Ephemeral Apps in the Age of AI: A Supermarket Story

Today I walked into the supermarket with an exceptionally long shopping list. You know how it is: you need to keep track of what you've already picked up and what’s left. Usually, I try to do it in my head, but it always confuses me, and this time the list was simply impossible to manage mentally.

Instead of starting the search for a new shopping app or a website that would solve my problem (and there are probably thousands of those), I tried a different approach.

I sent the complete list to Gemini and asked it to create a small mini-app for me, using its Canvas feature. One that would allow me to track the groceries and mark them with a checkmark when picked up, nicely divided by category (vegetables, dairy, meat, etc.).

Within 2 minutes, it was ready. Minimalistic, hard-coded specifically for my exact grocery list. Exactly what I needed.

By the end of the shopping trip, it became ephemeral and was no longer relevant, and that’s perfectly fine; it did its job for the super (🥁) specific task I required.

This experience made me think about the idea of creating these ephemeral applications with zero effort. It’s an immediate and efficient solution, and it can help us with productivity and solving small tasks, without the need to use, search for, or God forbid, pay for a new and complex tool.

When was the last time you created such an ephemeral application? What did you use it for?

Code in the comments (just kidding, I have no idea what Gemini did there).