Food logging app — testers wanted!

Tips, Tech & Gear
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update Jan 16 The iPhone app is now available for beta-testing, and I really hope to find a couple volunteers here :slight_smile: Sorry, no Android yet — but we’re on it.

To get a testing invite and instructions (cause you only can install it via testing platform), please leave your email at the bottom of the page at undermyfork dot com (still too new to post proper links, sorry)

The team and I are very eager to hear your thoughts about the app — what you like, what you don’t like, do you think it’s useful, if it works fine, etc.

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Hi everyone, my name is Masha, I’ve been reading FUDiabetes for a while, and this is my first post here. I’d like to ask for your feedback about the concept of the mobile app that my team is developing right now.

So, this will be the very simple app that matches food snaps to cgm or bgm data, automatically uploaded from your meter’s app. And you can swipe and see every meal you had in the blood sugar chart context (we have some screen videos from the prototype at undermyfork-dot-com).

‘Concept’ means it is not yet available on the AppStore, and the feedback we need right now is more of ‘how do you feel about the idea’, ‘does it sound viable to you’, ‘do you think it’ll help people who were newly diagnosed or struggle with day to day diabetes management’.

Any thoughts, comments, questions and criticism that might arise after you look at it are very welcome.

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This has some promise, I think, but in the screen shots, I don’t see anything that identifies what’s in the picture. I mean, an apple is obvious. But I don’t see anywhere to input text, just time of meal, so how does the user remember whether, for instance, the green mash in the third picture is a low-carb spinach mash, or high-carb potatoes with green onion puree, or a super-sweet green ice cream? In the photo of the meal with meat, peas and green beans, how do we account for the effects of fat and protein on the carb, or the way how the peas are prepared would affect BG (steamed, heated in butter, etc.)? Not to mention the effects of the other parts of the meal, which can’t be in the same picture. And is that a glass of water or 7-UP or sugar syrup?

Without text, the app has value for people who eat the same straightforward meals over and over again. Less value for those who eat a wide range of different foods from different cuisines.

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Agree, pics wth text entries would be pretty important to garner any real value from it unless, as indicated, the person using the app eats the same foods all the time and knows exactly what every meal is. Promising.

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@masha I agree with the photo labelling concept. But I am deeply disappointed that you have decided to make this unavailable to Android users (There are far more androids out there than iPhones ).

The Dexcom developer API allows for coconnection to one’s Dexcom database through Share. Please utilize this.

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@masha, does your app provide a carb count estimate based on the picture, or just a visual history of the food and BG response?

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Personally, I love this idea, as someone who never bothers with food logging, and having pics in a log would be way more info than I currently log, even if incomplete. Similarly, I probably honestly wouldn’t ever bother with the text feature, though I imagine it would be an important option for many.

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Thanks a lot for your comment! Yes, we’re definitely planning to add custom tags to the pics

the app has value for people who eat the same straightforward meals over and over again

I love this part of your comment! Cause when I was talking to my friends and friends of friends with diabetes before, all the different people told me they just stick to the regular menu and try not to change anything to avoid surprises with bg levels. And I didin’t realize the app may be not just a logging tool, but a tool for expanding and experimenting with the menu, too. So, again, thanks for the insight!

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Android users are very important to us, and I hate to sound disappointing at this point :pensive: It’s only that we’re a small team, so we develop step by step. And thanks for the hint about Dexcom sharing!

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@Chris, yes, the very first release will be a visual history of the food with BG response.

The team is now looking for the best way to add carb counting into the app. Image recognition tech doesn’t yet allow to understand food and drinks very accurately, not to say the portion size and carbs estimate. So when today’s apps offer this function, it’s more to learn from users about what’s on the pic, than to return an accurate estimate.

Is there any app that you find really handy for carb counting? Or how do you think it should work, if there’s none?

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FUD breeds a different kind of diabetic. We live by the motto of being unlimited. Part of being unlimited means eating whatever we want if that’s what we choose to do… And leaning on this great community to figure out how to make it work.

Having said that, though, some people also choose to keep a routine and that’s ok too. :slight_smile:

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Well, since you allow note taking, and my son will probably eat at the same restaurant multiple times, it would make sense to me if you could take a picture, note the carbs, see the results, and then the next time you snap that meal, you could have access to your notes and trend from the last time. .

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Or even pull up a previous meal to ‘remind’ you of carbs, etc.,

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Please, please, PLEASE consider making the app fully accessible with VoiceOver. This is FAR easier to do up-front than it is to try and fix later. All manner of apps, including the iOS camera, have been made 100% accessible with VoiceOver, so the fact that it’s a “visual” app should not matter too much as long as there are features to add alt text or voice notes to pictures (plus, a majority of people who are legally blind have some remaining vision). It’s amazing how many diabetes apps, the majority, are completely and utterly void of any accessibility support. Some (coughAscensiacough) even pop up with a notice advising you to turn accessibility features off, as if this is a choice for those of us who need these features. Some of the best examples (at least when I tried them) of fully accessible diabetes apps are Loop and MySugr.

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@Chris, @ClaudnDaye Thanks for the idea, it gave us the new perspective on the core functionality

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@Jen Another Great advice, thank you, looks totally doable

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Sooo, the iPhone app is now available for beta-testing, and I really hope to find a couple volunteers here :slightly_smiling_face: Sorry, no Android yet — but we’re on it.

To get a testing invite and instructions (cause you only can install it via testing platform), please leave your email at the bottom of the page at undermyfork dot com (still too new to post proper links, sorry)

The team and I are very eager to hear your thoughts about the app — what you like, what you don’t like, do you think it’s useful, if it works fine, etc.

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I have high hopes that you will be able to find your volunteers here in short order.

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@docslotnick. FWIW, developing Android apps is much more difficult because the OS is so fractured, so it’s takes longer and you end up with many iterations of the app to address all the varients. For a startup, the Apple ecosystem is easier to develop for and deploy over a larger group of users in a shorter time frame.

Still sucks though (Linux rules)

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The site doesn’t give much info on the app. Is there a place to enter insulin on the app? Is it geared for T1, or T2, or either?

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@elver, we use React Native, so Android version is almost ready. The main obstacle for us with Android is syncing data from the meters, cause it doesn’t have something as widely supported as Apple Health. And we want seamless experience for the first users to be able to prove our concept. What would be the most convenient way to sync data on Android for you btw?

@Eric yep, it’s only plain simple food logging for now. Insulin & exercise are on top of the list as for the future. But for now, we want to see if the core function proves it’s handy and easy to use and useful at least for some people with any type. So we are testing with type 1, type 2, gestational and other variants and ask for feedback.

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