Built a small habit-tracking app solo over about 6 months, nights and weekends around a day job. Did the standard app-marketing stuff, feature-highlight reels, clean UI walkthroughs, App Store screenshot montages set to music, the whole polished playbook everyone tells you to do. Some weeks two or three downloads, plenty of weeks literally zero. Six months in, total installs sat at 80. Eighty. I have more Reddit karma than that lol.

Had the removal request half-filled-out in App Store Connect, ngl I was fully ready to just quietly kill it. $0 MRR after half a year of nights and weekends felt like a pretty clear sign.

While looking into what to even do with about $60 of leftover ad credit before pulling the listing (didn't want to just let it evaporate), I got sidetracked watching other small app accounts instead, classic productive procrastination, and found this screen-recording video of someone using their own app for real, mid-mistake, absolutely losing it laughing at a bug that clearly just happened live on camera. 40-second video, maybe 200 views, nothing special on paper, but something about it stuck with me.

Had a genuinely annoying bug in my own app that same week anyway, so I screen-recorded myself hitting it and reacting exactly how I actually reacted, zero script, zero retake, closed my laptop and went to bed not thinking about it again.

Woke up to it sitting at 1.2M views overnight and just stared at my phone for a solid minute like this can't be real. By the end of that week: 14,000 installs. That's more than 175x every install I'd gotten in the previous 6 months combined. First real subscription revenue landed that same week too, about $340, first dollar this app had ever made after 6 months of absolutely nothing.

That removal request is still sitting there, unsubmitted, and honestly it's staying that way now. Every quiet, zero-download week before that clip is exactly why the bug reaction felt real instead of staged, you can't fake that kind of "oh no" on camera. It was never wasted time, it just hadn't found its moment yet.

TL;DR: 80 downloads in 6 months, one unscripted bug reaction video blew up to 1.2M views, 14,000 installs in a week, first revenue ever. Still processing it tbh.

My app is finally live on both app stores, I finished the demo, people are signing up, and traffic/downloads are starting to climb 📊.

If you've launched an app before, what actually moved the needle for you? I'm especially interested in strategies that scaled beyond friends, family, SEO and social media.

What worked? What ended up being a complete waste of time? 👀 I'm looking for some out-of-the-box ideas.

I wanted the Apple Photos browsing experience for photos that already live in folders, external drives, SD cards, and cameras.

So I created SAND, a native macOS photo browser that lets you browse photos directly from:

• iPhone
• Android phones
• Digital cameras
• SD cards
• External SSDs and hard drives
• Any folder on your Mac

The goal was to make browsing feel as simple and familiar as Apple Photos while keeping your files exactly where they already are. Nothing is uploaded, synced, moved, or imported into a library.

Some features include:

• Timeline browsing with Years, Months, and Days
• Fast local search by date, filename, and location
• USB import from iPhone, Android, iPad, and cameras
• Favorites and video browsing
• Retro and Neubrutalist themes
• Customizable grid layouts
• Hidden Vault protected with Touch ID or your Mac password
• Export photos with optional EXIF and location metadata removal

Everything works completely offline, and your photos stay on your Mac or external storage.

I'd love to hear what you think. Is this something you'd use? Are there any features you'd like to see?

https://apps.apple.com/in/app/sand-photo-browser/id6789295880?mt=12

SAND: Photo Browser

Recently, I released my first app, Snaptrip, a geography quiz (links below). I announced it here on Reddit, and a few days ago I reached my first milestone: 100 installs across both platforms. To be honest, some of those are friends and family, but I'm still happy to hit a round number.

This is my very first app, it has no monetization, and it's completely free. My main goal right now is just to learn how the whole ecosystem works. Mobile apps, reviews, so on.

Since launch, I’ve worked on improving my ASO, created a TikTok account, set up an X account as an indie dev, and entered a completely new world. I have to admit one thing: marketing is key, and you can’t achieve much without social media.

Just to give you an idea of my starting point: I never really had accounts on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook (aside from some dead/fake ones). I basically only use WhatsApp and Strava, had linkedin. So can imagine my situation...

Currently, my Snaptrip TikTok account has around 670 likes, 28 followers, and over 20 videos. I’ve tried a mix of content: some ordered from Fiverr, some made by a freelancer, and right now I'm waiting on some raw gameplay footage. A few days ago, I also discovered Remotion and it looks amazing. This is my tools for some next videos.

My mindset is slowly shifting: from "I just want to build apps, people will discover them eventually" to "I need to build the app AND actively show it to people." As a programmer, I figured I should be able to pick up new skills and learn marketing. This project is the perfect opportunity. And pretty sure, it is just beginning, Next app is in progress.

Feel free to share your experiences, give me some feedback, or completely roast my approach.

links:
ios: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/snaptrip/id6767354157?
android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snaptrip.mobile&pcampaignid=web_share
tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@snaptrip.app

Hi!

I've built yet "another" language learning app, and I'd really love to get some honest, constructive feedback.

Is it another Duolingo? NOPE 🙂 There are no predefined courses or topic restrictions. You can learn any language about any topic you want.

You simply choose:

1. the lesson topic,
2. the language,
3. the difficulty level (or grammar focus),
4. and the lesson length.

AI generates the lesson for you. There's no need to follow a fixed path through levels - you can start learning exactly what you need right away.

From a technical perspective, I managed to build the product. Now I've run into a completely different challenge: finding users.

Google Ads just isn't financially viable for me. There's no company or investors behind this project - it's just me, a solo developer who had an idea and decided to build it.

So I'm looking for:

• honest feedback,
• marketing suggestions,
• potential collaboration,
• or simply people willing to try the app and tell me what works well and what could be improved.

I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback. 🙂

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=memorai.app

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/memorai-ai-language-lessons/id6478309204

A lot of businesses spend time trying to convince people they need something.

But often, the best prospects are already out there asking for recommendations, complaining about a problem, looking for alternatives, sharing frustrations with existing solutions

Drop or DM:
- what you’re building
- who you help

I’ll look for relevant people who might be a good fit and share what I find.

If I don’t find anything interesting, I’ll tell you.

Hey everyone, i built an app in which i really put all my efforts to make it unique and beautiful with functions that were genuinely new.

Now i'm seeing other devs building the same app copying without any shame for themselves, heck i even found a post with SCREENSHOTS OF MY APP in his subreddit. Another one is building the same stuff on another platform and yeah, guess it's fine but I still have emotions that are kinda new to me.

I'm not pretending to be only one building an app for Car maintenance, but at least mine was mine with its personality. Now people are not even willing to change the captions under some functions, it's literal copy and paste!

So what i'm asking is: Is this normal? Is this a good sign? Should i do something about it? Will i get used to this?

Which UGC platform would you recommend?
I’ve been looking into Fastlane and Dan’s UGC, but I haven’t subscribed to either yet. My main goal right now is to get more content out consistently, then later move into more targeted influencer UGC.
Where would you suggest starting? I’d also love to know what has worked for you and roughly how much you spend each month. (No AI UGC)

Everyone here is selling their apps like hot cakes.
Here is a screenshot of my app that didn't do shit yet.

I run a small iOS app (a native API client), and I keep bumping into a problem I think a lot of people now have: the number of AI tools, agents, and MCP servers we’re all connecting is exploding, and there’s no single place to see or manage them. Which ones are live, what they can do, whether you’re about to blow past a usage limit it’s scattered across a dozen dashboards.

My app already speaks the underlying protocols (HTTP/WebSocket), so extending it to talk to MCP servers directly and push notifications around them (limits, status, events) is a small technical step for me. The bigger question is whether it’s a real business.

For the founders here who’ve validated (or killed) an idea like this:

• Is this a “vitamin” or a “painkiller” right now?
• Would you pay for a monitoring/alerting layer over your AI tooling, or expect it free?

Trying to be disciplined and not build a solution looking for a problem. Honest gut-checks appreciated.

I’m selling my travel planner app as I’m shifting my focus to other projects.

Key metrics
Approximately 4,000 monthly active users
• $1,187 monthly recurring revenue
• $2,191 revenue over the last 28 days
• 133 active subscriptions
• Approximately 50% profit margin

The app has recurring subscription revenue, an established user base, and room to grow through stronger marketing, and multiplying revenue streams like booking affiliates for hotels and flights as well as eSIM sales.

Asking price: $30,000 USD

Serious buyers only, please. Additional analytics and technical details are available upon request.

Hi I have been deisgning a kitchen pantry app recently and it's completed now. Now I need suggestions about how I can do better marketing of this app to reach basic household and working people. TY!

After bitching about my product on here, here we go! First sale.

My app has 62 paying users from 680 sign ups. Is 9% conversion rate good in the SaaS business?

Also is there a standard name for this metric?

Hey everyone.

We are actively putting together a mobile portfolio and looking to acquire up to 20 proven, profitable Android apps currently live on the Play Store. We have a clean 100% buyout budget of ₹2 to ₹3 Crores (roughly $240,000 to $360,000 USD) allocated for each application. If you are an indie hacker, a solo developer, or a small studio who has found strong product-market fit but wants to cash out and fund your next big project, we should talk.

We are specifically hunting for apps generating a solid net profit (around ₹50 Lakhs to ₹1.2 Crores annually). Our strong preference is for In-App Subscriptions (IAS) or In-App Purchases (IAP), though we will look at ad-monetized apps if the volume and retention are exceptional. We want to see a healthy organic install rate if your app is 100% dependent on paid ads to survive, it is probably not for us. Tech-wise, we prefer clean, well-documented native Android (Kotlin) or stable cross-platform builds (like Flutter), along with a solid Play Store rating of 4.2 or higher. Since our core background is in growth and account-based marketing at The Smarketers, we have the in-house infrastructure to take over a great product and scale its user base.

We know how exhausting the acquisition process can be for developers, so our goal is to keep things fast and transparent. If your app’s metrics make sense, we move straight into a rapid preliminary valuation, straightforward technical due diligence, and a secure transfer via standard escrow. If you have an app that fits this profile and you are ready for a clean exit, shoot me a DM here or email your Play Store link and a quick overview of your trailing twelve months (TTM) revenue

Let's make a deal.

Hey, I’m trying to market my app through Reddit, but I don’t want to come across as spammy or get banned from any subreddits. Does anyone have advice on how to find the right communities, provide value, and promote the app naturally? I’d appreciate any tips or examples of what has worked for you.

Here is full revenue and traffic with 75% margin, the main problem is as I am also freelancer + 9-5 employee I have no time and no knowledge for distribution and marketing. What do you think? How much can I get for my project which has both mobile app and website and mobile have 10+ downloaders daily

Launched ReelStack (watchlist tracker for streaming shows) two weeks ago. So far: 173 App Store page views, 34 downloads, 6 purchases, and 7/7 reviews at 5 stars.

Most of that traction came from a Product Hunt launch and a couple Reddit threads early on, and things have cooled off since. Feels like the product itself is landing fine (reviews are solid), I just need a second wave of real traffic.

Anyone been through this after an initial spike faded? What actually worked to get momentum going again?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reelstack/id6768630222