I’m excited to share that I just finished building a fully functional Mini Instagram + Reels site from scratch using a classic stack: PHP, MySQL, and vanilla CSS/JavaScript.
The Challenge: The Reels Feature
The biggest hurdle was definitely the short-video (Reels) functionality. I tried leaning on AI models like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Grok to help scaffold the code, but to be honest, the results were pretty lackluster. The generated code was often clunky, filled with bugs.
The Solution: Going Back to Basics
Instead of wrestling with AI snippets, I decided to go "old school." I wrote the entire interface using pure CSS and JavaScript.
instagram clone: https://www.unitenote.com/
reels clone: https://www.unitenote.com/watch/
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