Snap To Recipe

Snap To Recipe: Turn any TikTok or Instagram screenshot into a perfectly formatted recipe with ingredients and steps in seconds using AI.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for Snap To Recipe came from a real challenge my wife and I constantly face. Managing the countless recipe links, screenshots, and social media posts we were saving. These would often get lost in our messages, browser tabs, or photo galleries which made it hard to find and reuse them later. We wanted a clean, organized, and searchable way to store and view these recipes. A digital recipe book that could live on our phones and actually work the way we cook and save recipes today.

What it does

Snap To Recipe is a mobile app that allows users to extract, organize, and enhance recipes from screenshots, handwritten notes or photos. The app uses AI (Google Gemini API) to extract structured recipe data including ingredients, steps, and cooking time from these images and converts them into a clean, readable and savable format. Users have the ability to add notes, rate recipes, mark favorites and even generate an image of the final dish (helpful for when the original images are missing).

How we built it

The entire project was built using the [Bolt New] platform. The frontend is built in React Native using Expo, while Supabase is used for the backend storage, authentication and edge functions. Google's Gemini API handles recipe extraction from images as well as generates the photorealistic images of the recipes. For design, a mix of Canva and ChatGPT helped with designing the logo I had in mind.

Challenges we ran into

One of the major challenges was transitioning from Expo Go to an EAS build for deployment. This shift introduced compatibility issues that delayed the TestFlight release. It included missing dependencies and unexpected runtime behavior. Additionally, the React Native animations worked fine in testing but broke during deployment, forcing me to temporarily delay the Reanimated animations. Most of all, balancing full-time work in IT and being present with my family resulted in a significant time management challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm incredibly proud of getting this project over the finish line. It's the first time I've been able to build something so personal and practical (other than scripts at work). I also gained a deeper appreciation for the work developers put into mobile apps and especially as a solo developer juggling full-time IT work and family responsibilities. The final app is functional and solves a problem I genuinely face in daily life.

What we learned

This project deepened my understanding of the full mobile development lifecycle from prototype to deployment. I learned how to handle (prompt) build and deployment issues and improved my ability to use AI as a development tool.

What's next for Snap To Recipe

  • URL support: Users will soon be able to extract recipes directly from shared web links.
  • Collaborative recipe books: Users will be able to invite others (Ex: a spouse or friend) to manage shared recipes with.
  • Improved UX/UI:I plan to improve navigation, animations, and styling.
  • Meal planning features: Potentially automatic grocery list generation for the planning of weekly meals

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