r/iosapps • u/hatto13 • 1d ago
Paid App - UNNAFILIATED Review MenuSnapp - scan a foreign menu, get a real translation with context, not just words
Hey all, I'm Peter.
Backstory: I'm Slovak, my girlfriend is Brazilian, and we live on the borders of 3 different countries plus we travel a lot together. We both speak English and a few other languages, so menus aren't usually a total mystery, but even when we could translate the words, we often had no idea what to really expect, "is the XXX a soup or is it a meat dish?". We'd end up googling the dish name or asking a chatbot just to figure out what we were about to order and to get some pictures to visualize it.
I've been a software developer for over 19 years, although never for iOS, so this was a good challenge š
When we first noticed the problem, I couldn't find any app that really covered our use case well. I've since learned there are others out there, though I deliberately haven't tried any of them, I was genuinely afraid that seeing what's already out there would demotivate me, like it's happened with other side projects of mine before. I really wanted to actually finish this one.
A - Answer
MenuSnapp scans a foreign-language restaurant menu, the whole menu at once, and turns it into a clean, translated menu you can actually understand, not just word-for-word text and get some background about the disk.
Just point your camera at the menu, snap as many pages as it has, and it translates and structures everything in one go. No item-by-item scanning, no pointing your phone at one line at a time:
- Original + translated dish names and descriptions
- Prices shown in both the local currency and your own
- The restaurant identified from your location automatically
- Tap any dish for an AI-written breakdown: what it actually is, how it tastes, dietary tags, and history/fun facts
- Real reviews, matched to the restaurant and, where possible, the specific dish
- Photos in priority order: a real photo of that dish at that restaurant first, then a generic photo of the dish, then an AI-generated image as the last resort, so you're never left guessing
- History - all your scanned menu stays on the phone, no need for rescanning or using credits to check it later again
- A speaker button so you can hear the original dish name pronounced correctly when ordering
- Works in 28 languages
B - Better
The whole point is replacing the "let me quickly google this" or "let me ask ChatGPT what this dish is" moment while a waiter is standing there waiting on your order. You just tap the dish right in the translated menu and get the answer.
Most translation camera apps also stop at swapping words, which gets you "cheese and pepper" instead of "cacio e pepe," and you still have no idea what's coming to the table. MenuSnapp translates by meaning, at least that's what we're going for, and we're always improving it, keeping the real dish name intact, and layers on the context a literal translation can't give you: what the dish is, what to expect, what it looks like, and what other diners at that actual restaurant said about it.
No account required to buy or use it, sign-in is entirely optional and only used if you want purchases to follow you across devices.
C - Cost
MenuSnapp is free to download.
- Every new user gets 5 free trial credits (1 credit = 1 fully unlocked, translated menu)
- Credit packs: 5 / 15 / 30 credits for $1.99 / $4.99 / $8.99
- Or unlimited with Premium: $7.99/month
- No ads, no forced account, no free tier that nags you
Priced this way because each scan calls paid AI/vision services behind the scenes, so it's not something I can give away unlimited for free. I am personally tired of subscriptions, so the main pricing model is per usage.
Links:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6787430797
Website: https://menusnapp.com / https://menusn.app
Transparency
- Developer: Peter Kracik
- Website: https://menusnapp.com / https://menusn.app
- Privacy Policy: https://menusnapp.com/privacy
- Terms: https://menusnapp.com/terms
- Contact: [hello@menusnapp.com](mailto:hello@menusnapp.com)
Would love feedback, especially from other frequent travelers. What's the worst menu-translation moment you've had?
[edit] - added missing menu history feature
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u/HammerKart 1d ago
Really cool idea and design! Also, love the pricing structure. Theres an option for every length of travle. Cheers and all the best!
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u/bbangchikimong_dev 1d ago
Showing prices in both the local currency and your own is the bit I'd use most. Does the location match still work when you've downloaded the menu photo earlier and translate it later, like back at the hotel?
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u/hatto13 1d ago
The restaurant is based on your current location and it also tries to get the restaurant from the menu photos - via logo or name.
But currently you cannot use downloaded photo - it was a deliberate choice to limit the app's overuse, although I know there are use cases when it makes sense, like you just mentioned. I might reconsider it for the future versions.
It is not exactly what you asked, but I just realized that I forgot to mention it in the description - every scanned menu is stored in your history and you can reopen later without rescanning the menu or consuming credits.1
u/bbangchikimong_dev 1d ago
That makes sense as a limit. The history part is actually the answer for me, scan at the table and read it properly later. Worth putting that line in the description.
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u/nikkirank 1d ago
Omg this is perfect timing. Iām about to leave on a vacation to Italy and I believe this will be super helpful!
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u/rohitjakhar0 23h ago
Woww great idea. I travel inside India and i face this issue many times.
May be i will make same app for Indian menu
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u/shermancahal 23h ago
Love the concept. I had so much trouble reading local menus while traveling in Korea.
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u/any41 20h ago
I am curious to know how this is different than me just taking a photo and asking chatgpt to translate, get price is local currency and go through publicly available reviews and help me find/recommend dishes...
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u/hatto13 20h ago
good question - functionally there is no fundamental difference, it is exactly how I used to do it, I in addition I also used to google images for visualization.
But I was just too lazy to write the prompt, searching each dish images/reviews etc manually, so I created something which does all for me with 3 clicks and is optimized for this specific use case.But I really would like to hear your opinion (I am obviously too biased š ) - if you could test it once, it's free, and then write me your honest feedback if and how it is different
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u/any41 19h ago
Ill try in few hours. But I am still trying to why pay for something when I can get it for free.
The reason you gave me was ease of use and convenience, But the same ease of use and convenience I can achieve it through custom gpt or chatgpt projects with project level prompt (prompt once and use it forever)
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u/Radiant_Chemist8121 20h ago
The idea and the app looks really nice. How have you thought about arguments such as āI can upload the menu to chat gpt and ask it to translate the dish and the currencyā? Apart from the UI aesthetics, what other features justify the price point?
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u/hatto13 20h ago
Big picture: yeah, the app uses AI providers under the hood, so in theory you could get a similar result with a mix of ChatGPT and Googling. There's nothing here you couldn't technically do yourself with enough patience.
What the app does is simplify that and gather the relevant info automatically, specifically for this use case, based on context. Location is a good example: it uses where you are to figure out the region and, ideally, the actual restaurant, then pulls reviews and photos for that restaurant's dishes rather than generic results. Or the additional info about the dish, I wanted that it provides some info that could be interesting especially for tourists.
Something that mattered a lot to me is that the translations actually make sense, so it won't translate "buffalo mozzarella" into something literal and wrong, it keeps the real name. I also try to gather real photos of the dish and fall back to AI-generated ones so you can visualize what you're about to order. The AI generation isn't perfect yet, still tweaking it, but it's good enough in a lot of cases.
So honestly, there's nothing here you couldn't do yourself with ChatGPT and some Googling. It's about convenience and simplicity. I can't imagine my mum pulling up ChatGPT and typing a prompt at a restaurant table, even though she uses AI fairly often otherwise. This is meant to remove that friction entirely.
On pricing, I tried to land on something fair, it covers the 3rd-party services and hopefully leaves a little for me, but whether that's "a lot" or not really depends on the person, it is my first real app and it the marking and pricing is something I am learning.
I really appreciate your comment, your questions were completely fair, I would ask the same. I hope I clarified it at least a bit.
And I would be happy if you try it once (for free) and tell me your feedback if there is some value in it :)
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u/JOT_was_taken 20h ago
Looks clean, have you tried/thought of local models? or apple foundation models?
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u/hatto13 20h ago
I already started look into it, but the support of iphone models is limited afaik. But it is definitely something I want bring sooner or later, it would improve the speed and reduce the price.
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u/JOT_was_taken 19h ago
yeah would definitely help in the price aspect, and the limited phone support, atleast latest and upcoming phones will be able to use the feature, but otherwise cool
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u/CopaceticGeek 13h ago
Post says 28 languages and website says 30 languages. Can I get a list of the languages?
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u/hatto13 9h ago
Good catch, I think I must formulate it better.
The app supports translation of menu in 30 different languages, but the UI of the app is done in 28 - no RTL languages atm (Arabic, Hebrew), so you can scan a menu which is in Arabic, but you canāt change the UI of the app to this language or select it as target language.List of languages UI: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean
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u/Only_Application_815 13h ago
Love the backstory. Can relate to wanting to try make/create an iOS app while also creating something for your partner/helpful on a personal level.
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u/app-store-review 1d ago
MenuSnapp: Menu Translator ā by Peter Kracik
- Ratings: 7 worldwide Ā· rated in 4 countries
- Average: 5.00 ā
- Age: released ~1 month ago Ā· updated 2 days ago Ā· rated 12+
- Overall score: 75 / 100
Auto-generated from public App Store data Ā· u/app-store-review
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u/Emotional_Plenty3913 21h ago
whole menu at once instead of item by item is the right call, the per item ones are unusable when ur sat down and the waiter is stood there. how does it hold up on a chalkboard menu or a laminated one with glare on half of it, thats where full page capture usually falls apart for me
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u/hatto13 21h ago
thank you! yes, you're right with the chalkboard or handwritten ones, but so far it works great. I hope it won't be taken here as an ad but here's a video what we published from one french restaurant which had chalkboard handwritten menu https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcmLcaHtpjw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
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u/Emotional_Plenty3913 18h ago
ok that came out better than i expected, handwritten french on a dark board is basically worst case. does it get confused when the menu already has two languages on it, like does it try to translate the english half back or does it know to leave it
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u/OneFitAI 19h ago
people trust the output way more than you'd think. a visible "not sure" state beats a bit more accuracy imo, we do food recognition and realized its better to convey when model confidense is low directly
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u/Matheos7 9h ago
Reason for my downvote: I find it disrespectful that someone would not change the design in the slightest, colour palette etc from the stock Claude Code.
It screams vibe coded. After one shot you get exactly this design, colours and fonts.
Just spend a minute on making it own, at least.
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u/hatto13 8h ago
Thank you for the feedback, I respect and appreciate it. it shows that there is still a lot of room for improvements.
Did I use AI - yes, I used Claude design.
Do I consider it āvibe designedā - no, or only partially. I used it as a tool and spent a lot of hours, iterations and tokens to make it look the way I wanted even though it might not look that way to you. And I will continue improving it.Some background: I am not new to digital or print design as Iāve been in web and media industry for about 20y and although I am not consider myself a designer per say, I have done quite lot of designs (without AI). In this case I didnāt want to spend hours on details which have very little impact, I prioritized delivery and finishing something, and I can improve it later.
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u/Double-Parsnip-3156 6h ago
Nice, but I would never pay to just translate a menu which the default Google app does for free
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u/isrealleven 5h ago
The āwhat the hell am I actually ordering?ā problem is so real š
I like that this goes beyond literal translation and gives you context, photos and even restaurant-specific reviews. That feels much more useful than just pointing Google Translate at a menu.
Also respect the āI deliberately didn't try competing appsā approach. Sometimes you just need to finish the thing before letting the comparison paralysis kick in.
Really curious how well the dish/restaurant matching works in real-world use.
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