Bureaucracy Buddy

Austrian and German officialdom communicates by post, in a register of German that native speakers find unpleasant and non-native speakers find genuinely opaque. The envelope gives no hint whether it contains a deadline, a fine, or nothing at all.

Bureaucracy Buddy scans the letter, translates it, and explains what it is and what you're expected to do about it.

Why this is a real problem

The failure mode isn't misunderstanding a sentence — it's the letter sitting unopened on a table for three weeks because opening it requires an hour of effort and a dictionary. The cost of that delay is often a fee.

So the design target is not translation quality in the abstract. It's the number of seconds between photographing the page and knowing whether this needs action today.

Shipped

Live on the App Store for the German and Austrian markets.