Creating My First Mobile App - Anna's Pixel World

> The Beginning

I wanted to experiment with vibe coding. I just didn't know what to build.

It was the start of 2026, so naturally... I built a habit tracker. Creative, huh.

>> Choosing the Platform

The original idea was almost aggressively minimal:

One habit = one page.

A full-year grid.

Tap a square. Done.

I used a reference photo of a simple calendar grid that had months across the top, days down the side, each square grid representing a day of the month.

I had no idea which platform to use, so I gave the same prompt to Bolt, Google AI Studio, Lovable, and Replit to compare the initial outputs.

Lovable couldn't quite align the calendar grid, even after a few attempts to fix the error.

Replit's design felt too "desktop-first" for a mobile app.

Between Bolt and Google AI Studio, the later was surprisingly free. It was the clear winner.

I used ChatGPT to refine the code and Google AI Studio's preview to iterate fast.

>> From Grids to Gains

Halfway through, I realized my minimalist grid was simple... but useless.

A year is too big. A day is too small.

It made more sense to use a 52-week system, tracking completions weekly while keeping the year-at-a-glance structure.

>> Features

Create, edit, delete, and color-code habits
Assign habits to specific weekdays
Mark daily completion in a weekly matrix
Drag-and-drop reorder in edit mode
Initialize new weeks by copying last week’s habits or starting blank
Highlight the current week
View YTD performance and week-by-week history

This habit tracker was built primarily for myself, so I added a PWA manifest and iOS web metadata for install-like behavior.

>> Tech Stack

React + TypeScript - Frontend
Tailwind - Styling
Vercel - Deployment
Google AI Studio + ChatGPT - Vibe coding tools

>> Closing Thoughts

This may not be the perfect habit tracking app for everyone. But it’s mine, and it works!

It’s mind-blowing how easily AI can turn an idea into a functioning product. This project gave me the confidence to see code as a creative medium rather than a barrier.

Eight weeks into the year, I’ve also realized that building the app with AI was the easy part.

Keeping the habits?