Inspiration
I lost a friend to suicide. He had been struggling and had lost his sense of direction. That loss is a big part of why I'm building Kokoro. I want to make something that helps people pause, feel a little more connected to themselves, and find a bit of direction when life feels overwhelming.
I also need those moments myself. I'm in San Francisco, building a startup, going to hackathons, and trying to get into Y Combinator. Some days I just need to breathe and get enough energy to keep going.
What it does
Kokoro is a meditation app built around the iPhone Duo's unfolding moment. Choose a voice, share what's on your mind, and unfold the phone when your session is ready. The orb opens up on one side, with subtitles and playback controls on the other. Fold it back and keep listening.
The demo follows a founder getting ready to pitch. It uses a bundled 44-second ElevenLabs recording with timed subtitles. The first session plays before the RevenueCat paywall appears at the end.
How we built it
The native app uses React Native, Expo, and TypeScript, with Skia and Reanimated for the orb and motion. I tested it in Bitrig's iPhone Duo simulator. Expo Audio handles playback, ElevenLabs provides the demo narration, and RevenueCat supplies the subscription products and test-store paywall.
Challenges we ran into
Getting Bitrig and the simulator working together took a lot of the day. Then I had to get all the screens to behave when the phone opened and folded, without text covering the orb or audio stopping halfway through.
The development setup also took a lot of my MacBook's resources. At one point, the challenge felt like getting the demo running without having to delete my mom's photos to make room. Those were staying.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I got one complete flow running in the native Duo simulator: choose a voice, share what's on your mind, unfold into a meditation, and reach the paywall after listening. The unfolding moment gives the bigger screen a purpose.
What we learned
I learned to stop trying to make every screen perfect and get one experience working from start to finish. And to have some fun with it. Between the simulator problems and the deadline, it was easy to forget that I was getting to build something I care about and try it on a new kind of phone.
What's next for Kokoro
Connect the demo flow to live personalized sessions, improve the audio and subtitle timing, and put it in people's hands. I want to learn whether it helps them take a break and feel ready for whatever comes next.
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