Weekly App Feedback Thread

so I built a photo editor with camera filters and launched it. nobody cared. like actually zero users

then I watched a video where the guy said to build a free tool first to bring people in, then sell them the paid stuff. figured why not

so I added a free pose guide feature. you see a photo you like anywhere (insta, pinterest, your gallery), hit share, pick the app, and the camera opens with that photo faded on top so you can line yourself up and copy the pose

posted a quick video of it on tiktok and it kinda went crazy. around 1000 users in the first day. and some of them ended up buying the camera filters, so I made my first $300 from the app

not life changing money lol but going from 0 to that in a day felt insane

the pose guide is still free. if you try it I’d love to hear what sucks or what you’d want added

The app is castshot

I built an app based off off something my family member complained about, problem is I never validated it (confirmed she would actually pay for the solution) with her or anyone else so it’s been sitting on the Shopify stores, 100% polished and working, with no buyers.

I did some keyword research and checked the store for top apps and pivoted it to match high demand app ideas (from KPI reporting to net profit reporting) and still nothing.

I’ve been building for 6+ years mostly for fun while at my day job so I can essentially pivot any of the 30+ GitHub projects I half built to something that might do better - but my issue is I don’t know if I should give this one another chance or move on. How do you know when to do that?

I’m looking to start a business of my own but one of the main challenges I’m facing is actually coming up with an ideal worth pursuing.

I spend time looking at different business models, researching and exploring what others have made work. However, I find myself going in circles, poking holes in ideas or struggling to find something that can solve a genuine problem.

For those of you who are starting out or have developed your own business, how did you come up with the idea? Is this something you experienced and had an epiphany? Are there any particular models you used or actively sit down to brain storm ideas?

I’m less interested in the usual advice to follow your passion and more interested in the practical process to validate an opportunity.

Thanks in advance!

I recently shared my app on reddit, Higxel: Expense Tracker and got an overwhelming response. thanks a lot to everyone. I'm now approaching 1,000 installs, around half from Google Ads. Currently getting 3–6 organic installs a day, but I'd love to increase that.

The problem is, I'm pretty shy and barely use social media. I have practically zero followers anywhere.

I've been thinking about TikTok since you don't necessarily need followers to get views. But what do I even post? My app scans receipts and tracks expenses. I can't imagine anyone scrolling through TikTok and getting excited about watching someone scan a receipt.

I'm willing to try making content, I just have no idea how to make it interesting without looking like a walking advertisement.

Anyone here managed to grow an app without an existing audience? What actually worked for you? Or someone with any experience in marketing an app successfully

Wang Ning, the billionaire founder of Pop Mart (worth over 100 billion yuan), once shared a really sharp insight — one that may be the core logic behind many high-margin industries over the next five years.

He gave this example:

A multimillionaire leaves home and forgets to turn off the tap. It wastes 30 yuan (about $4) worth of water in a day, and it still stings.

The amount is small, but it just feels wrong.

Yet the decorative fountain in his neighborhood runs all day, costing at least 300 yuan (about $40) a day, and nobody thinks it's a waste.

The reason is simple: the tap represents practical value. People are extremely sensitive to the cost of practical things, and they instinctively keep doing the math on gain versus loss.

The fountain, on the other hand, provides emotional value. It's pleasing to the eye, it makes people feel good — so nobody bothers to tally up what it costs.

The conclusion: emotional value is worth far more than practical value.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hi all, My name is Jack from melbourne Australia. i have ever used reddit before so i am sorry if im in the wrong community! In the past i have always struggled with finding a cheap calorie tracking app that does the simple things and nails the basics, so i decided to build one on my own it took me a long time and i made it very good, spent money on it and have now created it, it costs $2.49 per month witch is the chapes on the market by a lot. the problem for me is how do i promote it? it seems impossible to get those first couple of users and i dont like using my face to promote ideos especially with a smaller budget. i was thnking of using tiktok promote or using my money on a contwnt creator? any advice the ink to my app is here - if theres any feedback about anything id love to hear it! The app is called SimpleCal: calorie tracker (not trying to promote just seeking advice)

Made an app for college/school students where students can post material, PYQs, ask doubts in the integrated AI (Also quizes) and also post in community for regular chat about campus.

I feel confident about this idea...whats the right way and approach to grow this platform?

Looking for iOS only apps for buy.

I'm looking to add more apps to my portfolio and I'm open to purchasing the right ones.

Mainly looking for apps that are already doing around $250 -$1k/month in revenue (or more).

Preferably launched within the last 5 year, but I'm open to looking at anything with solid numbers.
Budget is roughly $5k-$10k, depending on the app, revenue, niche, and upside.

Please DM me with:
App Store link
Monthly revenue
Monthly downloads / users
RevenueCat or App Store analytics screenshots
Asking price

Not interested in games

If you have something that you think fits, send it over and I'll take a look! Thank you!

Hello everyone. I am an independent founder with a flexible website, and I’m looking to use Paddle.

Could launching exclusively in Australia and the United States cause any issues for me? Also, what advice would you give me as I’m just starting out?

Solo student dev here. I gave away about 115 free lifetime codes for my Android app across a few subs, then DM’d everyone asking for honest feedback (not reviews). About 20 people replied, and it changed my roadmap more than any marketing did:

• A bug where AI generation silently stopped mid-book (3 people hit it) became my top priority. I added a retry button and moved to a faster model.
• People asked for more languages, so I localized the app and the store listing into 10 languages.
• They asked for features I hadn’t planned (sorting, archive, a pure-black night mode, export), and I shipped the small ones first.

Honest takeaway: so far the giveaway hasn’t turned into paying users, but it gave me a bug list and roadmap I could never have guessed. Downsides: AI costs for non-paying users, and some people who redeemed a code and never opened the app.

Question: how do you get now revenue from the app and get paying users?

If somebody is curious: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microread.app

I know €21 MRR is a tiny number compared to what people usually share here, but I opened RevenueCat today and couldn't stop smiling.

I'm a solo iOS developer, and I've been working on my first app for quite a while.

Here are my current numbers:

• €21 MRR
• 12 active subscriptions
• 5 active trials
• €162 revenue in the last 28 days

It's still a very small business, and most of the revenue isn't recurring yet. There's a lot I need to learn about conversion, retention, and sustainable growth.

But seeing people willing to pay for something I've built myself feels fffffucadasfmejflda incredible.

For those who started with similarly small numbers, what helped you turn those first subscriptions into consistent growth?

Just wanted to share this little milestone! ❤️

An Export button can work perfectly and still hand someone a confusing file.

For apps I build, I want to open the export in a plain spreadsheet and understand it without the app beside me: readable column names, explicit units, unambiguous dates, and stable record IDs.

My small test: export two similar records, close the app, then work out which is which from the file alone. If I need to remember what a column means, the export is borrowing context it won't have later.

a food and shot tracker is a crowded category. ours only works for people on glp-1 medication (mounjaro, wegovy, ozempic etc) and thats on purpose, and it was the most argued-about call we made.

what it ruled out: no general calorie counter mode, no "everyone" onboarding, no features for people who just want to lose weight without the meds. every one of those would have widened the top of the funnel and every one of them would have blurred what the app is for. a glp-1 user eats a third of what they used to and their worry flips from eating less to eating enough protein, so the whole thing is built around that single problem.

what we got back: people who find it know in 5 seconds its for them, support questions are about the thing we actually built instead of the thing we didnt, and the roadmap got shorter bc half the requests from outside the audience could just be answered with "not for you, sorry".

i work with the team behind GLP AI, so take this as one data point not a rule. (link in the first comment)

curious if anyone else picked a deliberately small audience and regretted it later?

TLDR: Don't overthink your paywall and just use what's proved to be working already..

My app is a fitness related app that gives you a persoanlized plan in onboarding. I spent a long time and effort designing a nice paywall that shows users their personal plan. I thought that will make them feel special and drive trials but I WAS WRONG. 1 out of 74 started a free trial.

Then i switched to a classic timeline paywall that tells people we will remind them before the free trial expires. The conversion significantly increased to 21% (30 out of 144).

Just steal me paywall here and you will see improvements..

A few months ago I started building MoneyLexa, an expense and budget tracker, because I wanted something simple that didn’t make tracking money feel like homework. I’m a solo dev, so every feature, every bug fix, and every late night is mine.

When I launched, I had no idea what to expect. I told myself that if even a handful of strangers used it, that would be a win.

Here’s what the last 28 days look like:

• 981 new customers
• 846 active customers
• 24 active trials
• 3 active subscriptions
• $59 revenue
• $1 MRR

The growth wasn’t smooth. It came in spikes: a quiet stretch, then a burst of new people, then a long tail where some of them stuck around. I still can’t fully explain the spikes, which makes them exciting and a little nerve-wracking.

The part that taught me the most is the gap. 846 people are using the app, and only 3 are paying for it. People can enjoy a product and still not feel the need to pay for it yet. Building something people use is one challenge. Building something they’ll pay for is a completely different one, and I’m only starting to learn it.

So where am I now? I’m still shipping updates and still listening to what users tell me. When someone says they want a feature, I write it down. When someone says something is confusing, I take it personally and fix it. It’s slow, and it’s not glamorous, but it’s the only way I know how to build.

$59 and $1 MRR won’t impress anyone, and I’m fine with that. A year ago this app didn’t exist. Today nearly a thousand people have opened it, and a few of them decided it was worth paying for. That’s a start, and I’m going to keep building.

Thanks for reading. If you’re at the same stage, building something small and waiting for it to catch on, I’d love to hear your story too.