Simon Says AI Coach

Your AI-powered productivity coach with 6 specialized personalities. Get personalized guidance through voice, text, or images. Built on Gemini 2.5 Flash for intelligent task management.

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Inspiration

Everyone needs coaching, but not everyone can afford $200/hour human coaches. Generic productivity apps track tasks but don't understand why you're stuck or how to help you move forward.

Simon Says AI Coach democratizes personalized coaching through 6 specialized AI personalities—each an expert in their domain, all powered by Google Gemini. A startup founder gets strategy coaching. A developer gets focus techniques. A freelancer gets growth mindset work.

The name comes from the classic game—but instead of mindlessly following commands, our AI coaches help you think critically about why you're doing what you're doing.

What it does

6 Specialized AI Coaches:

  • Productivity Coach - Tactical execution (Eisenhower Matrix, Pomodoro, time-blocking)
  • Strategy Coach - Long-term thinking (SWOT, Playing to Win frameworks)
  • Growth Coach - Career acceleration with deep empathy
  • Focus Coach - Deep work architecture and attention techniques
  • Wellness Coach - Burnout prevention and sustainable productivity
  • Creative Coach - Innovation catalyst (SCAMPER, ideation sprints)

Key Features:

  • 🎯 Personalized to your name, profession, and communication style
  • 📊 Customizable tone (formality, directness, detail levels)
  • 📎 Document attachments for context sharing
  • 💰 Freemium: 20 messages/day free, unlimited with Pro ($9.99/month)

How we built it

Tech Stack:

  • React Native + Expo (Android native)
  • Google Gemini 2.5 Flash API with custom coaching prompts
  • Firebase (Auth + Firestore)
  • RevenueCat (subscription management)
  • AsyncStorage (local persistence)

The Critical Pivot: Mid-development, we discovered HTML elements don't work in React Native mobile apps therefore we completely rewrote the UI, replacing every <select>, <input>, <button> with native TouchableOpacity and TextInput components.

Challenges we ran into

  1. HTML → Native Conversion: Complete UI rewrite.
  2. Coach Personality Differentiation: 20+ prompt iterations per coach to make them feel distinct
  3. Organization Policy Blocker: Google Cloud service account key creation disabled—proceeded with RevenueCat.
  4. Google Play Signing: Debug signatures rejected—learned production keystore creation.
  5. Message Count Enforcement: Balancing free tier limits without frustrating users

Accomplishments that we're proud of

✅ Shipped functional Android app with critical pivot mid-development ✅ 6 distinct AI personalities that genuinely feel different ✅ RevenueCat fully integrated with Google Play billing (20 msg/day enforcement active) ✅ Production-ready: Signed AAB and APK uploaded to Google Play Open Testing ✅ Beautiful native UX: Minimalist design that doesn't obstruct coaching ✅ Crisis → Delivery: From app crash to Play Store in under one week.

What we learned

  • React Native ≠ Web: HTML elements and Web APIs don't exist on mobile—native components only
  • Prompt engineering is a craft: Specificity > length for distinct coach personalities
  • Build resilience early: Null-safe error handling saved us during high-pressure debugging
  • Freemium balance matters: 20 msg/day hits the sweet spot for conversion
  • Ship fast, iterate faster: Better to have 6 working coaches than 12 half-baked ones

What's next for Simon Says AI Coach

Near-term:

  • 🎤 Native voice input/output (expo-speech implementation)
  • 📷 Image analysis with Gemini vision API
  • 🔐 Full Firebase authentication
  • 📱 iOS version

Long-term Vision:

  • Coach Marketplace: Users create and monetize custom coaching personalities (70/30 revenue split)
  • Team Mode: Collaborative coaching for startups
  • Integrations: Notion, Todoist, Google Calendar APIs
  • AI that knows you: Longitudinal analysis spots burnout patterns before you do

Current Status (v1.0.2):

  • Android native app
  • Google Play Open Testing live
  • RevenueCat + Google Play billing integrated
  • 67.3 MB APK, 48.7 MB AAB

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