Hostel and Society Visitor Management Android App with QR Gate Pass and Pre-Approval

Hostel wardens and housing-society committees still manage visitor entry with a paper register at the gate. The guard scribbles a name, phones the resident on the intercom, and waves the visitor through — a process that breaks the moment the resident is unreachable, and leaves behind a register nobody can search when an incident needs tracing. Forged entries, unrecorded exits and tailgating go unnoticed because the paper trail is decorative, not functional. Residents, meanwhile, get no control over who reaches their door and no record of who came. This project replaces that register with a phone-first system: the resident pre-approves a visit from the app, the approval becomes a time-bound QR gate pass (plus a numeric backup code), and the guard verifies the pass against live data before allowing entry. Every check-in and check-out lands in a timestamped digital log that the society can filter by date, flat or purpose.

1. The resident registers in the app with a phone number verified against their flat record in the society database.
2. To authorize a visit, the resident fills the pre-approval form — visitor name, phone, purpose and time window — and the backend creates a signed pass document.
3. The app renders the pass as a QR code with a 6-digit backup code; the resident shares it with the visitor over any messaging app.
4. At the gate, the guard scans the QR (or enters the code); the console fetches the pass, confirms it is active and inside its validity window, and shows the visitor details.
5. The guard approves or denies the entry; approval writes a check-in record with a timestamp and notifies the resident, while a denial is logged with the reason.
6. On exit the guard scans again to record check-out, and the admin view shows a live list of everyone currently inside plus the full day's log.

Tech stack:

• Kotlin + Android SDK (Jetpack: ViewModel, Navigation, Room cache)
• Firebase Authentication (phone + flat verification)
• Cloud Firestore (passes, visits, entry log)
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (arrival / denial / check-out alerts)
• Cloud Functions (pass signing and validation logic)
• ZXing (QR generation and scanning)
• Material Design 3 (app UI)

• [Resident pre-approval] The resident raises a visit request with the visitor's name, phone, purpose and time window; the app issues the approval instantly and the visitor is expected at the gate — no intercom calls needed.
• [QR gate pass with validity window] Every approval generates a unique QR code plus a 6-digit backup code, valid only inside the chosen time window, so a pass cannot be reused the next day.
• [Guard verification console] The guard scans the QR (or types the code) and sees the visitor's name, purpose, flat and validity on one screen before tapping approve or deny.
• [Digital visitor log] All entries carry check-in and check-out timestamps and are filterable by date, flat and purpose — the searchable replacement for the paper register.
• [Entry and exit tracking] Visitors are checked out at the gate on exit, so the log always shows who is currently inside the premises.
• [Push notifications] Residents get a push alert when their visitor arrives, is denied entry, or checks out, via Firebase Cloud Messaging.
• [Recurring visitor passes] Regular visitors such as house help, drivers and tutors get weekly recurring passes instead of a fresh approval every day.

• Complete resident Android app source code (Kotlin)
• Guard verification console source (scan, verify, log, check-out)
• Firebase backend configuration template (Auth, Firestore rules, Cloud Functions)
• QR pass module (generation, signing, validity checks)
• Society admin view for flats, guard accounts and announcements
• Project report PDF (architecture, data model, security choices)
• PPT presentation for final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document (Android, Firebase, QR security)
• Setup guide: Firebase project setup, build and install steps