⍺lphaMail

AI summarizes your overnight emails. Python + Firebase backend, Next.js frontend, swipeable flashcards, and quick actions for faster, smarter inbox management.

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Inspiration

Managing a cluttered inbox can be overwhelming, especially when important emails get buried overnight. We wanted to create a solution that helps users quickly understand and act on their emails without spending hours reading through every message.

What it does

AlphaMail provides intelligent, at-a-glance summaries of your emails. Using AI, it analyzes the content of your inbox and presents key information in a clean, swipe-able flashcard interface. Users can quickly triage emails, mark them as read, or archive them—all from a simple, intuitive web app.

How we built it

We combined a Python backend with a Next.js frontend. The backend connects securely to Gmail using OAuth 2.0, fetches unread emails, and leverages a large language model (LLM) to summarize the content. Summaries are stored in Google Cloud Firestore. The frontend, built with Next.js, React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, fetches and displays the summarized emails as interactive cards.

Challenges we ran into

  • Handling Gmail API authentication securely while ensuring a smooth user experience.
  • Designing prompts for the AI that generate concise and accurate summaries.
  • Keeping the frontend responsive and intuitive while displaying dynamic email data.
  • Synchronizing actions taken in the frontend (e.g., mark as read) with the Gmail backend.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Successfully integrated AI-driven email summarization into a real-time web interface.
  • Built a scalable system using Firebase and Google Cloud Firestore.
  • Designed a user-friendly, swipe-able flashcard interface that simplifies inbox management.

What we learned

  • The importance of prompt engineering for accurate AI-generated summaries.
  • How to securely handle OAuth credentials and service accounts for cloud APIs.
  • Best practices for combining server-side processing with a reactive frontend.
  • How to design a minimal, actionable UI that reduces cognitive load for users.

What's next for AlphaMail

  • Implement full email action capabilities, such as reply, delete, or label management.
  • Support multiple users with authentication and personalized email summaries.
  • Improve AI summarization with contextual awareness for better accuracy.
  • Expand to support multiple email providers beyond Gmail, turning AlphaMail into a universal inbox hub.

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