Astrophile is an astronomy social network that its founder, Miryam El Samad, programmed from her bedroom six months after she first learned how to code. The app brings stargazers, hobbyists, and people who work in the field into one place. It started as a small personal project and grew into something far larger than that.
A Childhood Obsession With Space, Years Before the Code
The passion came long before the programming. El Samad says she was six years old when she first started telling people she wanted to become an astronaut. The coding came later, and almost by accident. One night at fourteen, out of pure boredom, she started researching how to code.
Those two threads, a love of astronomy and a new skill in programming, became Astrophile. She wanted a place to connect with like-minded people she could not find around her. So she built one.
From Random Instagram Videos to the First 100 Users
El Samad opened an Instagram account and began posting videos. Over time, she started sharing the progress of building her astronomy app. Those posts gained millions of views and thousands of followers, and that audience became the app's first wave of users.
The community moved fast. Astrophile launched on 24 April 2024, and by 26 April 2024 it had reached its first 100 users, just two days later. The active following she had built on Instagram was the reason the numbers grew so quickly.
What the App Became After Its First Summer
The first version of Astrophile was modest. It worked as a stargazing diary, a way to keep track of the images you take of the night sky and the nights you spend observing the universe. As El Samad puts it, it was nothing you could not do in a notes app.
That changed on 21 August 2024 with a major update that transformed the app. She added post, community, astrophotography, and startup sections, widening what Astrophile could do. The goal was to let hobbyists and people who work in the field connect in one spot, on the idea that more public participation in space exploration pays off over time.
Still a Solo Project, With a Bigger Plan
El Samad still runs both the app and the Instagram account as a solo developer. She is open about the limits of that, noting she cannot maintain it as regularly as she would like because of school and other commitments.
Her longer-term ambition is larger than a social app. As artificial intelligence moves into the aerospace field, she wants to turn Astrophile into a startup focused on lowering the cost of scientific space missions and making space education far more accessible.
The Lesson She Took From Building It
El Samad's takeaway from the project is about getting out of your own way. "You'd be surprised how far you can get if you stop letting your age and fear of embarrassment get in the way," she says. "Building something that is deeply meaningful to you is nothing to be embarrassed about."
She frames the rest as a reason to start. Along the way you meet many like-minded people, she says, so take the opportunity and do the things that scare you.
Follow the project at Astrophile.
