Gemel
Seconds to log.
A glance to know.
Calories and protein, paced through your day, so you always know whether you're on track while there's still time to fix it. No food database, no account, no feed. Pair with a friend, and keep each other on target.
Tracking got heavy.
Every tracker started as a place to write down a number. Then it grew a database, a scanner, a feed and a coach — and put all of it in front of the one thing you opened it for.
- A database of 900,000 foods to search
- A barcode scanner and meal photos
- A feed, a coach, a leaderboard
- Pie charts for macros you never set
- A spinner before the number
- A calculator open in another app to add the meal up first
- $80 a year, with the good parts held back
- Two numbers: calories and protein
- Whether you're on pace right now
- One tap to log what you usually eat, from anywhere
- A pad that adds the meal up as you type
- A friend to keep a streak with, if you want one
Gemel is the right column. Nothing from the left will be added later.
A target that moves with your day.
A daily number is only useful if you know how much of it you were meant to have used by now. Gemel draws a pace line that climbs from the hour you wake to the hour you turn in, so a number at 2pm reads as ahead or behind — not just as a number.
- 7:10amNothing to do. The line starts climbing from the hour you wake.
- 12:40pmLunch is one tap. The chip says −90cal behind. That's fine — dinner's coming.
- 3:15pmDrag the line back to see how the morning actually went.
- 9:40pmBoth bars capped. That's a gemel. The streak pill ticks over.
Cutting or building — your calorie number is a ceiling or a floor, and the chip's words change to match.
Seconds, not a food diary.
The fastest way to log a meal is to type the number you already know. Everything about logging in Gemel is built around that: no scanner to aim, no search results to scroll, no calculator open in another app. Your usual amounts are one tap. Anything else, the pad adds up as you type, with the running total in view.
- Quick add: your usual amounts, ranked by what you reach for and when. One tap, done.
- The pad does the arithmetic — 140 + 80 + 100 — totalled as you go
- Log from the Lock Screen, Control Center, the Action button, your watch or Siri, without opening the app
- No barcode scanner, on purpose. It was always more trouble than it was worth.
Different goals. Same streak.
She's cutting. You're building. You both track the same two numbers — her calorie number is a ceiling, yours is a floor — and neither of you sees the other's figures, only whether today was hit. That's all a shared streak needs, and it's the part every other tracker skips.
- Pair with a friend and you start a second streak, one that only continues on days you both hit your goals. Your own streak keeps going either way.
- One person per pairing, as many pairings as you like — each with its own streak
- They see whether you were on pace — never your calories, grams or meals
- An invite is a link, sent however you like. No accounts. Unpairing is silent and symmetrical.
Hit both. That's a gemel.
Hit both goals and the day is a gemel. String them together and you have a streak — with personal bests and awards for the days you kept alone, and the ones you kept alongside someone else. A streak on the line is a good reason to log dinner.
- Current streak, longest streak, paired gemels, awards earned
- A full calendar and a four-week grid of every day you logged
The awards are the nudge. The result is the one you set out for — a run of days at your own targets — and every one of them is kept, in a calendar you can look back on.
Never more than a glance away.
You shouldn't have to open an app to see if you're on track. The same two bars sit on your Home Screen, your Lock Screen, in Control Center and on your wrist — and Siri will just tell you.
- Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets at every size
- Apple Watch complications, right on the watch face
- Add and Quick add as Control Center controls
- “Hey Siri, log an entry” — no tap at all
- Reads and writes Apple Health, so a meal logged anywhere counts here
Small app. Whole platform.
Two numbers is the whole idea, so the work went into reaching you wherever you already are. This is all of it, in one place.
- Two bars, one axisCalories and protein, drawn to the same scale
- The pace lineClimbs from the hour you wake to the hour you turn in
- The chipThe signed gap, riding the line−90cal
- Drag to scrubAny minute of the day, in 15-minute steps
- Your own hoursDay start and bedtime, overnight included
- Cutting or buildingYour calorie number is a ceiling or a floor
- The streak pillTicks the moment today qualifies
- The recapHow yesterday finished, the next morning
- Quick addYour usual amounts, ranked by what you reach for and when1 tap
- The padAdds as you type, with the running total in view140+80+100
- Live previewWhere the entry lands before you commit it
- UndoOn every log, with a word when you cross a target
- Every entryListed by day, each one deletable
- Suggested targetsFrom your weight, height and goal
- Scheduled changesNew targets take over tomorrow, never mid-day
- Lock ScreenAdd and Quick add as Lock Screen buttons
- Control CenterThe same two controls
- Action buttonAssign either one
- Home ScreenLong-press the icon for your two usual amounts
- Apple WatchQuick add tiles, or dial it in with the Digital Crown
- Siri“Log an entry in Gemel”
- Home ScreenSmall, medium and large3
- Lock ScreenCircular, rectangular and inline3
- Pairs widgetLongest streak, most recent, or one person you choose
- Tap-throughEvery widget opens the exact screen it shows
- StandByWhen your iPhone is charging on its side
- MacThrough iPhone widgets on Mac
- Watch appToday at a glance, and your pairs
- Your dayCircular, corner, rectangular and inline4
- Your pairsCircular, rectangular and inline3
- Log from the wristSent to the phone, so Health and your pairs still see it
- Fresh on the faceRefreshes when a meal lands, not on a timer
- Log an entryOr just calories, or just protein
- Am I on pace?What's left and where you stand, spoken back
- How much is left?Calories or protein, on their own
- What's my target?The one place a figure is read back
- Shortcuts appSeven actions, none of which open the app7
- ReadsDietary energy and protein from any app that writes them
- WritesEvery entry back as one meal
- DeletionsTravel in both directions
- BackgroundA meal logged elsewhere wakes Gemel and refreshes your widgets and watch
- One askIn context, and never again
- An invite is a linkOpen it and you're paired. No accounts.
- What they seeOn pace or not. Never a number.
- As many as you likeOne person per pairing
- Your own clockEach of you keeps your own hours and targets
- TogetherA paired streak, weekly rows, and awards you earn as a pair
- Share a snapshotAn image of the pairing, percentages only
- UnpairFrom either side, silently
- StreaksCalories, protein, logging, gemels, and each pairing5
- AwardsYours, and together16
- Personal bestsRecords that are never taken away
- HistoryEvery month, back to day one
- The nudgeA streak on the line is a good reason to log dinner
- No accountA first name is your whole identity
- No serverYour phone, and your own iCloud
- No ads, no analyticsNo third-party SDKs
- No notificationsGemel never pings you
- Delete everythingTwo taps, pairings included
- Light, dark or autoAnd VoiceOver on the gauge and the pad
- One subscriptionRecording is paid. Reading is free forever. Family Sharing included.
I tried the big trackers and stopped using every one of them. Not because tracking didn't work — because the apps were doing too much.
A barcode scanner, a food database, meal photos, a feed, and a subscription that cost more than the gym, all in front of the two numbers I'd opened it for. Logging a meal meant adding it up in the Calculator app first, then tapping through screens to find the field. The scanner was always more trouble than it was worth. All I wanted was to get the number in fast and get on with my day.
So I gave up and built an Apple Shortcut that logged my protein. Just protein, because getting even one number through Shortcuts was fiddly, and what I ended up with was unreliable, still slow, and no fun to use. My wife, on a cut, did the same with calories, and somehow hit even more bugs than I did. Neither of us wanted to track only one number. Two would have made a bad thing worse, so we settled for one, frustrated.
What we actually wanted was the same two numbers. Calories and protein are what matter for a cut and a bulk alike; the only difference is that her calorie number is a ceiling and mine is a floor. Track both, treat that one difference properly, and two people with opposite goals are suddenly doing the same thing every day — and can keep each other at it.
Gemel is that: two numbers, a line that says where you stand right now, and a streak you keep together, even when your goals point in opposite directions.
Nothing to sign in to. Nothing to sell.
Gemel has no server. Your days live in an encrypted database on your device and, if you pair, in your own iCloud — there is no account, no profile and nothing for anyone to mine.
No account, ever
No email, no password, no sign-in screen. Pairing runs on iCloud, so there is nothing to create and nothing to leak.
No ads or analytics
No advertising, no analytics, no third-party tracking SDKs. The only outside code is an open-source local database.
Their gauge, never their grams
A pairing shares whether a goal was met — never the amounts behind it. The fields for raw numbers simply don't exist.
Delete it all, for real
One button erases every day you logged and ends your pairings. What you wrote to Apple Health was always yours, not ours — it stays in Health, where you decide what happens to it.
Try it before it ships.
Recording a day is the one thing Gemel will charge for, and your first month is free from the moment you install. Reading — your days, your streaks, how your pairs are doing — never needs a subscription.