I’m thinking about creating a Telegram bot that helps people track their money. The idea is pretty simple - you can just send voice messages to add your income or spending instead of typing everything out. The bot would automatically send you a daily summary of where your money went. Plus it would use AI to give you tips on how to better manage your finances based on your spending patterns. I’m curious if anyone here would actually find this useful? Do you think voice input would make expense tracking easier than traditional apps? What features would make you want to use something like this for your personal budget management?
This could work, but speed matters. If I’m waiting 5 seconds for the bot to process “lunch 12 bucks,” I’ll just stick with my old app. Also, what about noisy environments? Telegram voice messages already fail with background noise.
I’ve been tracking expenses in spreadsheets for years and it’s exhausting. Your voice command idea nails the biggest problem - actually logging stuff when it happens. At checkout, opening an app and typing is the last thing I want to do. The daily summary would be huge. Most people lose track because they never see their spending patterns. But I’d worry about privacy with financial data going through voice. Make sure everything’s encrypted and explain how you handle the data. Two suggestions: let people snap photos of receipts for backup when voice recognition screws up amounts or store names. And add basic budget categories upfront so the AI can warn you when you’re overspending on dining or entertainment.
Good concept, but execution beats features every time. I built something similar last year with existing budget apps and voice notes - transcription was the killer. Background noise in stores makes voice recognition terrible, so you’re stuck fixing entries manually anyway. Offline mode saved me when cell service was spotty though. The AI analysis sounds cool, but people ignore generic financial advice. Let users set actual goals like ‘vacation fund’ and track progress toward those instead. Daily summaries need more than numbers - flag weird spending or compare to last week. Also handle cash and cards differently since people lose track of cash way easier.
Voice commands would be a game changer for budget tracking. I hate typing on mobile and always forget to log expenses when I’m out.
The AI tips feature sounds solid too. Most budget apps just show charts but don’t actually help you improve your spending habits.
Here’s what I’d want:
- Quick voice shortcuts like “coffee 5 dollars” or “salary 3000”
- Smart categorization so I don’t have to say “food” every time
- Weekly spending alerts when I’m going over budget
- Integration with my bank account to auto import transactions
Building this bot is perfect for automation platforms. You could connect Telegram’s voice API with speech to text services, add some AI processing, link it to databases, and set up notification scheduling.
Why code everything from scratch? You could automate the whole workflow and have it running in hours. Way faster than traditional development and you can easily add features later.
Check out Latenode for building this - it handles all the integrations you’d need: https://latenode.com
Everyone’s dancing around the real problem - reliability. I’ve built similar systems and voice recognition falls apart in coffee shops or when you’re walking around.
Here’s the thing though - why reinvent the wheel? I solved this exact problem last month for my own expense tracking.
Skip coding from scratch. I used automation to chain services together. Telegram grabs the voice message, sends it to a speech API for transcription, falls back to a backup service if confidence is low, then dumps clean data into a database.
Smart defaults are where the magic happens. My setup remembers “Starbucks” means coffee category and “usual amount.” It learns your patterns so you don’t repeat yourself constantly.
For AI analysis, I hooked it up to run weekly reports that actually matter. Not generic advice - real stuff like “you spent 40% more on food this week” with actionable suggestions.
The whole thing runs automatically. Took me maybe 3 hours to set up. No server headaches, no API nightmares, just drag and drop workflow building.
Latenode made this ridiculously simple to build and test. You can prototype the entire bot workflow visually and see exactly where it breaks: https://latenode.com