How Glucose Guide boosted engagement and brand perception with a branded app
Overview
Mila Clarke, founder of Glucose Guide community and the Hangry Woman brand, used Circle’s custom app builder to create a fully branded mobile app—bringing her food journaling tool and thriving community together into one seamless experience. The result? Higher engagement, stronger brand perception, and a better daily experience for every member.
With Circle’s app builder, I combined our food journaling app and our community into one seamless branded app—in under 10 minutes. It was exactly what I’d been looking for.
Before
A trusted brand—and a growing tech stack
For more than a decade, Mila Clarke has helped people with diabetes feel empowered and informed through her Hangry Woman brand, reaching 165,000+ followers across YouTube, Instagram, and her blog. As her audience grew, so did her offerings. She launched Glucose Guide, a Circle-powered community where members could connect and share their journey. She also introduced a separate food journaling app to help members track their meals and blood sugar. Each tool was valuable. But they lived in silos, and the experience felt fragmented.
Challenge
A disconnected mobile experience for engaged members
While Mila’s branded Circle app gave members a beautiful, mobile-first community experience, her food journal lived in a separate app with a separate subscription. Members had to switch between platforms—often using different logins—to access the full value Mila offered. Over time, that friction took a toll.
People really loved both apps. But they had to maintain two different subscriptions and switch between apps to get the full value.
While Mila’s branded Circle app gave members a beautiful, mobile-first community experience, her food journal lived in a separate app with a separate subscription. Members had to switch between platforms—often using different logins—to access the full value Mila offered.
Platform friction is real. People don’t want to use a resource if it’s hard to find or requires multiple logins. My community was asking for one central place to connect, share updates, and track their own progress.
Solution
One branded app, built for connection and daily use
Everything changed when Mila was invited to test Circle’s custom app builder.
I said, this is exactly what I’ve been looking for. My members wanted one app where they could track their meals and talk to each other. Now I could finally give that to them.
With just a simple embed code and no developers, Mila integrated her food journaling app directly into her branded app, creating a fully unified mobile experience. What once required two separate tools now lived in one. In under 10 minutes, she had:
A single branded app combining the community and food tracker
One login, one subscription, one consistent user journey
A daily-use experience members could build habits around
Inside the app, members can:
Log meals and take food photos
Get personalized nutrition analysis
Join expert-led coaching events
Share questions, tips, and wins in the community
Circle’s custom screens and mobile navigation tools made it easy to personalize the journey—whether someone was on a free plan or subscribed to coaching. Push notifications guided members through a 12-week onboarding series, while a tailored menu ensured they could always find the next step.
It’s amazing. They can track their meals, upload photos, see their analysis, and immediately connect with the community—all in the same app.
Transformation
A daily-use app that drives engagement and builds trust
Mila’s branded app didn’t just streamline access—it created a stickier, more valuable product experience that her members wanted to return to daily.
And the quality of engagement deepened. Members began sharing screenshots of their food insights, asking questions, and learning together in real time.
I’ve seen people say, ‘I didn’t realize this meal was affecting me so much until I logged it—and now I can ask the community what they do differently.’ That’s the magic.
By unifying her tools into one branded app, Mila didn’t just solve a workflow issue—she unlocked a better way to engage her community and scale her impact.
Now that it’s all in one place, people actually use it—and stay engaged. And that’s what makes all the difference.
