I'm a software PM from China who got into the Yijing (I Ching) last year. I went looking for a good app and found two extremes: walls of classical Chinese that bounce beginners instantly, or horoscope reskins wearing an "Eastern wisdom" costume. So I built my own: BU (I Ching & Daily Fortune), free on Google Play, bilingual EN/CN.
What it does:
- Traditional hexagram casting, then an AI interpretation of the hexagram and moving lines in plain language
- Daily fortune (work/love/wealth), refreshed every morning
- Tongshu almanac page (auspicious dates, daily guidance)
- Save & share readings
What I learned building it:
- The interpretation layer matters more than the casting. I spent weeks on the casting interaction, but the drop-off data says users bounce on cryptic hexagram text, not on the coin animation. Plain-language AI interpretation is the actual feature.
- Bilingual doubles everything. Classical Chinese terms (like 贞, 吝, 元亨) don't map 1:1 to English. Every string needed a philosophical decision, not just a translation.
- People use it as a journaling tool, not fortune-telling. The save/share + daily cadence turned it into a reflection habit. The "accuracy" question matters less than whether the reading gives you a useful frame for the day.
- Daily fortune drives retention; deep readings drive love. The morning fortune brings people back, the full hexagram readings get the long comments.
Brutal feedback welcome — especially from anyone who actually reads. Where does AI interpretation fall short of a human reader?
Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bu.easternoracle
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