DEV Community: Joseph

Relive, Recall, Reconnect: The Journey Behind MyMemoryAI

Joseph — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 18:53:13 +0000

After the Hack: MyMemoryAI and the Journey That Followed
This is a submission for the World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge: After the Hack.

From Hackathon to Hope
I came up with the idea for MyMemoryAI from a very personal place—my grandmother's struggle with dementia. I wanted to create something that could make others like her feel heard, noticed, and reunited. The hackathon gave me the platform and the tools to take that sentiment and make it into something real.

What MyMemoryAI Became
Beginning life as a prototype, it developed into a full-fledged, mobile-ready platform, now launched at:
https://eloquent-kleicha-16006a.netlify.app/
Demo Video: https://youtu.be/EsbARRlEjno?si=xD2ObhjttIuVAXJH

Highlights:

AI-powered Memory Book: Voice-narrated slideshows with ElevenLabs

Memory Quizzes: Personalized, adaptive quizzes for mental recall

Secure Uploads + Blockchain: Memories timestamped and encrypted on Algorand

Voice Commands + Chat AI: Navigation and conversation through Google Cloud STT and ElevenLabs

Caregiver Dashboard: Supabase-powered insights with engagement tracking

Silly Memory Mode: Share humorous AI-edited memories on Reddit for laughter therapy

Personal Growth & Transformation
Post-hackathon, I immersed myself in:

AI narration design and audio UX

Designing dementia-accessible UI elements

AWS S3 + encryption management for secure storage

Supabase usage for scalable logs and user tracking

Voice and video AI integration for engagement

Making tech human-first

What's Next for MyMemoryAI
Rolling out pilot programs with caregiving communities

Integrating multilingual and regional culture memory support

Scaling Reddit memory sharing with moderation tools

Packaging as a native app with Capacitor or Expo

Using Vana for future-proof data sovereignty

Shout-Outs
@boltnew – For granting no-code structure superpowers

@supabase, @algorand, @elevenlabs, @revenuecat, and @tavus – For sponsor integrations that are seamless

Hackathon friends and Discord community – For debugging help, feedback, and support

Final Reflection
Creating MyMemoryAI wasn't only a technology experience—it was healing. It enabled me to work through personal grief, yet create something that would enable others to feel closer to their loved ones. The support, resources, and guidance during and after the hackathon made that attainable.

Live Demo: https://eloquent-kleicha-16006a.netlify.app/
Demo Video: https://youtu.be/EsbARRlEjno?si=xD2ObhjttIuVAXJH
DEV: @josephmwangi

"Relive, Recall, Reconnect – Memories That Last."

Beyond the Code: Building Memories, Not Just Features

Joseph — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 18:36:16 +0000

A Personal Spark

MyMemoryAI was sparked by a person very close and dear to my heart—my grandmother. It was saddening to see her battle slowly with memory loss, yet it planted the seed for something extraordinary. I pictured a digital companion to help people like her relive memories, reconnect with loved ones, and feel empowered through shared experiences.

Teamwork and Connection

Though a solo builder on paper, the experience wasn't solitary. Bolt.new sponsor teams and community delivered value right away:

I connected with fellow builders and mentors in Discord who reviewed my voice UX flows.
Bolt's support team personally guided me through Supabase and Algorand integration, a first for me.
ElevenLabs engineers taught me about voice latency handling, which enabled me to optimize narration for the dementia-friendly slideshow.
It felt like being part of a hackathon family, even while building asynchronously across time zones.

Hackathon IRL: Mini Moments That Mattered

Although I didn't participate in an in-person IRL hackathon this time, I did have a family demo night—letting my parents experience MyMemoryAI. My mom got choked up during the slideshow narration of a childhood memory. That's when I knew the app did more than function, it touched people.

Giving Back. To pay it forward:

Answered questions in the Bolt.new forums about custom audio flows
Posted notes on my Algorand + Bolt + Supabase integration with other teams
Gave UX feedback to various newcomers building apps for neurodiverse users

Community Shoutouts
@boltnew – for building the infrastructure and community that made this possible
@elevenlabs – for enabling such realistic and soothing narration
@supabase – your dashboards powered our caregiver insights
@josephmwangi – that's me, but I could not have done it without the amazing mentors and Discord channels that guided me

What I Learned

Sometimes your best ideas are born out of personal pain
Community is not just a Slack channel—it's knowing that someone, somewhere, is rooting for your build

Tech becomes magic when combined with empathy

The Project
MyMemoryAI is live at https://eloquent-kleicha-16006a.netlify.app/
And you can read our entire build story here → https://dev.to/shortgiant/from-grandma-to-git-building-a-dementia-friendly-app-with-boltnew-430d

From Grandma to Git: Building a Dementia-Friendly App with Bolt.new

Joseph — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 18:01:12 +0000

What We Built

MyMemoryAI is an AI-powered mobile memory companion that supports dementia patients and their loved ones. Developed with my own grandmother's experience with memory loss as inspiration, the app allows users to relive moments, remember details, and reconnect to the past.

Designed for accessibility, MyMemoryAI includes:

Memory uploads (photo, video, text) with AI tagging via AWS Rekognition
Digital memory book with voice-guided slideshows (via ElevenLabs)
Voice navigation via Google Speech-to-Text
AI-quizzes challenging recall in a playful, adaptive way
Caregiver dashboard with read access to engagement insights securely
Silly Memory Mode optional with Reddit API for humor and bonding
Built-in chat and AI conversational buddy for emotional support

Everything was built with Bolt.new, and deployed on a custom Netlify domain with sponsor integrations.

How Bolt.new Transformed the Build

We went from concept to full-stack MVP in under two weeks.

This is how Bolt did it:

No-code AI building blocks allowed us to hook up ElevenLabs, Supabase, and AWS Rekognition with prompts only—no more difficult backend glue needed.
We designed interfaces for dementia sufferers with drag-and-drop UI, using Bolt's accessibility-focused components (font ≥ 20pt, big buttons, contrast themes).
Bolt's prompt-based flows handled memory uploads → tagging → storage → blockchain logging (on Algorand) on a single logic map.
The "Built with Bolt.new" badge was naturally integrated, following challenge requirements while providing full visibility of our stack.

Sponsor Integrations We Handled

Voice AI Challenge (ElevenLabs)
Introduced voice feedback for quizzes, slideshow narration, and voice command responses.

Tavus (Conversational AI Video)
An inviting avatar welcomes the app and provides reassuring walkthroughs on first launch.

RevenueCat (Make More Money)
We have integrated RevenueCat's mobile SDK to offer caregivers premium features: more uploads, priority support, in-depth analytics.

Algorand (Blockchain Challenge)
Each upload to memory creates a blockchain log record of metadata and permission that is verifiable.

Supabase (Startup Challenge)
Supabase powers user management, engagement logs, and secure dashboard analytics.

Reddit API (Silly Sh!t Challenge)
We built "Silly Memory Mode" where users can share silly AI-edited memories (e.g. "Alien Grandpa at Woodstock") to a private subreddit.

Entri + IONOS (Custom Domain)
The app is live at mymemoryai.app via Entri domain setup.

Favorite Bolt Features

Prompt-to-logic AI blocks — no code needed for workflows like:"Upload photo → analyze with Rekognition → tag and save to S3 → log on Algorand"

Drag-and-drop interfaces — the only way to build dementia-friendly UX
Deployment built-in with Netlify — we had a live public app URL in minutes
Plugin integrations — ElevenLabs and Supabase were easy to hook up

What We Learned

Accessibility is not optional—it's a basic design principle.
AI companions offer not just utility, but emotional support.
No-code platforms like Bolt.new eliminate the need for technology to be creative.
Combining individual inspiration (grandmother's tale) and cutting-edge tech brings solutions into existence.

Technical Challenges

Voice navigation mapping to dynamic memory content required conditionals based on tags.
OAuth2 flow debugging for RevenueCat and Reddit demanded API-level workarounds.
Custom audio control enablement (e.g., moving soothing music within settings) was tuning with ElevenLabs SDK.

What's Next

Add Vana for user-controlled data access and transportable consent logs
Translate UI for multi-lingual support
Build AI-powered day memory capsules with historic data
Scale to nursing homes and community centers

Team

@JosephMwangi (Lead Builder, UX, Bolt integration)
Special thanks to the Bolt.new team and sponsors!

Live App + Demo

App: https://eloquent-kleicha-16006a.netlify.app/

Demo Video: https://youtu.be/EsbARRlEjno?si=FUOAC7jNtbvsMLWV