Hey Dev.to
I'm a solo developer from Australia. I spent the last year building NutriBalance — a free calorie and macro tracker for Android.
The problem I kept running into: I'd download MyFitnessPal, use it for 3 days, and quit. Not because tracking is hard — it takes 30 seconds with a barcode scanner. But there's zero reason to open a boring spreadsheet on a bad day.
So I built gamification into the core of the app:
- Daily streaks that cost you something when you break them
- XP + levelling system
- 5-tier daily missions with chest rewards
- Weekly leagues (Bronze → Diamond)
- Friends leaderboard
The hardest part I built: an AI food label
scanner that reads any nutrition panel — UK, US,
AU, EU, and even handwritten farmers' market labels. No
barcode needed. Point the camera, wait 2 seconds,
done. I don't actually like AI food scanners because they are never accurate.
The app is live on Google Play now:
NutriBalance
I'll be posting about nutrition science, Android
dev, and indie app growth here. Happy to connect
with other health/fitness devs.
What's the hardest thing you've shipped solo?
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