SnipStack

Inspiration

Wha## Inspiration

Power users live in their clipboard. Email templates, standup replies, API snippets, that one link you paste five times a week — they end up scattered across Notes, Messages drafts, and random .txt files. I wanted the muscle memory of "copy → paste" without the archaeology of finding things. The constraint I set myself: saving must take under 5 seconds, retrieval under 2 taps. Everything else followed from that.

What it does

SnipStack is a single inbox for reusable snippets:

• Save anything reusable — text templates, links, images, files — with a title and loose tags. Four kinds, one place.
• Get it back instantly — live search across titles, content, and tags; pinned items and most-used snippets surface first.
• Two-tap retrieval — open a snippet, hit "Copy to clipboard", get haptic confirmation. A use-counter quietly shows which snippets earn their keep.
• Free vs Pro — the free plan holds 15 snippets (enough to feel the workflow). SnipStack Pro (monthly/yearly, powered by RevenueCat) removes the limit.

How I built it

• Expo + React Native (TypeScript)​ for a single iOS/Android codebase.
• Zustand + AsyncStorage for local-first, offline-by-default persistence — no account, no sync latency, nothing between you and your snippets.
• RevenueCat react-native-purchases drives the entire paywall: a pro entitlement, a default Offering with monthly + yearly packages, restore purchases, and real-time entitlement updates via addCustomerInfoUpdateListener. Gating happens exactly once — at the moment a free user tries to save snippet #16 — where the value is most tangible.
• React Navigation (native stack + bottom tabs), expo-haptics for tactile copy confirmation, and a fully custom light/dark theme.

Challenges I ran into

• Where to put the paywall. Hard-gating on app open converts worse and feels hostile. Gating at the 15-snippet limit means users hit the wall only after the app has proven its value — a monetization lesson RevenueCat's own content preaches.
• Speed as a feature. Search had to feel instant, so filtering runs in-memory over a denormalized store instead of hitting storage. Every interaction was budgeted: save ≤ 5s, retrieve ≤ 2 taps.
• RevenueCat in Expo. The SDK needs a dev build (no Expo Go), so the repo includes a DEMO_UNLOCK flag to iterate on paywall UI without a store connection.

Accomplishments I'm proud of

• The entire save flow really is under 5 seconds — I timed it.
• A clean, honest freemium line: the free tier is genuinely useful, and Pro is a clear upgrade rather than a ransom.
• Shipped as an open-source student project while juggling classes.

What I learned

• How RevenueCat abstracts StoreKit / Play Billing into one entitlement model, and how much faster that makes iterating on monetization.
• That "fast" is a design decision you enforce at every layer, not a performance pass at the end.

What's next for SnipStack

• iOS Share Sheet + Action Extension (save from any app without opening SnipStack)
• Home Screen / Lock Screen widgets with your top pinned snippets
• Global hotkey companion for iPad keyboard users
• Optional end-to-end-encrypted sync t it does

How we built it

Challenges we ran into

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

What's next for SnipStack

Built With

• expo.io
• react-native
• react-navigation
• revenuecat
• typescript
• zustand