# Gurucool: shipping Shloka, then bringing the app to iOS

> At Gurucool: building Shloka, a Bhagavad Gita engagement app, from scratch on iOS and Android, then creating the company's iOS app from an Android-only React Native codebase and owning it end to end.

Canonical URL: https://saifsiddiqui.in/work/gurucool/ (this is its markdown representation; the same URL serves HTML to browsers)
Other languages: hi: https://saifsiddiqui.in/hi/work/gurucool/ · kn: https://saifsiddiqui.in/kn/work/gurucool/ · ur: https://saifsiddiqui.in/ur/work/gurucool/ · te: https://saifsiddiqui.in/te/work/gurucool/ · ar: https://saifsiddiqui.in/ar/work/gurucool/ · hi-Latn: https://saifsiddiqui.in/hi-latn/work/gurucool/

**Role:** Built 0→1  
**Stack:** React Native, GraphQL, Agora, CleverTap

**Links**

- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gurucool

## Problem

I joined Gurucool as an app engineer and got two very different mandates back to
back. First, build a brand new app from scratch. Then, fix the one the company
already had: a React Native product that shipped on Android but had no iOS version
at all.

## Shloka, built from scratch

My first project was Shloka, an app built to bring users back to something calm
and daily: the shlokas of the Bhagavad Gita. The backend held the full set of
verses, and each one carried its translation, transliteration, commentary, and
meaning. I built the app around that: a clean reading experience that pulls a
shloka and its layers of context from the backend and presents them simply. I
built and shipped it on both iOS and Android from nothing.

## Bringing Gurucool to iOS

Gurucool itself is an astrology guidance app: people consult certified astrologers
about love, career, marriage, health, and money through daily horoscopes, chat,
on-call sessions, and live video, drawing on Vedic astrology, tarot, numerology,
and vastu. That focus on real-time consultation is exactly why the app leans so
hard on chat and live sessions, the two things I went on to build and fix.

Then I moved onto the Gurucool app team. The app was a single React Native
codebase, but only Android had ever been built from it. There was no iOS app, and,
as I found out, no ios folder in the project at all. So the first job was to make
iOS exist: I created the ios project and its native scaffolding inside the existing
React Native repo, then worked through the long tail of everything that breaks when
a codebase has never targeted iOS. Pods would not install, the app would not build,
the app would not start. I fixed each issue until it compiled and ran, brought the
iOS app up to full parity with Android, and published it to the App Store.

From there, iOS was mine. I owned the iOS app end to end and co-handled both
platforms with the team.

## What I worked on

**A chat system on GraphQL subscriptions.** I built the app's chat so messages
ride GraphQL subscriptions, keeping conversations live without polling.

**Live video.** Agora was already integrated but buggy. I worked through the issues
and fixed the bugs so live sessions actually held up.

**CleverTap for engagement.** I integrated CleverTap so the team could see how the
app was used and run lifecycle messaging.

**Structure and optimization.** I reorganized the app's files and folders and
cleaned up the project so it was maintainable and fast, not just working.

## Outcome

{/* TODO(saif): metrics slot, installs / DAU / session length or retention for
    Shloka and the Gurucool app. Qualitative until real numbers land. */}

Both apps shipped. Shloka went out on iOS and Android from a standing start. The
[Gurucool app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gurucool) went
from Android-only to a full iOS presence I built and published from a codebase that
had never compiled for iOS, then ran with me as the iOS owner across a two-platform
team. The through-line is simple: I take an app from wherever it is, missing,
half-built, or messy, to shipped and maintainable.

All work: [/work/](/work/)

---

Mohd Saif, Product Engineer. I build solutions, not dead software.
Email: saifmd238@gmail.com · GitHub: https://github.com/Saif-09 · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohd-saif-134076141/ · Résumé (PDF): https://saifsiddiqui.in/resume

More for agents:
- [/llms.txt](/llms.txt): short summary of this site
- [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt): the complete text of every page in one fetch
- [/agents.md](/agents.md): when to use this site, and how to query it
- [/sitemap-index.xml](/sitemap-index.xml): every URL, in seven languages