Every Feature, Explained.
A deep dive into everything MenuMeld can do for your daily nutrition.
Daily Meal Planning
Organize every meal across five time slots. Track how full you feel, mark day types, and navigate between dates with smooth animations. Nutrition data shows inline on every card.
5 Time Slots
Breakfast (6-9), Brunch (9-11), Lunch (11-14), Tea (14-17), Dinner (17-21). Fully customizable ranges.
Inline Nutrition Strip
Every meal card shows Calories, Protein, Fat, and Carbs. Falls back to template values when planned meal fields are empty.
Fullness Tracking
Tap the circle icon to record: 1/4 Full, 1/2 Full, 3/4 Full, or Very Full. Persists with the meal.
Day Types
Mark each day as Normal, Working, Holiday, or Traveling. Track eating patterns by context.
Animated Add/Delete
New meals animate in with a bouncy spring transition. Deletions fade out before SwiftData persists, keeping UI snappy.
Meal Photos
Attach photos to planned meals. Stored as compressed synced data, cached locally, mirrored across iCloud devices.
Smart Meal Library
Build a personal collection of reusable meal templates with full nutrition data, ingredient tags, custom icons, and smart categorization. Pre-seeded with hundreds of meals in 3 languages.
7 Built-in Categories + Custom
Chinese, Western, Japanese, Healthy, Dessert, Drink, Other. Create custom categories with emoji prefixes.
Search & Filter
FlowLayout category chips, search by name, sort by Name/Latest/Oldest. All combine for refined results.
7 Ingredient Tag Fields
Ingredients, Allergens, Additives, Serving Info, Storage, Date/Batch, Manufacturer. Tag-based input with chips.
10 Nutrition Facts Fields
Calories, Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Trans Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbs, Fiber, Sugars, Protein.
Custom Icons
Choose from curated food emojis or select a photo from your library. Icons display everywhere.
Multilingual Seeded Names
Pre-seeded meals store English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese names. Auto-displays the right one.
Calendar & Dashboard
Visualize your eating patterns with a monthly calendar, color-coded sodium indicators, interactive calorie charts, and comprehensive nutrition analytics over any time range.
Sodium Color Indicators
Green (≤1500mg), Yellow (1500-2300mg), Red (>2300mg) dots on every calendar day cell.
Calorie Trend Chart
Animated line chart with gradient fill. Swipe to highlight individual days, tap for detailed nutrition breakdown.
Time Range Selector
Today, 7 Days, or 30 Days. Summary stats, category distribution, and trend charts adapt to selection.
Date Detail Panel
Tap a date to see meals grouped by time slot with calories. Swipe-to-edit/delete with custom gestures.
AI Nutrition Goals
Calorie progress ring with daily target. Dynamic HealthKit adjustment based on actual activity levels.
Weight Logging
Daily weight recording with BMI calculation, unit conversion (kg/lbs), and visual trend chart.
AI Photo Meal Detection
Snap a photo of your food and AI identifies the dish, estimates all nutrition values, and logs it as a planned meal. Works even offline with background processing and auto-retry.
Camera or Photo Library
Take a new photo or select from your library. Image is compressed to JPEG and analyzed by advanced AI vision.
Background Processing
Analysis runs on the server via asyncio. Close the app and it continues. PendingMealAnalysis persists the task in SwiftData.
Offline Mode
NWPathMonitor detects connectivity. Offline submissions queue and auto-retry every 4 seconds until connected.
Dynamic Island
Live Activity shows analysis progress on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Ends immediately on failure.
Fireworks Celebration
On success, a particle burst celebration plays. The meal auto-creates with full nutrition and ingredient data.
Edit AI Results
After detection, tap the pencil icon to request changes: "Make it vegetarian" or "Reduce calories". AI regenerates.
AI Meal Suggestions & Menu Scanning
Get personalized meal recommendations based on 13 health conditions, 7 TCM constitutions, taste preferences, and location. Or scan a restaurant menu for the best dish for you.
Health Conditions
13 conditions: Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, Gout, Anemia, Lactose Intolerance, and more.
TCM Constitution
7 Traditional Chinese Medicine body types: Spleen Weakness, Qi Deficiency, Yin Deficiency, Damp-Heat, and more.
Restaurant Menu Scan
Upload 1-5 menu photos. AI returns best match + 5 alternatives with reasoning, sources, and health notes.
Location-Aware
Auto-detects your location via CLGeocoder. AI considers local cuisine and seasonal availability.
Food Suitability Check
Enter a food name or upload a photo. AI rates suitability 1-5 for your health. Suggests 5 alternatives if unsuitable.
Google Search Grounding
AI verifies nutritional claims with real-time web search. Sources shown as clickable links with favicons.
AI Nutrition Chat
A full conversational interface with your AI nutritionist. Ask questions, share food photos, and get personalized meal suggestions with inline "Add to Plan" cards.
Streaming Responses
Chat text streams progressively in Markdown. Auto-scrolls to follow generation. Powered by advanced AI.
Photo Upload
Attach photos via library or camera. Images are locally checked for 10MB limit, downsampled, and cached.
Food Suggestion Cards
When AI recommends foods, inline wobbly-styled cards appear. Tap "Add to Plan" to go directly to meal planning.
Profile Context
Your health conditions, TCM constitution, weight goals, location, and 5-day meal history are automatically injected.
Token Usage Tracking
Monthly token allowances tracked via ChatTokenUsageManager. Syncs with backend for accurate limits.
Interactive Demo
Non-subscribers see an animated mock-chat experience showcasing the flow before hitting the paywall.
Type with Text & Voice Input
Type a food name to get instant calorie estimates with Google Search grounding, or dictate your meals via Whisper speech-to-text. Restaurant discovery finds nearby places serving the food.
Debounced Calorie Estimation
0.7s debounce after each keystroke. Shows food name, calories, serving size, and confidence level instantly.
Google Search Sources
Collapsible sources section with website favicons. Tap to expand and verify nutritional claims.
Voice Input
Tap the mic icon to record (max 15s). OpenAI Whisper transcribes audio to text. Auto-triggers estimation.
Restaurant Discovery
Google Maps grounding finds nearby restaurants serving the food. Shows name, rating, hours, phone, and directions.
Location-Aware Accuracy
"蛋餅" near Taipei yields different results than near New York. Regional accuracy for local cuisine.
Widgets, Siri, Sync & More
Home screen widgets, Siri voice commands, iCloud sync, recurring meals, two design themes, Live Activities, and push notifications round out the experience.
Home Screen Widgets
Small (calorie ring + meals badge), Medium (2 meals), Large (3 meals). Hand-drawn paper aesthetic.
Siri Integration
5 App Intent voice commands. "Add a meal", "What did I eat today", and more via Siri shortcuts.
iCloud Sync
Automatic CloudKit sync across all your Apple devices. No account required - uses your Apple ID.
Recurring Meals
Set meals to auto-populate daily or on specific days (Mon/Wed/Fri). Enable/disable individually.
Two Design Themes
Hand-drawn paper style (Kalam + Patrick Hand fonts) or Glassmorphism (frosted glass with system fonts).
Daily Reminders
Morning (9AM): record your meals. Evening (8PM): plan for tomorrow. Customizable in Settings.
Privacy First
No account required for core features. Data stored locally. Sign in with Apple/Google only for AI and subscriptions.
AI Meal Rating
At the end of every meal slot, MenuMeld's AI automatically reviews what you ate and gives you a 0–100 score with criteria-level feedback, improvement tips, and a motivational message. No manual rating required.
0–100 Quality Score
Holistic assessment, not stars. Score maps to a color ring: red (0-29) → orange (30-49) → gold (50-69) → green (70-84) → crown (85-100).
Up to 5 Criteria
Protein, complex carbs, healthy fats, vegetables & fruits, hydration. Each gets its own 0–100 score and animated progress bar.
Improvement Suggestions
AI suggests specific foods to add next time — tailored to your health profile, TCM constitution, and language.
Motivational Messages
"Outstanding breakfast! You're fueling your day like a champion." Localized to English, Traditional Chinese, or Simplified Chinese.
Ring Badges Everywhere
Score badges appear on every meal card in Daily Plan, widgets, and the calendar. Tap to open the full breakdown popover.
Auto Submit & Poll
When a meal slot's time ends, MealRatingManager auto-submits to the backend, polls for completion, caches via Redis, and fires the rating notification.
Live Activity & Dynamic Island
Three ActivityKit-powered Live Activities bring MenuMeld to the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island: AI photo analysis progress, meal rating results, and AI-ranked eating order. All with animated transitions and push-updated content.
Meal Analysis Progress
MealAnalysisAttributes drives this flow. Sparkles pulse while the AI processes, progress bar fills, then transitions to a green checkmark with detected food name, calories, and protein.
Meal Rating Ready
MealRatingAttributes animates a score ring from 0 to 100 with up to 5 criterion bars and a localized motivational message. Tap to open the full popover.
Eating Order Suggestions
EatingOrderAttributes lists numbered steps 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 for the optimal sequence to eat what's on your plate, each with a brief reason.
Minimal · Compact · Expanded
Minimal shows just the app logo (18×18). Compact shows a star + score in the score color. Expanded reveals the full criteria grid + motivational message across Leading/Trailing/Center/Bottom regions.
Countdown & Auto-Dismiss
A monospacedDigit timer replaces the progress ring when the user opens the app, counting down to auto-dismiss. APNS pushes keep content fresh.
Glass Morphism
iOS 26+ uses .ultraThinMaterial for the Lock Screen banner; older iOS falls back to .thinMaterial. Custom fonts (Kalam-Bold for MenuMeld name) preserved throughout.
