AI-Powered Mobile App for Cooking Amateurs
A cross-platform solution for recipes and ingredient match
Mobile development
January 2023—October 2023
Mobile (iOS, Android)
Recipe collection
An outstanding collection of recipes for all ingredient sets and difficulty levels.
Ingredient match
Choose the ingredients you already have and see what else can be matched with them.
AI-based recipe search
When you have the list of your ingredients ready, an AI will find the most suitable recipes.
Community
A community of like-minded people who post their creations for more inspiration.
About
Project Idea
The client came to us with the idea of an AI-based cooking app that would help people match their ingredients with the relevant recipes. The goal was to cater to people who are passionate about exploring new taste sensations in their culinary journey, enhance the cooking experience, and connect users with a like-minded community
The Client Had
- Idea
- Desired list of features
We were responsible for
- Design
- Backend development
- Mobile development
Team
Project manager
Backend engineer
UX/UI designer
Flutter engineer
Technology stack
Flutter
Firebase
(Auth, Firestore, Cloud Functions)
OpenAI
Discovery phase
Garret
35 years
About
Garret is a 35-year-old software engineer who lives a busy and active lifestyle in the city. He enjoys cooking as a way to relax and unwind after long days at work. However, his busy schedule often leaves him with limited time to plan and prepare meals. Garret is health-conscious and prefers home-cooked meals over takeout. He is moderately skilled in the kitchen but is always looking for new recipes to try.
Goals:
Find quick and easy recipes that align with his dietary preferences.
Make efficient use of the ingredients available.
Explore new cuisines and cooking techniques to add variety to his meals.
Challenges:
Limited time for meal planning and grocery shopping.
Sometimes unsure about which recipes he can make with the ingredients on hand.
Wants to balance taste and nutrition in his meals.
Expectations from the app:
Quick and easy recipe suggestions based on available ingredients.
Personalized recommendations considering his dietary preferences and restrictions.
Seamless cross-platform functionality for accessibility on his smartphone and tablet.
Garret
35 years
About
Garret is a 35-year-old software engineer who lives a busy and active lifestyle in the city. He enjoys cooking as a way to relax and unwind after long days at work. However, his busy schedule often leaves him with limited time to plan and prepare meals. Garret is health-conscious and prefers home-cooked meals over takeout. He is moderately skilled in the kitchen but is always looking for new recipes to try.
Goals:
Find quick and easy recipes that align with his dietary preferences.
Make efficient use of the ingredients available.
Explore new cuisines and cooking techniques to add variety to his meals.
Challenges:
Limited time for meal planning and grocery shopping.
Sometimes unsure about which recipes he can make with the ingredients on hand.
Wants to balance taste and nutrition in his meals.
Expectations from the app:
Quick and easy recipe suggestions based on available ingredients.
Personalized recommendations considering his dietary preferences and restrictions.
Seamless cross-platform functionality for accessibility on his smartphone and tablet.
Rosy
20 years
About
Rosy is a 20-year-old college student with a passion for cooking and experimenting with different flavors. She recently moved out of her family home and is living on her own for the first time. Rosy is enthusiastic about trying new recipes but has a limited budget for groceries. She enjoys sharing her culinary creations on social media and is always looking for creative and visually appealing dishes to make.
Goals:
Discover budget-friendly recipes that align with her vegetarian diet.
Experiment with new and diverse cuisines to broaden her cooking skills.
Find recipes that are Instagram-worthy and shareable.
Challenges:
Limited budget for groceries and occasional uncertainty about affordable substitutes.
Wants to balance nutritional needs with a preference for vegetarian options.
Enjoys cooking but has a busy student schedule, so time-efficient recipes are essential.
Expectations from the app:
Budget-friendly recipe suggestions based on her vegetarian preferences.
Ingredient substitution recommendations to accommodate her budget constraints.
A visually appealing and user-friendly interface for inspiration.
Rosy
20 years
About
Rosy is a 20-year-old college student with a passion for cooking and experimenting with different flavors. She recently moved out of her family home and is living on her own for the first time. Rosy is enthusiastic about trying new recipes but has a limited budget for groceries. She enjoys sharing her culinary creations on social media and is always looking for creative and visually appealing dishes to make.
Goals:
Discover budget-friendly recipes that align with her vegetarian diet.
Experiment with new and diverse cuisines to broaden her cooking skills.
Find recipes that are Instagram-worthy and shareable.
Challenges:
Limited budget for groceries and occasional uncertainty about affordable substitutes.
Wants to balance nutritional needs with a preference for vegetarian options.
Enjoys cooking but has a busy student schedule, so time-efficient recipes are essential.
Expectations from the app:
Budget-friendly recipe suggestions based on her vegetarian preferences.
Ingredient substitution recommendations to accommodate her budget constraints.
A visually appealing and user-friendly interface for inspiration.
Key features in detail
The features you will find inside the application.
The Combinator mode
Tap on one ingredient to see possible matches with other ingredients. Matches are ranked by five categories: amazing, fantastic, great, and good matches, and the ones you better avoid.
Chef suggestions
You can get smart suggestions based on your Combinator choices, like what sides to serve with your main course or what types of wine go well with your matches.
Recipe catalog
Besides combining your own ingredients, you can find a rich catalog of recipes you can follow or create a custom recipe based on your available matches.
Ask the Chef
A conversational part of the app where you can answer cooking-related questions, from timings to the history of dishes, and get quick answers.
Community
You can post your own dishes with the list of ingredients and a link to the recipe. Also, you can see what others have posted and like and discuss their meals.
Development process
Here is how we created the mobile app:
1
Ideation
Helping our clients to polish the idea.
2
Research
Conducting user and competitor research.
3
Design
Wireframes, prototypes, and final UX/UI.
4
Development
Building a Minimum Viable Product.
5
Testing
Manual and automated tests.
6
Release
Launching the app to the App Store and Google Play.
Development Challenges and Solutions
Getting user subscription data
Challenge: During the review process, we faced multiple consecutive rejections due to an error occurring when attempting to retrieve user subscription data.
Solution: We moved the hidden request for restoring purchases from the app's start screen to the subscriptions screen. The problem was likely related to the internal logic of the service we use to handle subscriptions.
What we have now
The app is up and running in both Google Play and App Store!