The Trail

Inspiration

How many times have you forgotten to submit an assignment on time because you were on TikTok? Or how about the time you felt guilty taking a sneak peek on an Instagram post while "locking in" for your important calc 2 exam? Well, when we first heard the prompt, we immediately thought of how rather than use our phones against us, we could use the existing technologies that keep us distracted to motivate us to reach our goals. You know, like a gentle "nudge". Thinking about how users usually analyze the time wasted during a day using their phones we kept concluding that the metrics existing apps use were too negative, and do not inspire much room for improvement. We also noticed that existing productivity apps are either too rigid (hard locks on what you can/can't do) or too passive (tracking without meaningful intervention). So we flipped how we think of screentime, and instead focused on making users reflect about the time during the day that they DO stay productive, while ascending to new heights.

What it does

The Trail is more than just a productivity app, it is a commitment to your own personal progress. It combines gamification, AI-powered insights, and gentle intervention to help students stay focused and achieve their goals.

Core Features:

• Gamified Trail Progress: Visual journey where users earn steps from productive screen time (1 step/hour) and completed goals (3 steps/task). Progress through multiple trails with a customizable avatar.
• Smart Nudges: iOS Device Activity integration shows gentle reminders when opening distracting apps, with AI-generated context-aware messages referencing your current goals and assignments.
• HealthKit Auto-Sync: Automatically creates and tracks fitness goals from Apple Watch rings (Move, Exercise, Stand) and sleep duration, syncing daily progress seamlessly.
• Canvas LMS Integration: Syncs assignments from Canvas, generates AI-powered study plans with subtasks and resources, and tracks due dates with urgency indicators.
• Goal Tracking: Manual goal creation across 8 categories (Academic, Fitness, Wellness, etc.) with streak tracking, progress bars, and daily logging.
• AI Insights: Gemini-powered encouragement messages personalized to your progress, plus study plan generation that breaks down assignments into actionable steps.
• Screen Time Analytics: Tracks productive vs. unproductive app usage, calculating net time saved and showing recent focus sessions.

How we built it

• Created a custom iOS native module to work around Apple’s Screen Time limitations.
• Built with Expo Router for file-based navigation and React Native for cross-platform mobile support
• Custom native module for iOS Device Activity framework integration (app shields/nudges)
• HealthKit service for fitness data sync using react-native-health.
• Canvas API integration for assignment syncing
• Real-time trail visualization with animated avatar progression
• Custom hooks for goals, assignments, dashboard, and services management
• Algorithm for calculating time saved and time wasted:

wasted_minutes = duration_opened_minutes × waste_score × time_factor
waste_percentage = (wasted_minutes / duration_opened_minutes) × 100
saved_time = duration × (baseline_waste_score - waste_score) × time_factor

Challenges we ran into

Apple’s Screen Time privacy restrictions blocked access to detailed usage stats. We pivoted to Device Activity-based events + nudges to still deliver meaningful intervention. Gemini API also proved difficult to implement in our application as developers using it for the first time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We are most proud of managing many different data sources and APIs at the same time, as we needed all of these connections to make our core trail functionality work. We had to increment little by little in getting small services, such as Canvas connection(assignments, deadlines, tests), screentime workaround, authentication database(MongoDB), etc.
• We were also really happy with how our internal system for managing what to do with this information came out. We had to think a lot about calculating the stats and steps that a user would take using these complex data sources. Though it all came out really well, since we documented our use of each API/service for clarity.
• We were also surprised that we were able to build a custom iOS native module to work around Apple’s Screen Time limitations while still delivering meaningful insights.

What we learned

• We initially hit a wall because Apple’s strict policies prevented us from using the Screen Time API to access user statistics. After exploring and implementing workarounds, we were able to obtain the core data our app relied on. This persistence paid off, allowing us to move past the biggest blocker and make consistent progress on the project.
• Positive reinforcement and visual progress are far more motivating than raw “time wasted” statistics.
• We also had to learn what the priority of certain features was. We constantly had to ask ourselves, "if everything we didn't do wrong, what would we submit by midnight as an mvp?" This mindset allowed us to crush an initial prototype and keep adding to it over the course of the hackathon.

What's next for The Trail

• More Voice-based affirmations and encouragement using ElevenLabs
• Having activities for your trail buddy to do while you are gone. Could include active activities such as doing a job interview with me, practicing meditation + deep breathing, or solving a puzzle.
• A friends list to work with others in your circle and see their progress too!
• Passive challenges like “Don’t use your phone for 3 hours” or “Go outside for 30 minutes” to unlock cosmetics and character skins
• A community system, where users can join their friends on trails and find cool items together.

Built With

• canvas
• fastapi
• gemini
• git
• github
• instructure-canvas
• ios
• mongodb
• myelevenlabs
• pip
• python
• react
• react-native
• tailwind
• tailwind-css