Back to selected work

Khalawat

Create space for a different choice—without surveillance or shame.

Role
Creator & Lead Android Engineer · Featured by Code For Chad
Status
Android MVP — in development
Technology context
Kotlin · Jetpack Compose · VpnService · Room · Android Keystore

The problem

People trying to change private digital habits often face tools built for monitoring or punishment. Khalawat explores a different model: protection installed voluntarily, operating locally, and designed around the short window in which an interruption can help.

The response

I built an Android MVP that uses a local VPN and DNS interception to redirect blocked requests into staged spiritual interventions, while keeping browsing data on the device and avoiding remote reporting.

Decisions that shaped the product

  1. 01

    DNS-only tunnel

    The VPN handles only DNS traffic. Clean queries use the device's resolver, limiting scope and avoiding unnecessary visibility into browsing traffic.

  2. 02

    Friction that escalates carefully

    A deterministic state machine moves from a pause to active deflection and a longer lock, creating time without turning the experience into punishment.

  3. 03

    Local privacy as a product promise

    Blocklists, spiritual content, intervention pages, state, and protected settings live locally. Sensitive PIN material uses Android Keystore protection.

Implemented evidence

  • Kotlin and Jetpack Compose application around Android VpnService and a testable DNS coordination core.
  • Packet parsing, blocklist matching, resolver fallback, forwarding retries, and loopback-only interventions.
  • Offline multilingual spiritual content and persistent escalation behavior.
  • Automated unit tests, Android lint verification, and a successful release build in the latest hardening cycle.
  • Code For Chad publicly featured Khalawat as an open-source project developed by Amdjad Aboubakar and invited contributors.

Current limits

  • Khalawat is an in-development Android MVP, not a publicly distributed protection service.
  • DNS filtering cannot guarantee that every harmful resource or bypass technique is blocked.
  • No behavioral outcome or effectiveness claim is made without real-world evidence.
Privacy is not only encryption or storage. It is deciding how little a product needs to know, and refusing features that would break the trust behind voluntary use.