The Dating & Social Networks Hackathon is a groundbreaking event focused on transforming how Africans connect, build relationships, and engage with one another through technology. In a continent with a young, mobile-first, hyper-social population yet where dating and social platforms are often built for other markets and fail to reflect local languages, trust norms, safety concerns, and connectivity realities this hackathon invites developers, designers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs to create practical, scalable solutions built for the African social and dating landscape.

With access to Africa's Talking APIs, mentorship, and a community of innovators, participants will build across key areas of dating and social tech delivering solutions that are engaging, safe, and market-ready.

Addressable Problems in Dating & Social Networks

Low-Bandwidth & USSD-First Dating - Build dating and matchmaking experiences that work over USSD, SMS, and low-data web for users on feature phones or with limited data bundles.

Trust & Safety Verification - Develop identity verification, catfishing detection, phone-number/KYC-lite verification, and reporting/moderation tools that make online dating safer for African users.

Local Language & Cultural Matching - Create matchmaking and conversation tools that support local languages, dialects, and culturally relevant matching criteria (community, values, family expectations) beyond generic swipe apps.

Community & Interest-Based Networking - Design platforms that connect people around shared interests, professions, hobbies, or causes from alumni networks to hobbyist communities to professional mixers.

Event & Meetup Discovery - Build tools that help people discover local social events, meetups, and gatherings, with RSVP, ticketing, and SMS/USSD reminders for offline connection.

Safety-First Meetup Coordination - Develop location-sharing, check-in, and emergency alert features for users meeting matches or new connections in person for the first time.

Monetization & Premium Social Features - Create subscription, boost, or gifting models with M-Pesa and airtime billing integration for dating and social apps.

AI-Powered Matching & Conversation Starters - Build AI-driven compatibility scoring, icebreaker generation, and conversation assistance tools that improve match quality and engagement.

Anti-Harassment & Content Moderation - Design AI or rules-based moderation systems that detect harassment, scams, explicit content, and abusive behavior in chats and profiles.

Social Commerce & Creator Communities - Develop platforms that blend social networking with commerce creator monetization, group buying, or community marketplaces.

Family & Community-Endorsed Matchmaking - Build tools that reflect traditional matchmaking practices (family/community involvement) in a digital-first, opt-in way.

Embedded Social & Dating Features - Build APIs and SDKs that embed lightweight social or dating features into existing apps ride-hailing, gaming, fintech enabling contextual connection.

Objectives

• Bridge the Connection Gap - Create solutions that make it easier, safer, and more culturally relevant for Africans to meet, date, and build community online.

• Foster Local Innovation - Empower African builders to solve the continent's unique social discovery, trust, and connectivity challenges.

• Promote Inclusion - Build tools that work for users regardless of device, bandwidth, or income level not just smartphone-and-data-rich users.

• Encourage Responsible Development - Prioritize user safety, data privacy, consent, and ethical AI in dating and social platforms.

• Enable Impact at Scale - Ensure solutions can grow to serve millions of users across Africa's diverse markets and languages.

Target Attendees

• Developers & Engineers - With experience in mobile/web development, APIs, or scalable consumer platforms.

• UX/UI Designers - To reimagine discovery, matching, messaging, and safety experiences.

• AI/ML & Data Scientists - Experts building matching algorithms, recommendation engines, and moderation/fraud detection systems.

• Trust & Safety Specialists - Bringing expertise in content moderation, verification, and online safety.

• Students & Learners - With a passion for technology, social impact, and community building.

• Social Entrepreneurs & NGOs - Focused on community building, youth engagement, and safe digital spaces.

• Marketing & Growth Experts - Bringing insight into community growth loops, virality, and retention.

Why Participate

• Access to Tools & APIs - Leverage Africa's Talking SMS, USSD, Voice, and Airtime APIs to build scalable dating and social solutions.

• Mentorship & Workshops - Learn from seasoned professionals in consumer tech, trust & safety, and growth.

• Collaborative Innovation - Team up across disciplines tech, design, safety, growth to bring ideas to life.

• Cash Prizes & Recognition - Win exciting rewards and showcase your solution to the wider Africa's Talking ecosystem.

• Real-World Impact - Build solutions that help millions of Africans connect safely and meaningfully.

• Talent & Gig Opportunities - Get discovered connect with customers and partners looking to hire or commission builders.

  

Prizes

The winning solution will receive cash prizes as follows:

• Winner - $100 (Join Marketplace Program)

• 1st Runners Up - $50

• 2nd Runners Up - $25

Africa's Talking powers communications solutions across Africa with simplified access to telco infrastructure. Developers use our powerful SMS, USSD, Voice, Chat, Airtime and Mobile Data to bring their ideas to life, as they build and sustain scalable businesses.

Agenda

1. Warm-Up

• Introductions

• Form teams where need be

• Feedback

• Feature requests

2. Building/hacking

Code in GitHub/GitLab/BitBucket and deploy in Docker/Automated CI/Travis CI/Bamboo

Note: This section needs additional setup.

Upon commit, the repository is built and deployed to an accessible web server or an S3 bucket.

3. Demonstration and Wrap-up

Teams or individuals will demo what they have hacked for feedback or adoption.

Note: Carry a laptop

Opportunities

• Network

• Innovate

• Access to our Talent bench (You can get a job or a gig on the spot)

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Publish on Africa's Talking Marketplace

Marketplace: Get Call Back as a Service and Publish your plugin/app for our customer.

Developer Documentation (We welcome feedback)

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Submit your Idea

• Hackathon idea submission form

Gigs

We would love to reach out to you so that you can build for our customers, please fill out this form with details to ensure we have your details:

GIG/HACK DEVELOPER PORTFOLIO FORM

Join community channels

Slack

Join Africa's Talking slack community here

Please follow our Twitter handles to:

• @AfricasTalking

• @ElarianHQ

You can get our videos, recaps, and event interviews on our youtube channels, subscribe to get updates:

• Africa's Talking Youtube Channel

Africa's Talking community allows developers to learn skills for the modern-day African Developer. We are language and framework agnostic. All developers are welcome. This is where Africa's Talking developers community meets to build, learn and exchange knowledge.

We are helping software developers and businesses to bring their ideas to life through easy-to-use APIs easily.

Would you like to partner with us? Kindly contact the Developer Experience Team.