Build Your Own Open Source Water Tracker App (2026)
If you’re searching for an open source water tracker app, you probably want two things: something you can shape to fit your habits, and something that isn’t bloated with ads. Instead of forking a repo, you can build your own hydration app in Auto in a few minutes — no code required.
Why build your own instead of downloading one
There are solid options out there. You’ll find a GitHub water intake tracker or two, a hydrate app in React Native that’s open source, and Android projects like HydroTracker if you dig around. The honest tradeoff: open-source apps mean setting up a dev environment, building, and then still adjusting someone else’s assumptions about your goals, units, and reminders.
Building your own in Auto skips all of that. You describe what you want, snap a photo when you need a reference, and Auto assembles a personal mini-app — a “Frame” — around exactly your routine. People have already built ones called Water Tracker and Hydration, so you know the concept works.
Building it in Auto
The fastest path is a single, detailed first prompt. Describe the whole app: onboarding that captures your weight, age, height, sex, and activity level; a daily goal calculated from your weight with an option to override it; reminders; a big water-bubble that fills as you drink; photo-based estimation for bottles and glasses; a custom-amount button in ml; plus calendar, stats, and settings views. Auto builds a working first version you can refine from there.
How someone built theirs
One Auto user started with exactly that kind of all-in-one prompt, even linking a design reference for the main screen. Then they iterated in small, practical steps — which is the real workflow:
- Fixed the settings screen so it showed unit (ml/oz), a manual cup size, and a reminders toggle.
- Made onboarding show only once, and moved daily-goal and profile edits into settings.
- Improved the daily log: current day always selected on the calendar, photo thumbnails in the list, and the ability to remove — then edit — an intake entry.
- Added intake detail views, tapping a whole cell to open details, with padding and text-size tweaks so nothing collided with the nav bar.
- Let reminders be scheduled at custom times, and matched each log icon to the button that added it.
- Polished the feel: subtly animated waves in the bubble, a toast that pops from the bubble on add, and a red water color during a remove. When one animation change didn’t land, they simply asked Auto to go back to the previous version.
The takeaway: you don’t need to plan everything upfront. You build, look, and adjust in plain language until it’s yours.
FAQ
Do I need to know how to code? No. You describe the app and refine it in conversation. Auto handles the build.
Can it estimate water from a photo? Yes — that’s the camera-first idea. You can snap a bottle or glass and have Auto estimate the amount, alongside a manual ml/oz entry.
How is this different from an open-source app on GitHub? Open-source apps give you a starting point you have to run and adapt. Auto lets you build a version tailored to your goals from scratch, usually in minutes.
Can I change units and my daily goal later? Yes. Put unit, cup size, reminders, and goal controls in your settings view — the example above did exactly that.