Pickle-Pal
Tinder for pickleball partners — swipe solo, chat when you match, or team up in Pair Swipe mode to find another duo for doubles.
Overview
Pickle-Pal is a partner-matching app for pickleball enthusiasts — think Tinder, but for finding your next doubles partner. Players create profiles with their skill rating, play style, and what they're looking for (competitive matches, casual rallies, drilling, or just new friends). From there, they swipe through other players nearby and get matched with compatible partners to coordinate games with. The app also features a standout Pair Swipe mode where two players team up and jointly swipe on other pairs to find a doubles match — a genuinely novel interaction model that required real-time coordination between multiple clients.
Highlights
Pair Swipe — Collaborative Matching
The most technically interesting feature: two players form a pair, then swipe together on other pairs in real-time. Both players in a pair must swipe right for a like to register, and a match only forms when two pairs mutually like each other. This required a WebSocket-based session manager backed by Redis to track multi-party state across clients simultaneously.
Real-Time Communication
- Socket.io powers both the Pair Swipe sessions and in-app messaging
- Room-based architecture separates chat and matching concerns
- Typed event interfaces shared between frontend and backend ensure consistent contracts
Tech Stack
Frontend: React 18, TypeScript, Vite, TailwindCSS, DaisyUI, TanStack Query, React Router v7, Socket.io-client, Clerk
Backend: Express, TypeScript, MongoDB + Mongoose, Redis, Socket.io, AWS S3, Clerk middleware
Architecture: Monorepo with an MVC-style backend, feature-based WebSocket handlers, and Redis-backed session state for real-time flows
Key Features
- Swipe-based player discovery with filters for skill rating (DUPR), play style, and intent
- Location-based matching using MongoDB geospatial queries
- Profile image uploads stored in AWS S3
- Full real-time chat between matched players
- Collaborative Pair Swipe mode with synchronized multi-client state
- Google and email/password authentication via Clerk
- Onboarding flow to capture skill level, play style, and preferences
