Development was halted when a similar app appeared. Github, Demo

Stack

App: react-native, redux, websockets (internally through JS, no NPM library), expo, jest (testing)
Web Server: Node.js, express, ws, cassandra-driver (for scylla database), multer & aws-sdk (media upload)
Database: scyllaDB

Process

I followed the slower but more visually appealing process of designing first, developing the UI, web server, database, and putting everything together. Design was done in Adobe Illustrator using design references to examples on dribbble