I Built an AI-Powered Journaling App That Understands Your Emotions — Meet Echo ☁️

#nextjs #mentalhealth #devjournal

Hey devs 👋

After months of building solo, I just launched my passion project — it’s called Echo, and it’s an emotional journaling app that adapts to how you feel.

Let me tell you the story.

🧠 Why I Built Echo

A few months ago, I hit a rough patch — burnout, overwhelm, total emotional fog. I stepped away from social media and started writing again. Just raw thoughts, emotional check-ins, mood scribbles. And it helped.

But the more I journaled, the more I realized how disconnected digital tools were from real human feelings.

So I built Echo — a journaling space that feels like it’s listening.

☁️ What Is Echo?

Echo is a journaling app with a twist:

It features an emotional AI companion — a small, fluffy cloud — that reflects your moods visually and grows with your entries.

✨ Features:

Emotion-aware journaling prompts
Mood tracking that adapts to your patterns
Visual cloud that shifts shape based on your check-in
AI insights from your writing (totally private, unless you opt-in for research)

- Clean UI, privacy-first design, no selling data

⚙️ How I Built It

Stack:

Frontend: Next.js, TailwindCSS
Backend: MongoDB, NextAuth, Gemini API
AI: Gemini API
Mood logic: Lightweight NLP + rule-based scoring, integrated with visuals
Hosting: Vercel, Resend for transactional emails
Image upload: ImgBB

And yes — I did it all solo. From UX to backend routes, from modal animations to content writing.

💬 What Makes It Different?

Most journaling apps either feel too clinical (like mental health checklists) or too plain (just a textarea).

Echo bridges the gap. It's expressive. It's private. And it treats journaling like a relationship — between you and your mind.

🚀 It’s Live on Product Hunt

I just launched Echo on Product hunt:

👉 https://www.producthunt.com/posts/echo-e657689c-f521-42ce-9dec-904ae6fd47ac
Though Echo, couldn't gain lot of upvote or many user from product hunt (i will erite about this later) But still product hunt is a way to reach me If it resonates, I’d love your feedback, support, or just a kind word. Launching something solo is scary. But it’s also what makes it special.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve ever thought of journaling — or building something that blends empathy + code — I’d love to chat.