Sircles Work Session

1. Server Level Testing & Pipeline Infrastructure

Engineering has successfully fixed the broken test cases on the GitHub Actions pipeline, ensuring that builds are now passing . Work is currently ongoing to add more server-level test cases, specifically for mutations within the chat module, such as message creation and editing . These tests utilize a mocked MSSQL database to facilitate validation within the CI/CD pipeline .

2. Web View Development & Enhanced Interactivity

Significant progress was demonstrated on the web view, featuring a new "infinite scroll" library that has resolved previous scrolling fluidity issues . The team also integrated message reactions and topic switching, though they are still refining "long-press" UX and addressing interaction conflicts where scrolling freezes when touching specific UI elements . A manual screening queue has been built into the admin portal to monitor initial web-based messages, and the team is working to identify returning app users via universal links to bypass this screening .

3. New Architecture UI Stability & "Jank" Reduction

The team is focused on identifying and removing "jank" in the new architecture through frame-by-frame video comparisons between the old and new builds . Key visual issues include flickering during topic transitions and stuttering caused by heavy Lottie animations . A "scrolling jump" bug occurring during pagination was resolved by adjusting the Apollo cache fetch policy . Additionally, the team is enabling experimental Sentry canvas capturing to better identify UI regressions without severely degrading performance .

4. Lottie Animation & Reanimated Optimization

Engineering identified large Lottie files (up to 3 MB) as a source of performance degradation . The recommended solution is to remake these assets using the Lottie editor to reduce file sizes to approximately 100 KB and enable hardware GPU acceleration . Regarding the "Reanimated" library, the team is replacing complex 3D flip effects—which are currently failing in the new architecture—with simpler slide or fade transitions while evaluating a potential migration to Version 4 .

5. Performance Diagnostics & Sentry Integration

The team confirmed that recent Android app freezes were linked to conflicts between Sentry's latest session replay integration and system "locks" . Sentry has been downgraded to a previous stable version to eliminate these freezes, and early tests indicate smoother scrolling on Android . Excessive logging issues have also been addressed by refactoring backend code to disable unnecessary console logs on production servers .

6. Backend Infrastructure & Performance BREAKTHROUGH

A significant breakthrough was achieved regarding recurring daily CPU spikes at midnight UTC . The issue was traced to AWS Elastic Beanstalk's default "log rotate" functionality and an OS-level "system performance summary" job . To avoid peak user disruptions, engineering has successfully shifted these processes to an off-peak time of 11:00 AM UTC . Additionally, the "favorite" update flow was optimized, reducing the processing time for high-friendship accounts from 30 seconds to roughly 5 seconds .

7. Media Handling & Link Previews

Work has been polished on dynamic sizing for images and videos in the new architecture by pulling dimensions directly from the backend . This prevents "scrolling jumps" during file loading . A fix was also implemented for internal link previews so they display correct images and metadata instead of opening an external browser . Furthermore, engineering implemented a fix for an image corruption bug affecting large files (over 45 MB) in public chats .

8. Strategic Onboarding & Market Challenges

Leadership remains focused on the "brick wall" in international markets like South Africa, where high invite activity is yielding very few conversions on Android . To improve this, the team is considering onboarding enhancements like offering WhatsApp as a fallback for failed SMS verification codes . Leadership plans to engage regional marketing agencies to better understand local technical blocks and culturally tailor the onboarding flow .