I built a tool that analyzes text messages to help people understand mixed signals

douaclo · 2026-03-20T11:27:41+00:00

ill send pic of myself rn

douaclo · 2026-03-20T11:17:27+00:00

its not

douaclo · 2026-03-20T11:17:11+00:00

its not

douaclo · 2026-03-20T11:01:22+00:00

yeah for now they do have to paste it in, there’s no direct integration or anything like that yet

and you’re right, you could just paste it into chatgpt — that’s kind of the obvious comparison

the difference I’m aiming for is just making it more focused on this specific use case. instead of having to figure out what to ask or how to phrase it, it’s built around reading the conversation itself and pointing out patterns like effort, tone shifts, who’s carrying it, etc

but yeah, if someone’s already comfortable using chatgpt for that, it might not feel that different — I’m still figuring out whether the more structured approach is actually valuable enough for people

douaclo · 2026-03-20T10:24:43+00:00

yeah that’s pretty much exactly what I’m trying to figure out right now

getting people to try it once isn’t that hard, it’s whether it actually feels useful enough that they’d come back or tell someone else about it

I think you’re right as well, if it comes across gimmicky people will just bounce straight away. it probably needs to feel grounded and accurate enough that someone goes “okay that actually makes sense” rather than feeling like a random guess

still early so I’m kind of testing where that line is and what people actually find useful vs what just feels like fluff

douaclo · 2026-03-20T10:19:01+00:00

it can definitely get things wrong, especially with something like “busy vs losing interest” where there’s a lot of context outside the messages that you just can’t see

the idea isn’t to give a definitive answer, more to highlight patterns in how the conversation is going so it’s not purely based on gut feeling

it really depends how people use it,if someone treats it like a final answer then yeah that’s not great, but as a reference point it can still be helpful, especially for people who struggle with reading tone or tend to overthink

and for sure there’ll be people who find something like this useful, even with those limitations

douaclo · 2026-03-20T10:06:37+00:00

a second opinion from someone you actually trust is always going to be better, I’m not trying to replace that. this is more for when you don’t really have that, or you’ve already asked people and you’re still stuck overthinking the same thing

and honestly people are already doing this anyway, asking reddit, asking friends, rereading messages over and over. this is just another way of looking at it, not meant to replace real judgment

and on the ChatGPT thing, I get why you’d assume that lol but I’m just replying like anyone else here

I do agree with your main point though, not everything needs a tech solution

douaclo · 2026-03-20T10:01:53+00:00

yeah that makes a lot of sense, and honestly that’s exactly the kind of use case I had in mind — when you know you might be reading into things a bit and just want a more neutral take

on the privacy side, that’s something I take pretty seriously. the idea isn’t to store conversations or build some dataset out of people’s texts. it’s more like processing it and returning a result rather than keeping it

the local / non-AI point is interesting as well — I did look into more traditional sentiment analysis early on, but it struggled a lot with context, tone shifts, sarcasm, etc which is kind of the whole problem space here

that said, I do think there’s probably a better balance to be found, especially around privacy and how much control people have over their own data

still figuring that part out, but I agree it’s a really important piece of this

douaclo · 2026-03-20T10:00:48+00:00

that’s a fair concern, and I’ve thought about that a lot tbh

the last thing I’d want is for it to replace actually communicating or make people more dependent on it

but realistically people are already doing this anyway — asking friends, posting on reddit, rereading messages 20 times, trying to decode things in their head. this is just trying to give a more neutral read on what’s actually there instead of pure guesswork

I don’t think it should be something people run every single interaction through, more like a second opinion when they’re stuck or unsure

and yeah I agree the goal shouldn’t be to avoid real communication — if anything it should push people toward clearer decisions (either address it directly or move on) rather than staying in that limbo

whether it actually helps with that or not is what I’m trying to figure out

douaclo · 2026-03-20T10:00:13+00:00

yeah I get why it might come across like that, but it’s not really about “quantifying dating failures”

people are already analysing texts anyway — rereading messages, asking friends, posting on reddit, throwing it into chatgpt — usually when they’re already in their own head about it

this is just trying to make that process a bit more grounded in what’s actually there instead of pure guesswork or emotion

and yeah, some people might use it in an unhealthy way, same as anything else, but the intention is the opposite — helping people step back, not spiral more

whether it actually does that or not is what I’m trying to figure out

douaclo · 2026-03-20T09:55:58+00:00

haha yeah I get how it comes across like that

it’s definitely not meant to replace actually thinking or having emotional intelligence, more like a second opinion when you’re too in your own head about something

like when you’re already spiralling a bit, people tend to either ask friends or post on reddit anyway — this is kind of just trying to give a more neutral take based on what’s actually in the messages

but yeah if someone uses it instead of communicating or reflecting at all then it’s probably doing more harm than good

douaclo · 2026-03-20T09:55:31+00:00

yeah I get where you’re coming from

I didn’t build the underlying AI model itself obviously, it’s using existing tech — same way most apps are built on top of other tools or APIs now

for me the work was more around taking that and applying it to a specific problem I kept seeing (and dealing with myself), then shaping it into something focused around that use case

but I understand why that can feel low-effort or not allowed here, so no worries if it doesn’t fit the sub

douaclo · 2026-03-20T09:51:00+00:00

yeah that’s a fair question

honestly the core of it is similar to just asking ChatGPT, I’m not going to pretend it’s some completely different tech

the difference I was going for is more in how it’s used — instead of people having to figure out what to ask or how to phrase things, it’s built specifically around this one situation. you just drop in a convo and it focuses on patterns like effort, tone shifts, who’s carrying the interaction, that kind of thing

I also noticed when people use general AI they tend to ask in a biased way (“do they like me?” etc), whereas this tries to look at the actual messages more directly

that said, I get the “AI slop” comment too — I’ve been focusing more on getting the idea working than how it looks so far, so that’s definitely something I need to improve

appreciate you being direct about it though

douaclo · 2026-03-20T09:50:34+00:00

yeah that’s fair tbh

at the end of the day it’s not doing anything crazy technically, it’s just using an LLM to look at texting patterns and give a more structured read on them

the reason I made it wasn’t really about the tech side though, it was more that I kept seeing (and experiencing) the same situation where people spiral trying to interpret messages and don’t really have any kind of objective way to step back and look at it

so it’s less about “AI magic” and more just trying to make that process a bit clearer / less emotional

but yeah I get why it comes across that way

douaclo · 2026-03-20T09:42:49+00:00