Sircles Work Session

1. Server Pipeline & Test Cases

Engineering has successfully fixed all broken test cases within the GitHub Actions pipeline, and current builds are now passing. Work is continuing on adding new server-level test cases for the message module. Once these foundational tests are finalized, the team will transition to higher-priority tasks as assigned by leadership.

2. Web View Performance & Infinite Scroll

Significant progress has been made on the web view experience with the implementation of an "infinite scroll list" library, which has made general scrolling much more fluid. However, testing revealed a recurring issue where scrolling occasionally freezes if the user's thumb interacts directly with specific image cards or UI elements. Developers are exploring a CSS-based fix to eliminate these "trigger-happy" popup and freezing behaviors to ensure the interface feels as responsive as the native app.

3. New Architecture UI Stability & Flickering

The team is focusing on resolving "jumpy" scrolling and image flickering in the new architecture build. A specific bug was identified where navigating between the main chat and individual topics causes the background to shift or turn blue prematurely. This issue appears to be related to the order in which React states are set within the new architecture . Additionally, Lottie animations are causing the phone to stutter during onboarding, which engineering is investigating to determine if it is a library-specific issue or a result of improper resource allocation .

4. Dynamic Media Sizing & Link Previews

Developers have polished dynamic sizing for images and videos in the new architecture by pulling height and width data directly from the backend. This prevents "scrolling jumps" that previously occurred when the frontend had to calculate dimensions after a file loaded. Work is also underway to improve internal link previews so that sharing an invite link within the app displays the correct metadata and image. A fix was also implemented for a critical issue where large images (over 45 MB) were failing to load due to redundant transformation properties .

5. Navigation & Notification Synchronization

Engineering is addressing a navigation bug where tapping a topic notification incorrectly redirects users to the home screen instead of the specific topic . This was traced to a topic reference being cleared prematurely in the JavaScript logic. While a refactor of the deep link behavior has passed initial tests and solved "out of sync" content issues, the team plans a comprehensive team-wide QA session on Monday to stress-test these navigation paths across multiple scenarios .

6. Moderation Portal & AI Tools

The moderator portal has received quality-of-life updates, including the removal of banned users from active lists and a new "quick view" for user activity details . AI-driven moderation is now providing summarized assessments within internal report emails to help admins identify malicious accounts faster. The team also discussed a proposed "penalty box" feature that would allow moderators to restrict a user's chat privileges without banning them from the entire app .

7. Backend Performance & AWS Optimization

A major breakthrough was made regarding recurring daily CPU spikes at midnight UTC. The issue was traced to AWS Elastic Beanstalk's default "log rotate" functionality. To resolve the resulting lag during peak hours, engineering has shifted this process to 11:00 AM UTC. Additionally, a significant optimization was made to the "favorite" update flow, reducing processing time from 30 seconds to approximately 5 seconds by eliminating inefficient database cursors for users with thousands of friends.