"The website already had the collectors. The app had to give them the three things a browser cannot — a live auction in your pocket, a notification the moment you are outbid, and the piece on your own wall before you buy it."
Overview
We had already designed and built The Bubble Art as a seasonal digital-art marketplace on the web. The app puts that marketplace where a collector actually keeps it — in their pocket. One React Native codebase ships to both stores and talks to the website's own database, so a bid placed on a phone and a bid placed in a browser are the same bid against the same lot. Seventy screens cover every flow the site has, plus the three a browser cannot do well: a live auction room that pushes you a notification the moment you are outbid, artwork placed on your own wall at true scale through AR, and a digital passport that carries a piece's provenance with it.
What was built
Screens, one codebase
Shipped from a single build
Website pages with an app counterpart
How it was built
The app is React Native on Expo SDK 54, with React Navigation driving a five-tab shell — Home, Explore, Studio, Seasons, Profile — over native stacks for the deeper flows. Thirty-five of the seventy screens read from the live site API rather than a local copy, which is what makes the two products one product; a bundled sample set stands in only when the network drops, so the app never opens to an empty screen. Sign-in runs through Apple Authentication, drops and outbids arrive as push notifications, and Expo's update channel lets a fix reach users without waiting on a store review. AR is a small custom native module written in Swift: it hands a USDZ of the artwork to iOS AR Quick Look so a collector can stand a piece against their own wall at true scale, and falls back gracefully on devices that cannot do it. Two complete themes ship — the space-gray dark the brand is built on and a marble light alternative — with gold reserved for auction states and a red clay for live and outbid, checked at AA contrast in both, on 44pt tap targets.
Two marketplaces
The app carries more than the art marketplace. A second world — the Bubbleverse — sits alongside it for graded and raw trading cards, Pokémon and One Piece TCG among them, with the same buy, bid and digital-passport machinery applied to a completely different category. Membership spans both: a free collector tier, a premium art plan, separate trading-card plans and a combined one, with Stripe onboarding for payouts handled inside the app. For artists there is a studio rather than a settings page — listings across auction and fixed price, submission into a season’s curation queue, reviews from verified buyers only, and a fee calculator that puts a number on what Etsy, eBay or Saatchi charge them per year against the 0% commission here.
Screens
Captured on device from the completed app — not mockups.
Season 01 is announced across the top, the featured piece sits under a hold-to-reveal cover, and the live strip shows what is being bid on right now.
Each season is a curated drop with a curator’s note, a 3D gallery you can walk through, and an eight-minute guided tour.
Outbids, counter-offers, new drops, shipping and private-room invitations — filterable, and pushed to the device.
A USDZ handed to iOS AR Quick Look, so a piece stands against a real wall at its true size before anyone buys it.
Verification, edition, medium, provenance transfers and certificate, with buy, offer, AR and passport all one tap away.
A signed holder’s declaration, artist certification and full chain of custody — shareable as a link.
Owned pieces, points and bids at a glance, then membership, payments, rewards, orders and the public showcase.
A collector’s own gallery, every piece badged with the season it was found in.
The artist side — fifteen active lots across auction and fixed price, and one button to list another.
Stripe onboarding for payouts, the collector and premium tiers, and separate trading-card plans, switchable in-app.
Direct threads between collectors and artists, with reporting and blocking built in.
A feed for work in progress and collaboration, moderated with the same report and block tools.
Paid orders with reference numbers, tracked through to delivery.
Ratings from verified buyers only — with an honest empty state rather than invented social proof.
Artists submit work into the curation queue; selection earns a spotlight, and the piece lists and sells either way.
A free tool that puts a number on what Etsy, eBay or Saatchi cost an artist each year, against 0% commission here.
Store readiness
Most of the work between "it runs" and "it ships" is policy, not code. We audited the build against Apple's and Google's review guidelines before submission rather than after a rejection: digital purchases are routed to the web so the app never sells digital goods outside Apple In-App Purchase or Play Billing, in-app checkout is limited to physical delivery where external payment is permitted, account deletion is available inside Settings and on the website, community posts and messages carry reporting and blocking, and the privacy policy and terms are linked from the app itself.
Note: the app is complete and in submission to the App Store and Google Play. Store links will be added here once it is approved and live.
* Whether you have a question or want to discuss a project, the team at
GOAT Technologies is here — USA head office, Dubai branch. Fill the form below!
