to make calls. But even to do that two simple tasks he sometimes deletes something accidentally or turns off the wifi or just set brightness to 0. I understand him, he is an old guy that have some mobility problems and for him learning or use this stuff is not necessary.
That is why I want to develop this app to take control of his phone and to use it remotely, so when he needs something I can use my own phone to connect his to an speaker, open the F1 broadcast, or even set the radio for a sunday morning breakfast.
I am aware that this is an idea that already exists and there is a lot of app in the market that execute this idea very easy. But I dont want any of that, I dont want to create an account for me and for him, I dont want to give permission each session and I dont want him to setup anything or to be worry about how to use that app. All have to be handled by one part (with just the first time to give permission).
Technologies
Well this is the part when I put my tech stack as if it is all not improvised :)
- Mobile
- React Native
- Expo
- Backend
- Nodejs
And that’s it. Doing this proyect I will learn (hope so) a few things like:
- Use native modules in React Native
- WebRTC
- MediaProjection
- AccesibilityService
Phase 0:
Setting up development eviroment
The first thing that I will get my hands on is the app and try to learn how to integrate native modules in Expo from Bare Workflow. The thing is that I need to reach native modules in order to see the screen and to broadcast it from one device to another because you have to use natives API’s in order to reach that goal and Expo nor React Native does not provide you that tool.
So here I am, trying out my first Native Module for battery percentage reader. It is very intuitive despite I have to write in Kotlin, a language I’ve never used. But that’s it, I now know how to create a Native Module and how to ‘import’ it to the React Native enviroment.