Needham dad and daughter develop the ultimate digital guide to Halloween

Halloween is on Saturday, and you know what that means? It's time to strategize!

Which house has the best decorations? Who is giving out the king-size candy? Is anyone providing adult beverages for grown-ups, perhaps? A new app designed by a Massachusetts dad and daughter is mapping out the sweetest spots for trick-or-treaters and much more.

It started as a homework assignment. Needham tween Brynn Berkowitz had to create a graph of her Halloween candy collection for math class last year.

"I told my dad, 'Dad, I have to graph out my candy,' and he was like, 'Well, do you want to make an app about it?' And I was like, 'Sure.' I just sat on his lap, and we started this," Brynn said.

Instead of manually counting her sweet treats, her dad, Dave Berkowitz, who works in health care technology, proposed automating the work with an app.

"I used AI coding tools to build it, so she helped with the prompts, which generated images and colors," Dave said.

Eleven-year-old Brynn gave her dad four words — "Preppy, slay, boujee and trendy" — and together, they created Haullo, named for the "haul" of sugary goodness that kids pick up each year on Halloween.

It began with taking a photo of the candy and the app would count and sort what was in the picture. But with input from their community, it evolved into much more.

"Everyone wants the king-size, everyone wants the full-size, so we thought 'What if we had a map and people could tag on their houses, or trick-or-treaters could tag where the good candy is?'" Dave said.

The app also has guidance on where allergy-safe treats are handed out, a map of the best Halloween decorations and even a candy bandit detector so kids can catch whoever is swiping their chocolate.

"We made this because my brother — he always takes my candy," Brynn said.

The father-daughter duo is hoping to improve trick-or-treating with a simple app.

The app just went live in September and works best with community involvement. You can download it for free in your app store.