Show HN: Poppy – A simple app to stay intentional with relationships

2026-03-053:56179122poppy-connection-keeper.netlify.app

Turn your contacts into a living garden. Gentle reminders, zero guilt. Free on iOS.

Works without internet. Your data lives on your device.

All data stored on your device. No cloud, no servers, no sync.

Your data. Your format. Export everything anytime.

Poppy uses anonymous product metrics to improve reliability. You can turn this off in Settings.


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Comments

  • By jamilton 2026-03-056:004 reply

    Website looks nice. The copy being so painfully AI-written is a turnoff, enough that my first thought was "oh yeah, I remember hearing about this kind of app, I should look at the other one I'm thinking of". I do like that it's local and free.

    Imported some contacts, doing quick setup, first contact, can't scroll down to confirm/finish setting them up. I'm on the SE, which is a slightly smaller screen, sometimes apps seem to have trouble with it, I assume they're assuming a larger screen.

    • By mahirhiro 2026-03-060:32

      Thank you for the feedback and trying the app!

      I’ll be working on fixing this :). Unfortunately I didn’t bother tested with the SE, only the 11 onwards, lesson learned.

    • By nullbyte808 2026-03-056:387 reply

      How do you know its AI? Who cares, sounds fine too me.

      • By biofox 2026-03-0511:592 reply

        "Privacy isn't a feature — it's the foundation."

        "No feed, no doomscrolling — just intention."

        "Not your whole address book — just the ones you'd hate to lose touch with"

        "You care deeply—you're just terrible at follow-through."

        "You care deeply—your ADHD brain just doesn't..."

        • By rigrassm 2026-03-0512:40

          "You care deeply—your ADHD brain just doesn't..."

          Well shit, that solves everything! What a revelation -_-

        • By gumboshoes 2026-03-0514:341 reply

          Even the word "intentional" alone is an AI tell.

          • By accrual 2026-03-0514:58

            "Quietly" is another watermark word I've noticed lately (though not in TFA to be clear).

      • By dreadnip 2026-03-0510:341 reply

        The whole website was prompted. You can tell by the overload of emoji's on the page and every section having cards with hover effects. It's classic LLM design.

        • By mahirhiro 2026-03-060:35

          Funnily enough, while I definitely prompted but finding other website designs I liked and color schemes. I specifically wanted the hover effects because I love quirky animations. On the garden in the app try holding on a flower/ seed or click on a butterfly and enjoy the Easter egg ;)

      • By lelanthran 2026-03-0512:433 reply

        Well, if someone can't bother to write something, why should anyone bother to read it?

        • By red-iron-pine 2026-03-0515:31

          that was one of the big reasons I dropped FB and Insta.

          Low effort interactions just aren't worth it. IF it's not worth writing at least 3 sentences chances are I don't care - and won't ever care.

          Like yeah it's cool to see what some guy I knew in high school is up to, but ultimately that connection ain't making my life better.

          HN is an exception in the signal to noise ratio is far higher than a lot of other social media - though the bots are hitting it hard these days.

        • By goodmythical 2026-03-0517:553 reply

          That's awfully able-ist isn't it?

          How do you know that the author is capable of communicating fluently in english?

          What if it were the case the the author was so excited about sharing a project but didn't know how to properly explained it and so took the extra effort to learn how to get a piece of software to explain it for them?

          Would that then satisfy your requirement that the human behind the project has done enough work to earn your interest?

          • By BobaFloutist 2026-03-0519:59

            But AI provides the illusion of communication. Since the AI has no direct access to the user's brain, and has to go off the words they provide, if we're assuming that the person isn't capable generating words that accurately communicate their thoughts, the AI is getting all its information from the same flawed words we'd have access to if they didn't use AI, but destroying any signal encoded in the specific mistakes or choices they've made in its process of shaping their thoughts into something more polished.

            AIs don't violate entropy, and can't create information from nothing. They can interpret, and expand, and maybe, just maybe, tease out meaning that a human would have missed. But the more sensitively they're tuned to pick up on small nuances, they more likely they're going to interpret a pattern that isn't there, and the more they're tuned to avoid over-interpretation, the more likely they are to miss something that is there, the same as how a human can aim to interpret something with high or low context.

            The difference is, by filtering it through an AI, you're taking that capability out of other people's hands, you're (often intentionally) flattening and damaging signals people usually use to choose how to distribute their attention (often with the cry of "But it's not fair that people want to spend their attention on things that I'm not good at, I have to use AI to convince people to look at my work that they would prefer not to!!"), and when you do that without acknowledging the use of AI, it feels a lot like you don't care about any negative effects your actions have on the existing ecosystems of human creativity and communication, and you're going to get an appropriately hostile response.

          • By lelanthran 2026-03-0521:16

            > How do you know that the author is capable of communicating fluently in english?

            Irrelevant; they can do the best they can and I'll do the best I can.

            If the best they can do is have it ghost-written, then the best that I will do is not read it.

            > What if it were the case the the author was so excited about sharing a project but didn't know how to properly explained it and so took the extra effort to learn how to get a piece of software to explain it for them?

            That's not extra effort, that's less effort.

            > Would that then satisfy your requirement that the human behind the project has done enough work to earn your interest?

            Look, if someone isn't going to bother to write something, why would others bother to read it?

          • By throwaway290 2026-03-066:32

            since when the world only has english speaking people?

        • By phs318u 2026-03-064:05

          Probably because its not War and Peace. It's the hook for some app you're probably going top spend all of 2 minutes on deciding whether it may or may not be functionally useful, and that equation is going to be largely solved independent of the quality of that marketing copy.

      • By dolebirchwood 2026-03-0511:261 reply

        The avatars in the "testimonials" are all fakes by pravatar.cc, so take that into consideration. The site is bull shit.

        • By dolebirchwood 2026-03-0521:152 reply

          I revisited the site and noticed that the testimonials section is now deleted. What a punk.

          Please do not engage with this fraudulent clown-show of an app.

          • By Muhammad523 2026-03-088:05

            Deleted? Well, the Wayback Machine comes to rescue.

            https://web.archive.org/web/20260305052854/https://poppy-con...

          • By mahirhiro 2026-03-060:381 reply

            Yep, that was actually a placeholder (eventually with real people, and now soon with 500 downloads!) I didn’t comment out properly hence what someone else pointed out with the html commenting. Mistakes happen and I agree I should do a better job to proof read :)

            • By Muhammad523 2026-03-088:06

              I truly don't think it's possible for new software to have testimonials... especially good ones.

      • By apsurd 2026-03-059:441 reply

        AI tends to be a buzz kill on products because it sends the signal "i can't be bothered to craft this deliberately."

        So why then should we bother to interact with the product deliberately.

        Around here most know how hard and time consuming it is to ship a production grade experience. AI helps a ton. it's not "wrong" per say, but it undeniably leaves an odor.

        • By Muhammad523 2026-03-088:07

          Btw, this project seems to be a solution looking for a problem.

      • By worthless-trash 2026-03-059:36

        We do mate, we do.

    • By SunshineTheCat 2026-03-0516:291 reply

      It feels like 90% of HN has become arguing about whether something was made by AI.

      I'm just counting down the days until no one can actually tell how much AI was involved so we can get to discussing whether the thing is good or not.

      • By goodmythical 2026-03-0517:51

        There's way way way more human slop complaining about AI than there is AI in the first place.

        It would be so much nicer if people didn't feel compelled to add the 32nd iteration of whining about the methodology used to produce the content.

        I'd say I can't wait until the fad passes, but it's always something, isn't it?

        I guess because anger/irritation/outrage are such popular sentiments people tend to resort to that kind of content because it makes them feel good to participate in trends. There's always going to be the group of people who seek popularity by aping whatever the latest fad is.

    • By bko 2026-03-0513:115 reply

      Writing copy is painfully time consuming. AI just does it better, it's meant to communicate and people are not always great communicators. I know it'll write better copy than me.

      Terminally online people need to get over this weird aversion to anything generated w/ help of AI. Do you have similar misgivings, like "this guy obviously used auto correct", or "he's using speech to text, I'm not reading anything unless its hand-written"

      Get over it. It's here, it's useful, judge the product on its merits. I get if you see spam email messages that are overly tailored and ignoring them because the person obv didn't do the work. But this dude created a free app that looks pretty cool, maybe he didn't want to spend another few hours to create a pretty standard boilerplate website with app information.

      • By BoxFour 2026-03-0513:321 reply

        I'll bite:

        Copy can signal that a real person spent time on the details and cared about the product. Auto-correct and speech-to-text still carry that idea.

        Even boring corporate PR language communicates something. It says the company wants to project stability and predictability, which can be reassuring. Slightly awkward, unpolished copy also sends a signal. It suggests a person speaking directly off-the-cuff rather than polished corporate messaging, which some people prefer.

        LLM-generated copy sends a signal too, and not always a good one. To me, it often suggests the author didn’t care enough to think carefully about the message - not even enough to edit something that came out of an LLM.

        At that point it starts to feel like someone just prompted Claude to build a reminders app with no care or thought put into it, which I could do myself if I find this idea valuable at all and even personalize the hell out of it. Maybe that's an unfair first impression! But it's not a crazy one given how quickly the cost of code is approaching 0.

        • By bko 2026-03-0515:323 reply

          > Auto-correct and speech-to-text still carry that idea

          Why? You didn't spend real time consulting a dictionary or using penmanship, since writing is often slower than speaking. You didn't do your own memory management? Wow, guess you don't care about the details. Used a compiler? Wow dude, please spend the time to actually build the product the right way. These are all levels of abstraction, the idea is the idea. The LLM has no agency, it has no ideas, you give it your idea. It packages it out and communicates it effectively, which is respectful to the final user.

          I don't owe you anything. Why am I wasting my time on this so you can feel somehow important. The copy is not the product. Its communication and should be done clearly and respectfully, and if an LLM facilitates with that, I would hope people use LLM for my sake.

          > Even boring corporate PR language communicates something

          Yes I want to communicate. I do so with the LLM. I might have a rant "stress privacy, go through the app and highlight the privacy features. Mention it's good for kids. Oh and also mention its local first (I would make this first actually),... " Whats the point of spending literally hours structuring, writing, re-writing etc. Communicate to the LLM, and use it to be respectful of your audience.

          • By BoxFour 2026-03-0516:52

            > The copy is not the product

            I think this is an illuminative statement from you, so I’m going to just explain that I (and many of the people responding to you likely) will vehemently disagree: The copy is an extremely important part of a product like this.

            Unlikely we’ll see eye-to-eye on this which is fine, but I would encourage you to do some reflection on that. I’ll certainly be reflecting on what might’ve led to you your position as well.

          • By goodmythical 2026-03-0518:011 reply

            I'm with you. Keep fighting the good fight.

            Can't wait until people give up this lunacy.

            It's exactly the same "back in my day" bullshit that's always existed.

            What do you mean you typed this? If it isn't handwritten, I won't accept it. What do you mean you drove to work? Do you not have the dedication to walk? You can't be a good fit for this company if you're so lazy that you have to drive to work.

            • By firmretention 2026-03-0615:10

              The difference is that the output of LLMs is so distinctive in style that those ideas are communicated like a shapeless gray goo. The way something is communicated is as important as the idea itself. The tool becomes the dominant voice.

          • By sebastiennight 2026-03-0521:23

            > The copy is not the product

            As someone who taught marketing for almost 2 decades, I've learned that if the copy does not bring in the people that the product wanted to help, then there might as well be no product.

      • By contagiousflow 2026-03-0514:161 reply

        > Writing copy is painfully time consuming

        I literally do not understand this sentiment. Do you not enjoy anything that takes time to do? Do you not enjoy putting time in for things that other people will look at?

        > I know it'll write better copy than me

        If this is the case I am desperately pleading with you to please read and write more. If you think the copy on this page is passable, let alone good, please read more.

        • By bko 2026-03-0515:282 reply

          I like building apps, I don't necessarily like writing the same boilerplate BS for a necessary landing page for every app I make.

          Again, I'm not saying no one should write marketing copy, if that's your thing, go for it. Take your time, wordsmith. But for others they don't enjoy it or are not particularly good at it (i.e. English isn't someones first language). So let's be accepting and get over it.

          > If this is the case I am desperately pleading with you to please read and write more.

          Please stop moralizing.

          • By sebastiennight 2026-03-0521:31

            > I'm not saying no one should write marketing copy, if that's your thing, go for it. Take your time, wordsmith. But for others they don't enjoy it or are not particularly good at it

            The problem is that the generated "marketing copy" ends up being bland and ineffective (nobody "buys", so the copy fails at its single job) when using generalist LLM tools like eg. ChatGPT.

            So in the end, you don't achieve the goal of "getting better copy" from it because neither version (neither the copy you'd have done naïvely without knowing anything about marketing, nor the LLM copy) converts anyone.

          • By contagiousflow 2026-03-0515:43

            If you're making apps for yourself, sure. But the purpose of a landing page is to convey information to humans. Slopping together some drivel to attempt the appearance of professionalism isn't just lazy, it's dishonest. Have some respect for the things you make and the people who may interact with them. And if you don't want to write boilerplate or copy: don't!

      • By loloquwowndueo 2026-03-0513:23

        > AI just does it better, it's meant to communicate and people are not always great communicators.

        Sorry, no. It doesn’t do it better. It’s like chewing cardboard. All fluff, not a lot of actual well-presented information.

        AI is also not a great communicator- it learned from people, which you said are not great.

      • By endymion-light 2026-03-0513:24

        THere's a level of AI generated copy that makes the website look unpolished. I think it's right to critique, in the same way i'd critique an obvious bootstrap css website.

        There's loads of factors that may implicitly turn someone off using an app, and I think it's important to let the OP know a critical one.

      • By duskdozer 2026-03-0514:53

        Do you have it generate fake people with fake photos and reviews too?

  • By swaminarayan 2026-03-057:041 reply

    A lot of apps try to solve the “stay in touch with people” problem, but in my experience the novelty usually wears off after a while and the reminders start feeling like noise. Curious how you approached this in Poppy — did you design anything specifically to avoid reminder fatigue and make it sustainable long-term?

    • By mahirhiro 2026-03-060:50

      This is definitely a valid concern. Since I mostly built the app for myself I wanted to have 2 easy features.

      1. The ability to snooze someone who I don’t feel like reaching out for a certain period of time 2. Having an easy mute global notifications option in the app and configurable per person

      I was also considering the idea of grouping contacts to maybe say “hey out of these people you should reach out to someone next month”. Basically to keep you social/ in touch with someone.

      I’m very open to feedback if you think folks might get tired of those too?

  • By SeriousM 2026-03-056:181 reply

    I really appreciate this work. Yes, it's AI language and it seems it's not polished to run on every device -yet.

    And it does one thing really good: be there. Sounds silly, I know, but an app that tries to make the world better AT NO COST is so much more than "well, I could vibe code that myself".

    Thanks fellow creator of this app. Thanks for believing that this app may have an impact on the important part of our life: re/connecting people.

    • By mahirhiro 2026-03-060:56

      Thanks mate!

      I really appreciate your words! It’s been months in the marking and I’m so happy to see people also find it helpful like me!

      Please let me know if you think of any cool features you’d like to see :)

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