The Problem with AI-Generated Output on Mobile
If you use LLMs to draft articles, outline code, or generate copy on your phone, you have probably run into the formatting bottleneck. You prompt an AI, it spits out a block of mixed markdown, raw text, and nested HTML, and then you have to figure out how to clean it up.
On a desktop, this is a minor inconvenience. On a mobile device, copying, pasting, and manually replacing tags or asterisks is frustrating. I built AIMarkdownPro Editor to solve this specific problem, focusing entirely on speed and simplicity.
Why I Built It
I draft a lot of my thoughts, documentation, and blog outlines on my phone during commutes. When using AI assistants to help structure these thoughts, the output is rarely ready for publishing. I found myself jumping between notes apps, web-based converters, and text editors just to get clean Markdown or HTML.
I wanted a dedicated tool that did one thing really well: accept messy text, parse it instantly, and let me convert it back and forth between Markdown and HTML without any fuss.
The Simplicity-First Design
The core design goal was zero friction. Many mobile text editors try to be full IDEs or desktop replacements, cluttering the small screen with nested menus, custom keyboards, and complex file managers.
For this app, the user experience is straightforward:
- Paste your text.
- Tap to toggle between Markdown and HTML.
- Preview in real-time.
- Copy the clean code or share it directly to your target application.
By keeping the interface minimal, the app feels fast and lightweight, allowing you to format your text and get back to your workflow in seconds.
Under the Hood: The Tech Stack
I chose native Android development using Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. Jetpack Compose was a natural fit for this project because of its declarative nature.
- UI State Management: Compose allowed me to bind the editor text state directly to the parser. When you type or paste, the state updates, triggering the background parsing engine, and updates the preview seamlessly.
- Parsing Engine: For converting Markdown to HTML, I used a lightweight Java-based markdown parser. The real challenge was the reverse: parsing HTML back into readable Markdown. I implemented a custom AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) converter that processes HTML nodes and translates them into clean Markdown syntax without adding unnecessary line breaks or artifact characters.
- Web Fetcher: The app also includes a simple feature to fetch web pages directly. It extracts the main content block from a URL and converts it straight to Markdown, stripping out ads, navigation headers, and scripts.
Overcoming Technical Challenges
The primary technical challenge was managing performance during real-time rendering. Parsing large blocks of text on every keystroke can cause typing lag on budget Android devices.
To keep the editor responsive, I offloaded the parsing logic to Kotlin Coroutines. The parser runs on a background thread (Dispatchers.Default), while a debouncing mechanism ensures we only trigger the parse job after a short pause in typing. This keeps the main thread free and the editor interface smooth.
Handling edge cases in bidirectional conversion was another hurdle. Nested tables, mixed inline styles, and unclosed HTML tags from incomplete AI outputs frequently broke standard parsers. I had to build robust fallback rules in the parser to gracefully handle and clean up malformed code.
What I Learned
Building this app taught me that stripping away features is often harder than adding them. I initially planned to add cloud syncing, folder management, and custom themes. However, testing showed that these additions only distracted from the core utility: fast, painless text cleaning. Staying focused on the primary problem allowed me to ship a tool that actually gets used daily.
Try It Out
If you frequently work with formatted text on Android, you can try the app yourself on Google Play.
For more lightweight utilities and projects, feel free to check out my portfolio at getinfotoyou.com.
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