Pakhi Tunes

Screenshots

About this app

Pakhi Tunes helps you discover and play music for free — from mood-based genres and new releases to quick song search. Build your library with favourites, downloads, and recent plays.

What makes it different: Nearby Listening. Scan for people playing music around you, join their session, and listen in sync — or share what you're playing so others can tune in.

Use the app as a guest or sign in to keep favourites and history synced across devices.

Overview

Pakhi Tunes is a full-stack mobile music streaming application built with React Native and Expo. It combines catalog discovery, a persistent audio player with queue management, offline downloads, user authentication, and a unique Nearby Listening feature that lets users discover and join real-time listening sessions with people around them.

The project spans two repositories: a React Native mobile app and a Node.js/Express backend with MongoDB and Socket.IO.

From search and favorites to background playback and OTA update dialogs, Pakhi Tunes demonstrates end-to-end product thinking — architecture, API design, real-time sync, and production deployment workflows — as part of my learning portfolio.

The problem

Building a credible music app as a portfolio project requires more than a UI mockup. Streaming apps demand persistent background playback, offline support, authenticated user state, and responsive discovery experiences — all on mobile hardware with strict OS constraints.

I also wanted to explore a feature rarely seen in indie projects: social, location-aware listening. Coordinating playback state between a host and multiple listeners in real time, while respecting privacy and battery life, adds meaningful engineering depth beyond a standard CRUD app — see challenges & solutions for how this was tackled.

The goal was to create a case study-worthy project that proves ability across mobile, backend, databases, and real-time systems — while staying clearly educational and non-commercial.

The solution

Pakhi Tunes uses a mobile client and backend API architecture. The mobile client handles playback via react-native-track-player, state via Zustand and React Query, and real-time nearby sessions via Socket.IO. The Express API provides REST endpoints for auth, catalog, favorites, history, and downloads metadata.

MongoDB stores user data, guest sessions, favorites, play history, and app configuration. Song metadata is scraped from external APIs on the backend, then normalized and shaped into the response format the mobile app needs.

Technologies

Features

• Music discovery

  Browse genres, top artists, new releases, albums, and songs. Full-text search across the catalog with artist and album detail pages.

• Persistent audio player

  Background playback with lock-screen controls, mini player, full player UI, queue management (play next, reorder, shuffle, repeat), and Up Next sheet.

• Nearby Listening

  Location-based radar to discover nearby hosts, opt-in discoverability, join live sessions, and sync play/pause/seek/track changes in real time via Socket.IO.

• Offline downloads

  Download songs in 96/128/320 kbps quality using resumable downloads. Play downloaded tracks without network connectivity.

• Authentication & guest mode

  Email/password and Google Sign-In. Guest mode with usage limits (downloads, favorites, history, listening time) and seamless conversion to registered accounts.

• Library & sync

  Favorites, play history, downloaded songs, and artist collections. Bulk sync of favorites and history to the backend for logged-in users.

• OTA updates

  Remote app config drives soft and force update dialogs with version-aware release notes fetched from the backend.

System architecture

The system is designed as a React Native mobile app and Node.js backend sharing a single API. The mobile app communicates over HTTPS for REST and WebSocket for nearby listening.

Database design

MongoDB stores user-generated and operational data. Songs are scraped from external APIs on the backend, then normalized, enriched, and returned in a consistent shape for search, playback, and library features.

API design

The REST API follows resource-oriented routing with JWT authentication for protected endpoints. Socket.IO handles real-time nearby session events separately — see challenges & solutions for how playback sync was solved.

Challenges & solutions

Optimizations

• React Query caching and stale-while-revalidate for catalog data to minimize redundant API calls.
• Bulk sync endpoints for favorites and history to reduce round-trips on login.
• Resumable downloads via expo-file-system to handle interrupted network conditions.
• Zustand selectors for granular player state updates without full-tree re-renders.
• GeoJSON 2dsphere indexing for sub-millisecond nearby session queries.

Performance highlights

Version history

Future roadmap

• iOS build and TestFlight distribution via EAS
• Playlist creation and collaborative playlists
• Lyrics display integration
• Push notification campaigns for new releases
• Improved recommendation engine based on listening history
• Social features — follow users, share currently playing
• Widget support for home-screen now-playing

Frequently asked questions

Is Pakhi Tunes available on the Play Store or App Store?

No. Pakhi Tunes is distributed as a direct APK download for learning and portfolio purposes. It is not published on any commercial app store.

Where does the music come from?

Song metadata and streaming URLs are scraped from external APIs on the backend. The API normalizes and shapes that data for the mobile app. The backend does not host music files. This is an educational project, not a licensed streaming service.

Can I use this project commercially?

No. Pakhi Tunes is built for learning and portfolio demonstration only. It is not intended for commercial use, monetization, or public distribution at scale.

What is Nearby Listening?

Nearby Listening lets users opt in to discoverability, scan for active listening sessions near their location, and join a host's session in real time. Playback state (play, pause, seek, track change) syncs via Socket.IO.

What technologies were used?

React Native with Expo for the mobile app, Node.js/Express with MongoDB for the backend, and Socket.IO for real-time features. See the Technologies section for the full stack.

Is the source code open source?

Yes. The mobile app repository is available on GitHub.View on GitHub

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