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Welcome to yakusoku!
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Make "promises"
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See them and your friends' on your dashboard
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Add your close friends
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Inspiration
In Japanese culture, the word yakusoku (約束) embodies a commitment that’s as binding as a promise. This concept inspired us to build an app that would help people keep promises to themselves and stay disciplined. Today, it’s easy to let things slide—like sticking to a budget, getting up for that 9 am lecture, or making it to the gym—but yakusoku helps users stay accountable. By adding financial penalties and involving friends, we created a way to make breaking promises feel like something you’d truly want to avoid.
What it does
yakusoku empowers users to create personal contracts to break bad habits, achieve goals, or simply stay on track with everyday commitments. Users set a specific goal, deadline, and select a trusted friend as an accountability partner. The friend can track progress, marking a contract as completed or failed based on the user’s follow-through. If the goal isn’t met, a set penalty amount is automatically sent to the friend—a small but memorable consequence! This approach provides both structure and motivation, turning goals into promises users are more likely to keep.
Our app goes beyond reminders and check-ins by leveraging a “social contract” to make commitments stick. By involving a friend and adding financial consequences, users experience real accountability that’s both personal and powerful.
How we built it
We built yakusoku as a mobile app for easy access, using Swift and SwiftUI for a clean, intuitive interface and Firebase to manage backend functionality. Firebase was our top choice to ensure real-time updates and seamless user data handling, while SwiftUI enabled us to create a responsive, modern look from scratch. Our goal was to keep yakusoku lightweight yet robust, so each tech choice was made to ensure both speed and a smooth user experience.
Our team decided to push our limits by learning Swift and Firebase on the go, embracing a challenging but rewarding approach to create an app from the ground up within the hackathon timeframe.
Challenges we ran into
One big hurdle was version control with Git, which we’d never used before. Initially, we lost valuable time due to merge conflicts and confusion with branches, which could have derailed our progress. However, we solved this by taking a breather to sort out all the excess branches, and eventually creating a streamlined workflow. This process improved our collaboration skills and taught us the importance of staying organized when working with multiple contributors.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
For our first hackathon, we’re incredibly proud that we not only finished our project but also created something meaningful. yakusoku required us to step out of our comfort zones with Swift, SwiftUI, and Firebase—tools we’d never used before. In addition to mastering these technologies, we improved our teamwork and problem-solving skills, navigating each challenge with creativity and resilience. Seeing yakusoku evolve from a concept to a working app, complete with real-time functionality and an intuitive interface, is an accomplishment we’ll carry forward.
What we learned
This hackathon taught us the power of persistence. We learned that with the right mindset, even the steepest learning curves can be tackled—24 hours was enough to build something significant, despite the countless bugs that cropped up. From debugging Firebase integration to perfecting SwiftUI layouts, each issue was a chance to improve, and our resilience allowed us to make continuous progress.
What's next for yakusoku
Our vision for yakusoku is to make it a scalable, impactful tool for personal growth. Next steps include enhancing data security with industry-standard encryption and adding APIs like TrueLayer to connect directly with users’ bank accounts for a seamless penalty transfer. We’d also like to expand with cross-platform compatibility, support for multiple languages, and integrations with calendar apps to remind users of their goals. With further development, yakusoku could become a trusted personal accountability tool for young professionals, students, and anyone working to stay disciplined in a busy world.
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