What is the difference between Multimodal Tracking and the Traditional Tracking?

Lifesum offers two distinct tracking experiences to help you log your meals: Multimodal Tracking and Traditional Tracking. Understanding the differences can help you choose the method that best suits your lifestyle and preferences.

Multimodal Tracking (Premium Feature)

Multimodal Tracking is a Lifesum Premium feature that leverages AI to simplify food logging. It offers multiple intuitive ways to add meals:

Voice input
Text descriptions
Photo recognition

With Multimodal Tracking, you can quickly capture your meals without having to manually search through the food database. Just snap a photo, describe your meal, or speak it—and the AI will do the rest.

Features Available with Multimodal Tracking:

Voice, text, and photo tracking
AI meal categorization
Favorites
Quick Track
Barcode Scanner
Recipes
Recently tracked meals

Note: You won’t have access to the traditional food database while adding food directly to your Diary in this mode. However, you can still use it when creating Favorite Food Items, Meals, or Recipes under Progress → Favorites.

Diary Interface

No predefined meals (e.g., Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner) are shown initially.
Tap the "+" to start logging a meal.
You can manually choose the meal type, or let the AI estimate based on:

The time of day.
Keywords in your text (e.g., “For breakfast I had...”).
The type of food.

You can read more about the Multimodal Tracking features here: Multimodal Tracking Explained

Traditional Tracking

Traditional Tracking is the standard food logging method and is available to all users.

You manually browse or search Lifesum’s extensive food database to log items, similar to conventional food tracking apps.

Features Available with Traditional Tracking:

Manual food search using the database
Barcode Scanner
Favorites
Quick Track
Recipes
Recently tracked meals

Diary Interface

Your Diary displays predefined meal sections:

Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner

Tap on any meal section to add food items directly.

Switching Between Tracking Modes

You can switch between Multimodal and Traditional Tracking at any time:

Go to: Settings → Diary Settings (or Customize Diary on Android)
Toggle off Multimodal Tracking to return to Traditional Tracking.

Summary Comparison Table

Feature	Multimodal Tracking	Traditional Tracking
Food Entry Methods	Voice, Text, Photo	Manual Search
Predefined Meals in Diary	Hidden initially	Always visible
AI Meal Classification	✅	❌
Manual Food Database (in Diary)	❌	✅
Manual Food Database (Favorites)	✅	✅
Barcode Scanner	✅	✅
Recipes, Favorites, Quick Track	✅	✅

For a fast, smart, and flexible food-logging experience, Multimodal Tracking is an ideal choice. Prefer a more structured, manual approach? Stick with Traditional Tracking.

Pick the one that works best for you!

Updated on: 29/07/2025

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