Notify - Devpost Submission
Inspiration
It started with a simple question between two college students: "How much are we actually spending on subscriptions each month?"
What should have been a quick conversation turned into an hour-long hunt through bank statements, emails, and forgotten accounts. We realized we weren't alone—everyone struggles to track their recurring charges. When we looked for solutions online, every app wanted $5-10/month just to tell us where our money was going. The irony wasn't lost on us.
That's when it clicked: invoices are already in our email. Every subscription, every recurring charge, every monthly payment—they all send confirmation emails. The data was right there, but no one had built a free way to actually use it.
I decided to change that.
What it does
Notify is an AI-powered subscription tracker that turns your Gmail inbox into a financial command center:
- Smart Email Scanning: Analyzes 2 years of email history to detect every recurring charge
- Automatic Categorization: Groups subscriptions by type (streaming, software, fitness, etc.)
- Savings Recommendations: Finds duplicates, unused services, and annual billing opportunities
- Real-time Analytics: Visualizes spending patterns and upcoming charges
- Privacy-First: Read-only Gmail access, all data stored locally on your device
Connect your email, wait 60 seconds, and see every subscription you're paying for—completely free.
How we built it
Tech Stack:
- Flutter/Dart: Cross-platform framework for iOS and Android
- Gmail API: Secure read-only email access via OAuth
- Local Storage: Privacy-first data persistence
Architecture:
- Enhanced Gmail service with 2-year inbox search
- Transaction fingerprinting for pattern recognition
- Confidence scoring system (80-95% accuracy)
- Smart name cleaning and price validation
- Concurrent processing with rate limiting
Development Approach:
- Researched email patterns across major subscription services
- Built regex-based detection for payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Square)
- Created confidence scoring based on multiple signals
- Designed clean, gesture-based UI for mobile-first experience
Challenges we ran into
1. Email Pattern Chaos: Every company formats their invoices differently. Netflix sends clean receipts, while some services hide amounts in paragraph text. Built robust regex patterns and fallback analysis.
2. False Positives: Early versions detected one-time purchases as subscriptions. Solved with transaction fingerprinting—matching amounts across multiple emails to confirm recurring patterns.
3. Rate Limiting: Gmail API has strict quotas. Implemented intelligent batching and concurrent processing to scan thousands of emails without hitting limits.
4. Privacy Concerns: Users (rightfully) worry about email access. Made everything transparent: read-only access, local storage only, clear permission explanations.
5. Price Parsing: "$12.99", "12,99€", "twelve dollars"—hundreds of formats. Built a multi-strategy parser with validation to handle edge cases.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
2-Year Scan: Catches annual subscriptions others miss 90%+ Accuracy: AI-powered detection with confidence scoring Privacy-First: Local storage, read-only access, transparent permissions But most importantly: We solved our own problem, and we know it'll help thousands of other students and anyone tired of subscription creep.
What we learned
Technical:
- Email data is messy but incredibly valuable
- Users care deeply about privacy—transparency builds trust
- Mobile-first design requires different UX patterns than web
Product:
- The best features come from solving your own pain points
- Free doesn't mean low-quality—it means accessible
- Simple UIs hide complex engineering
- Users want answers, not settings
Business:
- There's a massive gap in free financial tools for students and even developers.
- Email access is powerful but requires careful trust-building
- Subscription fatigue is universal—everyone needs this
What's next for Notify
Short-term (Next 3 months):
- Outlook/Yahoo email support
- Bill negotiation recommendations
- Subscription pause/cancel direct links
Medium-term (6-12 months):
- Bank account integration (Plaid API)
- Shared subscriptions tracking (family plans, group accounts)
- Price change alerts
- Improved Spending forecasts and budgeting tools
Long-term Vision:
- AI assistant that negotiates bills on your behalf
- Subscription marketplace with student discounts
- Community-driven reviews and alternatives
Our Mission: Make financial transparency accessible to everyone, starting with subscriptions. No one should pay for tools that help them not overpay.
Try Notify today—because the best subscription is the one you didn't forget you had.
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