How to Describe Your App Idea So AI Builds It Right: 7 Steps (2026)

By Sigsten Gustavii· 27 October 2026· 8 min read

To describe an app idea to an AI builder, write who it is for and the one job it does, list the screens, say what it remembers and who sees it, name any iPhone features it needs, describe the look and feel, then send it and improve the result with small, specific changes. Plain words beat technical ones.

AI app builders are good at turning a clear description into a working app, and bad at reading minds. Most disappointing results come from descriptions that are either too vague ("a fitness app") or too long (three pages of features). The sweet spot is a paragraph that a friend could read and picture.

Step 1: Say who it's for and the one job

Start with a sentence in this shape: a [kind of app] for [who], to [do the one thing]. Borel's own getting-started guide gives the example of a water tracker for runners that logs a glass in one tap, shows today's total and reminds you in the afternoon. That sentence alone decides the home screen, the main button and what to leave out.

Step 2: List the main screens

Name three to five screens and what each shows. Use the words iPhone owners already know: tabs for top-level areas, a list that opens a detail screen, a sheet for adding something. You don't need to design them; naming them is enough.

Tabs: Today (today's habits with a tick each), History (a calendar of ticked days), Settings (reminders and Face ID). Tapping a habit opens its detail with a streak and a chart.

Step 3: Say what the app remembers, and who sees it

Describe the data in everyday words: "each habit has a name, a colour and a reminder time; each tick has a date". Then say who sees it: only the person, on this phone; the person on all their devices; a group they invite; or everyone signed in. That one sentence decides whether the app keeps data on the phone or needs accounts and a cloud database, and Borel declares the tables and their access rules from it.

Step 4: Name the iPhone features

In Borel you can also pick Face ID, the microphone or motion sensors from Device in the chat's + menu, and a paid plan from Payments, which attaches it to your next message. See native iOS features for the full list, and be aware of what isn't available: push notifications and Apple Health are not part of Borel apps today.

Step 5: Describe the feel

Two or three words about the look go a long way: "calm and bookish", "bold and sporty, dark with one sharp accent", "playful with rounded type". Before building, Borel weighs four visual directions for your app and commits to one; if you name a look, yours wins. Attach a reference image or your logo when it is easier to show than tell.

Step 6: Send it, then look before you change

Borel's planner, Penny, reads the description and asks about anything unclear. Then the app is written in SwiftUI and opens on a live iPhone in your browser. Before asking for changes, tap through all of it. Make a list of what's wrong, then fix the biggest thing before the rest, one change per message.

Step 7: Change one thing at a time

Borel aims to change only what you asked for, so small, specific requests work better than big rewrites. If a change goes wrong, every reply that changed the app has a revert button that brings back exactly that version. You can also queue several instructions while one is running, draw on the preview to point at a spot, or describe a change by voice.

Choosing the effort for a change

Each message runs at an effort level: Quick for small, clear changes, Focused (the default) for everyday changes, Deep for new screens and features, and Ultra for the hardest work. Higher levels take longer and use more credits; Deep needs 2.5 credits left to start and Ultra needs 8. Most descriptions and changes are fine at Focused. See effort levels.

Common mistakes when describing an app

• Starting with every feature. Build the one job, then add.
• Technical words you aren't sure of. "A list I can reorder" beats a wrong framework name.
• Not saying who sees the data. It decides accounts, sharing and privacy.
• Asking for many changes in one message. One change per message is easier to check and to undo.
• Judging the app before tapping through it. Use it for five minutes, then decide.
• Copying a famous app's name or look. Apple's Guideline 4.1 turns down copycats; describe your own idea.

Describing changes to an app that already works

Once the app exists, the same rules apply on a smaller scale. Name the screen, the thing on it and what should change: "On Today, make each habit's streak show as a small flame with the number next to it." If a change affects data, say what happens to what's already saved: "Add an optional note to each tick; old ticks have no note." And when something breaks, describe what you see rather than guessing the cause: "After I add a habit, it doesn't appear on Today until I restart the app." Borel reads the code and the build; your job is to describe the behaviour clearly.

A full example

A habit tracker for people who want three small daily habits, not thirty. Tabs: Today (each habit with a big tick button and its streak), History (a month calendar with ticked days), Settings. Each habit has a name, an emoji and a reminder time. Remind me at each habit's time. Keep everything on my phone, no account. Lock with Face ID. Feel: calm, warm off-white background, one soft green accent, rounded type. A Pro plan unlocks more than three habits.

That is about eighty words, and it answers every question a builder would ask. See what Borel made from prompts like it on the habit tracker page.

The Bottom Line

A good app description is short and concrete: who it's for, the one job, the screens, what it remembers and who sees it, the iPhone features and the feel. Send it, tap through the result, and change one thing at a time. Borel turns that paragraph into a native SwiftUI app on a live iPhone, free to start with 5 credits a day; installing on your iPhone and publishing come with Pro from $20 a month, plus Apple's $99 a year to publish. Write your paragraph and paste it into Borel.

I think a good prompt is a paragraph a friend could picture. Write yours, send it, and change one thing at a time.

– Sigsten

Make your iPhone app in Borel

Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.