Santa
Santa Calls is an iOS entertainment app for creating live, personalized Santa Claus calls. The product combined real-time video, caller and receiver modes, Santa personalization, contact-based invitations, paid call credits, and saved memories into a seasonal mobile experience for families and friends.
Technologies
- Axios
- Firebase
- ReactJS
- ReactNative
- Redux
- Twilio
Live Santa Calls
The team built a real-time video calling experience around two user roles: one person performs as Santa, while the recipient answers an incoming holiday call. The mobile client handled call setup, connection states, timers, media controls, and recording prompts around the live session.
Santa Personalization
The app let callers configure Santa's appearance, scene, and voice before a call. The setup flow combined carousel-based selection, saved preferences, and audio presets so the greeting could feel tailored without slowing down the call flow.
Friends, Credits, and Invitations
The team connected contacts, friend requests, app search, test calls, paid call credits, and shareable credit codes into one path from finding a recipient to starting a premium Santa call.
Team
-
Mr. Igor Stuenko
Senior Frontend, Mobile & AI Developer
-
Mr. Oleksandr Nashyvan
CEO
-
Mr. Philipp Sapronov
Frontend/Mobile developer
-
Mr. Sergey Vaschenko
Project Manager
-
Mr. Stepan Nasliedkov
Frontend/Mobile developer
-
Mrs. Yuliya Tkacuk
QA
Highlights
The final maintenance cycle concentrated on call reliability, recording stability, and release readiness.
- Fixed incoming-call behaviour for first-time users and improved email validation.
- Fixed record-screen and video-recording issues across the March release cycle.
- Updated native modules around the recording flow.
- Shipped build 128 after the recording fixes were integrated.
Santa IV
The 2022 refresh improved the setup experience for callers and expanded the voice configuration path.
- Updated onboarding so callers could move through the Santa setup flow more clearly.
- Reworked the setup voice screen for recording, playback, and preset selection.
- Refined voice modification playback and audio-recorder integration.
- Added support for recording audio from a headphones microphone.
Santa III
Ahead of the holiday launch, the team hardened the live call experience and the flows around it.
- Added and refined call recording, including screen-recorder handling around the active session.
- Added call tones and a new incoming-call notification sound.
- Polished monetization: refined share and redeem credit, out-of-credit handling, and premium product-detail flows.
- Integrated Intercom support and Firebase in-app messaging around the profile and app shell.
- Hardened video-recording failure handling so the app could guide users when permissions or device state blocked a call.
Santa II
The team built the core of Santa Calls: a mobile app centred on a live, two-role Santa call experience.
- Built the app foundation — sign-in, profile, and settings — with a permissions flow for camera, microphone, contacts, notifications, and photo library access.
- Built the live call experience around two roles: one person performs as Santa while the recipient answers an incoming holiday call, with call states, timers, and media controls.
- Added the incoming-call screen, call history, and a friends and contacts flow for finding recipients.
- Introduced the first credit-based call flows, including purchase, redeem, and share-credit modals.