Recoverlution Uses Stream Chat to Create a Dedicated Online Space for People in Recovery

Emily R.
Emily R.
Published January 18, 2023

Challenge: Addiction recovery is grounded in connection, but a big part of that component was lost when the pandemic prevented groups from meeting in person. Having first-hand experience with the fragmented recovery services on offer, Daniel Fincham, Jacob Midtgaard-Olesen, and Edward Williams were inspired to revolutionize how the recovery community could effectively support one another in a digital environment.

Strategy: As a start-up platform Recoverlution leveraged ready-made APIs where necessary, so the Recoverlution engineers could focus exclusively on creating a unique experience. A platform centered around connection required a chat functionality, and Stream proved to be the best fit for the project.

Result: Stream Chat is now integrated throughout the Recoverlution platform, facilitating users to connect on a 1:1 level to help further their recovery. This is enabled by the direct message and group chat features.


About Recoverlution

Launched in July, Recoverlution is the world's first recovery platform created by addicts for addicts—dedicated to content, community, and wellness. Recoverlution's goal is to highlight recovery's positive and transformative power and how it can change lives for good. This not only means helping the world to understand what recovery is but also getting more people into recovery sooner and helping them stay there longer. With a growing team of 30+ across the UK, Denmark, US, and India, Recoverlution has created unique and premium content and aggregated a suite of best-in-class wellness services and tools, providing a safe and secure space for recovering addicts to engage with peers, professionals, and support groups.

CTO and Co-Founder Jacob Midtgaard-Olesen describes Recoverlution in his own words, "It's a platform for people in recovery—those with a history of addiction. The platform supports them as they move towards a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle in their lifelong recovery."

The platform is also home to a dedicated online recovery community users can join to connect in a 1:1 or group setting, attend live events, and organize offline meet-ups. Midtgaard-Olesen shares the inspiration behind Recoverlution, "What we found after the pandemic was that a lot of activities that typically happen offline moved online, which was a big shift for the recovery community. While it broadened the ability to reach people with similar struggles in Facebook or WhatsApp groups, it quickly showed the lack of any dedicated digital space to have these conversations."

Daniel Fincham, Jacob Midtgaard-Olesen, and Edward Williams saw that gap in the market as an opportunity to create a platform with everything someone in recovery would need, no matter what stage of their journey. They accomplished this by drawing on their own varied experiences with addiction recovery.

Midtgaard-Olesen adds, "This safe and dedicated online space for the entire recovery community was built by people that know what they're talking about—a big portion of our staff are in recovery themselves, so in a way, we also built this software for us."

In-App Chat: The Foundation of Digital Community

In addition to creating multi-media resources for Recoverlution, providing users with a way to connect on the platform as easily as they could in person was essential to Midtgaard-Olesen. This would enable them to form a sense of community, stay accountable, share their stories, and be inspired by others in a safe space.

In this case, the build vs. buy decision was easy. Midtgaard-Olesen says, "Being a startup, we didn't want to build chat functionality from the ground up. We were focused on developing a safe and comprehensive platform for those in recovery, not the next great chat solution."

Recoverlution searched for the right chat API and found Stream to be a feature-rich and flexible option. Not only did the API check all of the boxes on Recoverlution's list of technical requirements, Midtgaard-Olesen felt Stream was the right long-term partner to work with as the platform continued to evolve and grow.

Integrating Stream Chat

The Recoverlution team built a prototype with Stream Chat before fully integrating it with the platform. They then synchronized it with the platform's user profiles, allowing them to chat with others, both anonymous users and those with more complete profiles.

The most important thing to Midtgaard-Olesen was user safety—ensuring Recoverlution protected them in the chat. Once the team proved they could do this, they expanded the reach of Stream Chat throughout the platform.

"Stream was a really good product as a plug-and-play starting point. Today, it's integrated throughout our platform for group chats and direct messaging and, most recently, within our web app, which is currently available in the Apple App store and will be in the Google Play Store soon," Midtgaard-Olesen says. 

Scaling the Reach of Recoverlution

Stream Chat's global Edge infrastructure, low latency, impressive SLA uptimes, and high user capacity enable the platform to scale alongside the growing user base of Recoverlution.

Midtgaard-Olesen says, "We're very happy with Stream Chat, and we plan to expand the functionality to other areas of the platform, like our message board, which will allow us to be flexible and create a cohesive user experience as the product becomes more complex."

Interested in trying Stream Chat? Start your free 30-day trial today.

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