InkBuddy

Inspiration

My girlfriend takes all her notes on a tablet. Every time she wanted to ask an AI about something in them, she had to screenshot the page, upload it, and then ask her question. It was slow and clunky. On top of that, a screenshot grabs everything on the page, so Claude or ChatGPT would get distracted by stuff that had nothing to do with what she was asking.

So I built Ink Buddy: a notes app where you can select exactly what you want (handwriting, typed text, images, diagrams) and ask AI about just that, right inside the app.

What it does

• Select anything, ask anything. Lasso any mix of handwriting, text, images, or diagrams and send only that selection to the AI. No screenshots, no extra clutter.
• Works in the app or the browser. Ask questions from the tablet app or from the web version.
• Notes sync to the website. Everything you write on the tablet is available on the web. So if she forgets her tablet, or I borrow it without asking, she can still get to her notes without having to track me down.

How I built it

[Frontend / tablet app framework, how selection works, how handwriting gets turned into something the model can read, which AI API, how sync between app and website works, backend/database]

Challenges I ran into

[e.g. getting a clean crop of a mixed selection, handwriting recognition accuracy, keeping app and web in sync, latency]

What I learned

[What was new to you technically, and anything you learned about building for one real user]

What's next for Ink Buddy

[Optional]

Built With

• claude
• expo.io
• gemini
• react
• react-native
• supabase