u/AffectionateUsual541

I moved to Australia from Andhra Pradesh a few years back. Newcastle now, five years at Amazon before this.

The first months were a mess. One WhatsApp group for rooms, another for jobs, a Facebook group for the city, someone's cousin for a lift. I was in about eleven groups and still missed things. Anyone who's done this knows the feeling.

So I built InLoop. One place for housing, jobs, buying and selling, events, and local community groups — for people who've come here from India. I'm not a developer by trade, I taught myself and built it alone over nights and weekends.

It's on Google Play in testing now. Google's rule for solo developers is that 12 people have to install it and keep it for 14 days before it can go live. That's the honest reason I'm posting.

If you're on Android and have a minute:

Step 1 — Join with the same Gmail that's on your phone: https://groups.google.com/g/inloop-testers

Step 2 — Install: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.inloop.community

Install app use for 5 min for 14 days that's all it needs. If you open it and something's broken, tell me and I'll fix it.

I Thought I Was Building an App for Indians in Australia. I Was Wrong.

A few months ago, I started building something that completely changed the way I think.

The surprising part?

I have zero professional coding experience.

Everything I've built has been with AI as my development partner. Every screen, feature, redesign, and bug fix has been a learning experience.

I've attached a screenshot of the current progress below. This is still an early version, but I would genuinely appreciate your feedback, thoughts, and suggestions. Building something like this without a traditional coding background has been challenging, but the journey has been incredibly rewarding.

The idea came from my own journey as an international student in Australia.

Like many students, I relied heavily on an education consultant when I was planning my move. Looking back, I realised that sometimes the advice I received was influenced more by what benefited the consultant rather than what was actually the best option for me.

At that time, I wished I had access to a genuine community of people who had already gone through the same journey.

People who could share real experiences.

People who could guide me.

People who could explain things beyond what a consultant would tell me.

That thought eventually became InLoop.

The vision was simple:

Create a platform where Indian communities can connect in one place instead of being scattered across Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, Telegram channels, and different online communities.

A place for:

- Housing and rentals

- Job leads and career guidance

- Immigration updates

- Local discussions

- Buying and selling

- Mentoring from people who have already walked the same path

- Events and community networking

While building it, I had a much bigger realisation.

This isn't just an Australian problem.

Indians in Canada, the US, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the UAE, and many other countries face the same challenges.

Finding trustworthy information.

Finding the right people.

Finding opportunities.

Finding a community.

That's when I stopped seeing InLoop as an app only for Indians in Australia.

I started seeing it as something that could support Indian communities anywhere in the world — where each country can have its own local ecosystem while still being connected to a larger global community.

The technology is exciting, but that's not what motivates me the most.

The most exciting part is seeing an idea that started from my own frustration evolve into something that could potentially help many others avoid the same struggles.

I'm still learning every day. There are days where AI helps me solve problems in minutes, and there are days where I spend hours trying to understand and fix one small issue.

But this journey has shown me something:

You don't always need to know everything before starting. Sometimes you learn by building.

I've attached the screenshots of the current progress, and I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

If you've ever moved to another country, what was the one thing you wish existed that would have made your journey easier?

Built an app for Indians settling in Australia — need 12 testers to get it live

From Zero Coding Experience to Building InLoop: An AI-Powered Community Platform for Indians Abroad.