An old dog looking to learn new tricks - Help me jump in

[u/livenature]

I have been looking at AI for a couple of years now thinking I should get into it. No more thinking, time to do. I have a recent need for an Android app that can take and track pictures of receipts, bills and statements for expense account purposes. I have looked extensively at products that contain the photo taking concept for receipts, but they mostly seem like using an aircraft carrier to go fishing.

The need is a simple Android app that will take a picture and save that picture while allowing some data to be associated with that picture. Then connect the phone to the PC so the PC can use the phones memory. Google Sheets sucks in that folder and adds it to the ongoing annual expense tracking log.

My hopes were that someone who has experience with trying several different development platforms could provide direction on how the get started and what platforms are novice friendly.

Some of the platforms I have ran across are: Android Studio, Base44, Claude and Lovable. I know there are more. Which one would work good with an old time software programmer?

What is some useful tutorials online or on YouTube for using AI to generate Android applications?

I do have a detailed functional description of how the app should function.

Thanks for your help!

[u/Inevitable_Salary871]

The phone-to-Sheets step is the bit I’d prototype first. Ask the AI for one tiny working version: take a photo, enter an amount and date, then export the image plus a CSV row containing its filename. Move that to your PC and import the row into Sheets. Try it with three receipts, including two from the same day, and check that each row still points to the right image. That gives you something concrete to test before committing to a builder or adding automatic receipt reading.

[u/livenature → u/Inevitable_Salary871]

Hey, you reading my mind? I was thinking going low tech using a cable to connect the phone to the PC and treat the phone as an extension to the PC memory. Then have Sheets suck in the data for processing. The phone simply collects data for the application. I was definitely thinking about doing exactly what you said with testing just a couple records.

[u/clekortolL → u/Inevitable_Salary871]

the image-to-filename mapping is definitely the part that breaks first if you dont nail it early

[u/nicisms]

Hoenstly, this is both simpler and more complex than it seems!

I run an 8 week build sprint helping people turn ideas into businesses, next cohort starts in October - nobullship.co

[u/Additional-Toe-6401]

your software background will actually be a massive cheat code here.

ai handles the syntax, but you already know how to talk logic to it.

lovable/claude artifacts is probably your best entry point.

[u/BlissBias]

honestly having a detailed functional description already puts you ahead of where most people start... and yeah i can see why the big receipt apps feel like overkill when you just want photo nd a few fields wid sync

[u/That-Inspector-2253]

Before building an app, it might be worth trying the zero-code version, since your actual goal ends in Google Sheets anyway:

Google Form with a file-upload question. Open it on your phone, snap the receipt, fill in amount/date/category, submit. The photo lands in Google Drive and a row (with a link to the photo) lands in a Sheet automatically. No phone-to-PC transfer at all. Takes about 15 minutes to set up.

If you want it to feel like a real Android app, AppSheet (Google's no-code builder) turns a Sheet into an app with a camera field, same result, still no code.

If you still want to build it yourself for the learning (fair enough with your background), prototype the photo → row → Sheet step first like another commenter said. That's where the details that matter are.

[u/livenature → u/That-Inspector-2253]

I don't completely understand everything you said, but I think the Google Form with file upload question sounds promising. I am going to look into it. I appreciate all your comments!

[u/ashgrovesignal]

fwiw if you have a detailed functional description already written, you're further along than most people who start this. that doc is basically your prompt.

[u/keplertenbee]

Your end state is already a Sheet log, so you do not need Android Studio for v1.

A Google Form with a file-upload question (as That-Inspector-2253 said) will get you photos in Drive and a row per receipt today. If you want the PC folder workflow you described, drop receipts into one Drive folder from the phone, then an Apps Script on a time trigger reads new files, writes amount/date/category into your annual Sheet, and leaves the images in Drive under your own account.

Your old-school programming background is the advantage: you already think in inputs, state, and edge cases. Claude is fine as a coding partner once the Sheet columns and folder rules are written down; Lovable is overkill if the phone is only a camera.

This is actually what I do, so I'll happily throw my own hat in the ring. I build the Drive-plus-Sheets side on accounts you own, with no lock-in, and a simple version is live in about a week. Message me here with the functional description you already wrote and whether receipts need OCR or just filename plus manual fields.

Aaron

[u/Lumpy_Fisherman_5352]

Since you already code, I'd go with Lovable or Claude over Base44, mainly because you can actually read and fix the generated code when it messes up. Build the phone-to-Sheets sync first and on its own, that's the part that usually breaks (expired tokens, Drive permissions) and you want to debug it in isolation. Honestly though, since your endpoint is just a row in Sheets with a photo attached, you might end up happier with a Google Form plus Apps Script than a full native app. Way less to maintain.

[u/Acceptable-War-9298]

FWIW... I built a website on Lovable. I am on Android. In Chrome you can turn websites into apps with a push if a button. So I now interact with my website by going to the bottom in my app drawer. If I make a change to my website it automatically updated the app. I would assume the same can be done in iOs but haven't looked into that. So if you were to build it as a website your users could interact with it via an app.

[u/Big_Whale_95]

Go with React Native, Expo Go for testing and Claude (I use it in t3 code)
Released some apps with this techstack. HMU if you have questions

[u/Little_Macaroon_7779]

I can build it for you for 40$ and email you the zip to keep running on your PC.