From Side Project to App Store: Building Lumorae – An AI Journaling App for Mental Wellness
After I formed my own business AuravisionX, provides Premier Consultancy & Application Development, while AI boomed, thought it might be a good time to create my own development studio — AvxLabs.
From ideation to experimenting and now the first born AI-powered app from the studio launched in App Store, Lumorae. It’s an AI-enabled journaling and mental wellness companion — built in my spare time, designed for people who just need a quiet, personalised space to reflect and heal.
The Why
After years of working in tech and seeing burnout up close, I started to realize how hard it is for people (myself included) to slow down and process their emotions. Most wellness apps are overwhelming, gamified, or ask too much upfront.
I just wanted something simple. Calm. Private. Quiet.
And with the rise of LLMs and AI voice, I realised I could actually build something like that.
What Lumorae Does
Lumorae lets users:
Write daily journals and receive AI reflections
Generate and save personalised affirmations
Listen to affirmations using text-to-voice (ElevenLabs)
Track their emotional state
Get AI-based encouragement that fits their mood
It’s lean, focused, and doesn’t try to be everything. Just a pocket companion for your emotional clarity.
Tech Stack
React Native (TypeScript)
AWS (Lambda, DynamoDB, S3)
Pulumi for full IAC
CI/CD automated deployment
OpenAI + ElevenLabs for language + voice AI
Milestones
App Store launch (July 2025)
Localised for CN, JP, KR
Revenue model: subscription (monthly/yearly/lifetime)
What’s Next
Grow early user base and explore pre-seed funding if possible
Many more feature including a custom trained LLM for more nuanced reflection
Ask Me Anything
If you’re building something similar — solo or not — I’d love to connect. I’m also exploring marketing channels and indie growth, so hit me with your advice, critique, or collab ideas.
You can follow my journey here or even download the app to try out.
this is pretty cool, ive been developing tools with qwen, the automation of it is really cool, the ability to specify certain requirements for the project. todays tools usage is much different from a year ago.
Congrats on the launch! The "simple, calm, private, quiet" positioning certainly resonates.
I love that you identified the core problem with most wellness apps - they're overwhelming when people need the opposite. The fact that you built this from personal experience with burnout shows.
A few questions out of curiosity:
How did you approach the AI reflection tone? That seems like such a delicate balance between helpful and not feeling robotic
What made you choose those specific markets for localization?
The tech stack looks solid too. React Native + AWS is a great combo for getting something stable out quickly.
Really interested to follow your journey, especially the early user feedback phase. That's always the most revealing (and sometimes brutal) part.
Best of luck with the growth! 🚀
This looks awesome — love the “dream space” concept. Feels like a mix of mindfulness + intention-setting, which I think a lot of productivity tools lack.
Are you focusing on solo founders/creatives for your early users, or is it more general?
I’m building an AI brand naming tool and find it fascinating how different products tap into emotion and identity — curious how you're thinking about that with Lumorae!
Thx for the comments! I think Lumorae is now more about a journaling tool with AI powered feedbacks, specially for those ones who don't need social interactions, but also have a bit positive feedbacks to your daily emotions and thoughts. I was in a very bad state of my life at a time, I think if I had this earlier, I might find a good place to let my emotions out and have some positive affirmations to help me.