Making Patang, my first app

Patang is a money manager for India that keeps everything on your phone. There's no sign-up, no bank login and no server. It's my first app, and I made all of it myself: the name, the icon, the faces, every screen and the code.

This is how it came together.

Why another money app

Most money apps ask you to make an account or connect your bank before you've logged a single rupee. I wanted the opposite. Open it, say "180 breakfast, 100 uber", and you have two entries. Nobody else ever sees them.

It had to be made for India, too: UPI payments, bank SMS, Hinglish, rupees written the way we write them, ₹1,18,000 and not ₹118,000.

A name with a string attached

While I was building it, the app was called Kite. When it was time to publish, I wanted a name that felt like home, so it became Patang, the Hindi word for kite.

The idea stuck with me: a kite flies high because someone holds the string. Your money should work the same way and stay in your hands. That's the whole app in one picture.

The kite

I drew the icon in Figma. It's a paper kite in four pieces, and the bow and the spine aren't drawn at all: they're the gaps between the pieces. A small marigold tail hangs below.

The same kite is everywhere: the app icon, the splash screen where it zig-zags away as the app opens, the notification icon, and the share card.

The faces

Money apps can feel cold, so Patang has faces. There are fifteen, each a soft glow with a small hand-drawn face and hair shaped like the top of a kite. You pick one when you start, and it becomes you in the app.

It reacts as you go. It listens with its mouth open while you speak, and it thinks it over when you ask whether to buy something.

The small things took the longest

• The space around the icon. Too little and it looks cramped next to other apps; too much and it looks lost.
• The status bar. First I tried frosted glass behind it and didn't like it. Then a solid fade, which felt too heavy. Now it's a soft gradient that only appears once you scroll.
• The sign-off at the bottom of Home. It's a kite on a string. Send Patang to a friend and a second kite joins it.

"Should I buy it?" took three tries

The idea is simple: before you spend, see what it really costs you. My first versions showed too much at once and felt like a calculator.

The one that worked has two steps. You type what it is and the price. Then your face gives its take, like "Go for it", "Sleep on it" or "Maybe not this month". You see how many hours of work it costs and what it leaves for the month. One tap after that: wait three days, buy it, or not now.

A bug that taught me about permissions

Patang can notice a UPI payment and offer to log it. On my own phone, PhonePe's notification came in and Patang did nothing. The reason: since Android 13, an app has to ask before it can show notifications, and I'd never asked. Now Patang asks the moment you turn on payment detection.

The other lesson was the warning. When an app wants to read notifications, Android shows a scary screen. If an app sends you there without a word, you'd say no, and I would too. So Patang now says in one line that the next screen looks strong, and that it's the standard text for any app that reads notifications.

Payment apps are there because SMS isn't enough. My roommate banks with SBI, and he doesn't get an SMS for every UPI payment.

The work, counted

The first commit was on 7 September. Since then it's been one person doing the design, the code, the icon, the words and the Play Store forms.

Publishing

Setting up Google Play took longer than I expected: verifying who I am, uploading address proof, and learning that a new personal account has to run a closed test with real testers before an app can go public. That's why Patang has a waiting list right now.

If you'd like to fly it, join the early access. It's free, and everything stays on your phone.