Hey Me

Hey Me is a note-taking app with a twist - it's a conversation with yourself! Capture thoughts, ideas, & to-dos in familiar chat bubbles organized by themes. The comfort of texting, but with yourself.

Comment

What was the inspiration for the app?

Meet André & Stephanie - an iOS engineer and product designer duo. Oh, and they're married. They've always wanted to build something together, but could never agree on what.

The spark for Hey Me came from something Stephanie was already doing every day: sending herself messages in WhatsApp. Her “Just Me” chat had become her go-to space for capturing ideas, reminders, and reflections. André had tried to convince her to use “real” notes apps, but they never stuck — she always went back to the comfort and familiarity of a chat.

But there was a frustration: everything was crammed into one endless chat, making it messy and overwhelming. Stephanie wanted to separate her notes into different themes — like “Content Ideas,” “Therapy Thoughts,” “Important To-Dos” — but WhatsApp didn’t allow it.

The “aha” moment came when we asked: what if you could keep chatting with yourself, but organize thoughts into themed conversations? That’s how Hey Me was born — from a personal pain point, with the belief that if it solved our problem, it could help others too.

What does the Hey Me do?

Hey Me is a note-taking app with a twist: it works like a chat with yourself. Instead of typing into static lists, you send notes as chat bubbles — just like you would in your favorite messaging app.

This format, with timestamped notes and customizable coloured themed chats, makes Hey Me especially friendly for neurodivergent brains (like Stephanie’s). Notes feel visually distinct and less overwhelming compared to one endless “admin” list in black & white.

With Hey Me you can:

  • Capture anything — thoughts, to-dos, ideas, quotes, or dreams — in a familiar chat interface
  • Create themed chats (e.g. Gratitude, Therapy Thoughts, Wedding Planning, Fav Quotes) with custom names, colors, and illustrations
  • Brain-dump into your Main “Hey Me” chat, then move notes later to other chats (perfect for the dump-then-categorize approach)
  • Reorder chats so your most important ones are always at the top
  • Add structure with Markdown formatting
  • Edit notes after you’ve sent them
  • Share content both ways — save into Hey Me from Safari, Notes, etc., or send notes out to other apps
  • Use Hey Me as a “safe draft space” before messaging others — a feature that socially anxious texters like Stephanie find invaluable

It’s the comfort of chatting with a friend — except the friend is you. 🥹

How we built it

Oh, did we mention we were moving countries at the same time? 😅

One night, while Stephanie was packing up kitchen crockery, André mentioned the competition. Late-night logic kicked in, and we decided this was the push we needed to finally build something together. Sure, it was mid-move — only one of the most stressful periods of our lives — but when a good idea comes, you have to act on it, right?

  • The next morning we sketched out the concept, trimmed it down to an MVP, and started building — in between working full-time 9–5s and disassembling furniture. Vibe coding on iOS wasn’t as smooth as we hoped, but we pushed through.
  • André pulled from a bunch of old weekend “graveyard projects,” stitched code together, and managed to get a proof of concept working in less than a week — T-minus one week before moving day.
  • We shared the POC with friends, got encouraging feedback, and launched it literally days before the moving truck arrived. And then iteration started… on the road 🚚 💻

Challenges we ran into

  • Messy beginnings: Starting with vibe coding got complicated quickly. We had to pause, establish clear patterns and architecture, and only then could we iterate on features smoothly.
  • Building an App mid-move: Launching a brand-new app while immigrating was… not ideal. Picture us coding at 6am before work, or late at night surrounded by half-packed boxes. Balancing a 9–5, packing, and shipping Hey Me before the moving truck arrived meant very little sleep.
  • Tech trade-offs: We had to find the right balance between modern iOS technologies and more established approaches. The project stretched the limits of the latest frameworks, so at times we leaned on more traditional approaches to keep it stable.
  • Choosing the right features: We had to find the balance between building features that showcase Hey Me’s unique value proposition and meeting the “default minimum” criteria that users expect from any chat or note-taking app. Features like copy text, edit text, markdown, links, photos, and videos are almost considered a given today — even if they don’t make Hey Me unique. Our challenge was prioritizing the ones that define what Hey Me stands for (chat-style note-taking, themed conversations, dump-then-organize flow), while still delivering the baseline features that users assume will just be there.

Accomplishments we’re proud of

  • Launched our first app together — a milestone we’d dreamed about for years.
  • We pulled it off in the middle of an international move — one of the most chaotic periods of our lives.
  • Early adoption from friends and family, who say it finally feels like the note-taking solution they’ve been searching for.
  • We turned a simple, familiar habit (messaging yourself) into a polished app people genuinely enjoy using.
  • Hey Me has grown organically from our personal workflow into a tool that clearly resonates with others, proving there’s a wider need.
  • The best moment? When we explain the idea and people immediately say: “Oh, I do that too! I’d totally use this.”

What we learned

  • Familiarity matters. People don’t always need “more powerful” tools — they want tools that feel familiar, comfortable, and natural to use.
  • Build small, iterate fast. Even a super simple MVP had unique value (chat interface + themed chats). It was enough for people to start using right away, and every iteration since has made it stronger.
  • Just launch it. Perfectionism has killed many of André’s past side projects. By launching Hey Me — even imperfectly — we saw the real value of putting ideas into the world: faster learning, real feedback, and impact from day one.
  • The weight of responsibility that come once you launch. Trust is everything. The day we pushed a TestFlight update and realized all the data had been wiped, it hit us hard: if that happened to real users, they’d lose weeks of thoughts and reminders. With a note-taking app, people entrust you with their innermost reflections and important details. One broken update could lose their trust forever. Since then, we’ve treated stability and data protection as our highest priority in every release.

What’s next for Hey Me?

We’re excited to keep making Hey Me more powerful while keeping it simple and fun.

  • Expand core features. Add the functionality users expect from modern chat/note-taking apps while building on the familiarity of the interface.
  • Deeper iOS integration. Bring Hey Me to your fingertips with widgets, shortcuts, and Siri support.
  • AI as a thought partner. Explore a lightweight, personal AI-companion within each chat to help summarize, refine, or build on your ideas.
  • Beyond iPhone. Launch iPad & Mac versions with device syncing (a paid feature for power users) so your chats follow you everywhere.

Our vision is for Hey Me to be the most intuitive, personal, enjoyable, and flexible way to brain-dump & capture your thoughts — without losing the lighthearted “chat with yourself” charm that makes it different.

And ultimately, to help people forget their “Just Me” WhatsApp chat — because Hey Me is simply better.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates