Developer Builds AI App 'Ember' to Reduce Screen Time and Boost Real-World Habits

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A developer created Ember, an AI-powered app designed to reduce excessive screen time in young users, inspired by concerns about his own son's smartphone and gaming habits. Unlike conventional apps that optimize for user engagement, Ember measures success by how quickly users close the screen to pursue physical activities or journaling. The app uses Google Cloud Platform and a multi-agent AI architecture, including Gemini on Vertex AI and an on-device Gemma model to protect journal privacy. Key performance metrics include Time-to-Value, Conversion to Offline Action, and Task Completion Rate — all focused on promoting real-world behavior rather than passive scrolling. Ember was developed as part of the AllThingsAgentic Hackathon organized by Devpost and Google.

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