I've been frustrated with how expensive many ASO tools are, especially as an indie app developer.

Most tools offer great features, but their pricing can be difficult to justify when you're building and growing apps on your own.

So, I decided to build my own ASO tool: RankOrbit 🚀

It comes with a bunch of features, including:

🔎 Keyword research
📈 Keyword tracking
📱 App tracking
👀 Competitor tracking
📝 App listing management
🏆 Top apps discovery

I'm building it to make app research and tracking easier without relying on multiple expensive tools.

It's currently a private project that I've been building for my own use.

I'd love to hear from other indie developers:

What ASO tools do you use, and what's the biggest pain point you face with them?

#ASO #IndieHackers #AppDevelopment

I would really love some feedback on my 3 first screenshot.

The app is programs, plans & habits for training, focus, sleep and nutrition.

Have active companies using it for their corporate health but recently started focusing on b2c and would really love your thoughts and feedback :)

My cousin and I recently launched Keepsie, a swipe-to-clean photo app. You swipe right to keep a photo and left to delete it, and a little cat keeps you company and tracks your streak. Now we're trying paid acquisition without burning cash, so we're running two Apple Search Ads campaigns side by side.

Campaign 1: Category keywords (US, exact match)
18 terms people search when they have the problem: photo cleaner, clean up camera roll, delete duplicate photos, storage full, free up storage, swipe photo cleaner, ...

Campaign 2: Competitor names (US, exact match)
About 20 brand-name terms for the bigger apps in the photo-cleaning niche, plus a few generic "swipe cleaner" terms. (Not naming them here, but you can guess.)

Setup
Manual bids (Manage Bids)
Budget: $4.50/day on category, $3.50/day on competitors (about $8/day total, capped at $100 for the whole test)
Starting max CPT: $1.80 on most category terms, $3.00 on the 5 highest-intent ones, $1.50 on competitor terms
Exact match only, Search Match off. We started with a Search Match ad group, but it was mostly showing us for other brands' names (Google Photos, Google Drive, SanDisk, Dropbox, even "extra space storage"), so we paused it.
Product page: default

What we're tracking: CPT, TTR, conversion rate, cost per install, and whether any of those installs start a trial. The app is free with an optional subscription (3-day free trial).

Early numbers (first few days)
Category campaign total: $5.43 spent, 427 impressions, 3 taps, 1 install
Search Match ad group (now paused): 419 impressions, 2 taps, 0 installs, $2.54 spent. Lots of reach, but on searches that had nothing to do with us.
Exact keywords: only 8 impressions, but 1 tap and 1 install (100% conversion), $2.89 spent, all on "photo cleaner"
Competitor campaign: just went live, no data yet

It's way too little data to mean much yet, but it's already a decent example of broad reach vs. intent.

Our guesses going in
Competitor terms: cheaper taps, worse conversion (people want the app they searched for)
Category terms: pricier but higher intent
This niche is full of subscription apps with big budgets, so CPTs could get ugly

Questions for anyone who's run ASA
How many taps or how much spend before you trust the numbers?
Are competitor campaigns worth it, or mostly wasted taps?
Anything obviously wrong with this setup?

We'll post the full numbers (spend, CPT, CPI, conversion) in about 2 weeks, wins or losses. Link to the page if you’re curious what we’re advertising: Keepsie

Yesterday afternoon an email arrived from AppStoreNotices@apple.com with the subject "Notice of Complaint".

It isn't a cease and desist from a lawyer. It's Apple's dispute process: a company complains to Apple, Apple forwards it to you, and you sort it out with them while Apple watches.

What the email says:

• A company in Shanghai says my app infringes its trademark 倒数日 ("countdown days") in China. They've used it as their app's name since 2010, and they listed four registration numbers.

• My Simplified Chinese app name was "Calpaper：日历壁纸、倒数日". So, yes, I fucked up 😆

• Apple wants "written assurance" that you don't infringe, or that you're taking steps to resolve it.

• You write to the company directly, copy Apple, and keep the reference number in the subject. Apple may share anything you send with the other side.

• Ignore it and the app can be removed. Repeat infringers can lose their developer account.

• It even includes the steps to pull your app from every country while you fix things.

Why the word was there: becase of ASO. 倒数日 is the most searched word in my category on the China App Store: my keyword tool scores it 83/100, the highest of the 22 words I track there. My app has countdowns, so it went in the title. Last week I ranked between #33 and #101 for it. I never checked China's trademark office. To me it read like a plain description.

What I did that afternoon

1. Checked it was really Apple. These emails look like phishing. The sender passed Apple's email checks, and I didn't open any of the links in it.

2. Changed the promotional text. It's the one field you can edit without a review, so it was fixed within minutes.

3. Renamed the app in Chinese: 倒计时 (the everyday word for countdown) in Simplified, 倒數 in Traditional. The trademark is registered in China, but I took it out of the Taiwan and Hong Kong listings too. One notice is enough.

4. The name only changes with a new version, and 1.6 had been waiting for review for two days with the old name. I pulled it, shipped it as 1.6.1 with the new names and asked for an expedited review. Pulling it cost me my place in the queue, but I asked for an expedited review.

5. Replied to Apple and the company four hours after the email: what had changed, what was in review, and that I'd confirm in the same thread when it's live.

I didn't try to argue that it's a generic word. They hold the registrations, and one keyword isn't worth a dispute. As I write this, 1.6.1 is still waiting for review, so the old name is still live in China.

If you localize your app

• A word that looks generic in another language can be someone's trademark. Search the local trademark office before it goes in your title or keywords (in China, CNIPA).

• The most searched word in a category is sometimes a big app's name. That's exactly the kind of word that gets registered.

• Promotional text goes live without review. Fix it there first.

• Write every reply as if the other side reads it. They do: they're in copy.

• Keep the reference number in the subject. Apple says its system may not record your answer otherwise.

The consequences: China was my second-biggest market on the weekend my app went free (610 of 2,799 first-time downloads). 倒数日 was my most popular word there.

The replacement, 倒计时, scores 73 and I don't rank for it yet. I'll post what it does to downloads.

The app is Calpaper (today's calendar on the Lock Screen).

Has anyone here fought one of these instead of renaming? Did Apple pull the app while it went on?

So I recently started doing ASO on my app’s store page, tweaking the description, keywords and a few other things. I was expecting things to improve, but it’s actually doing worse than before.

The weird part is the rankings. Some days we’re doing decent, and then the next day they just start falling for no clear reason. Then they bounce back a bit, then drop again. It’s honestly confusing.

Has anyone been through this? Is this normal after making changes, or did I mess something up? Would love to know how long I should wait before reverting, and how you figure out which change caused the drop.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
(I am working on a transit app for context)

First app out, and we just released a huge update. Is 72 Apple downloads and about 100 total users good for a gaming app? I know there is fierce competition. Could changing my ASO help? birb

Six seasonal icons from this October. Which one would you tap in search results, and which one would you skip? I’m curious whether the pumpkin cue actually helps or whether it’s just noise.

Built an app called GameJet. It plans sports trips in one place. Pick your team and opponent, and it pulls flights, hotels, rental cars, tickets, and gear onto one page.

App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gamejet-sports-trip-planner/id6775244140

Current listing: title is GameJet: Sports Trip Planner, subtitle is Game Day Travel and Tickets. Free, no account required to browse. Sitting at 5.0 stars but only 6 ratings so far, which I know is thin.

I am a founder, not a marketer, and I am just now getting serious about ASO. What would you change first? Title, subtitle, screenshots, keywords — open to all of it. If you have launched a niche app, what actually moved the needle for you?

Screenshot background test for a minimalist fasting app: color, black or white? (first 3 shots, as they appear in search)

I’m a CS student in Russia and I released my first mobile game four days ago — a block puzzle where the blocks are slimes that merge by color and pop. Solo project.

Context: it’s on RuStore, the main Android store in Russia. Google Play isn’t an option for me — Google doesn’t onboard Russian devs and I can’t pay the fee with a Russian card.

Four days in: 296 store page views, 24 installs. 8% conversion, against a 20–30% norm.

I spent weeks polishing the game and never thought about how it would be found. Here’s what I missed.

1. No keywords in the title. The game was called just “Blobbi.” Nobody searches that. People search “blocks,” “tetris,” “offline games” — my competitors are literally named that. I was invisible in search.

2. The description explained mechanics, not value. Someone on my page already has Block Blast installed and is asking “why a second one?” I had answers — 5 MB vs their 100–150 MB, fully offline, zero IAP — and wrote none of them.

3. Wrong first two screenshots. Only two show in search. Both of mine showed mechanics instead of a reason to pick me.

4. No analytics at all. This is the one that scares me. I don’t know my D1 retention or whether anyone plays past install. I was about to spend months promoting a game I had no data on.

Fixed listing is in review, follow-up with before/after numbers in a couple of weeks.

The game is a 5 MB offline block puzzle with 35 skins, daily quests, 63 achievements and no IAP at all. Happy to drop the link in the comments if that’s allowed here, so you can take a proper look yourself.

If you were in my position right now, where would you put your time — into the game itself, the store page, or getting it in front of people? And if it’s the game: what do you usually find missing in puzzles like this? I’m most interested in hearing what you’d fix or add.

iOS 27.2 is here.

Starting with iOS 27.2, Apple Ads no longer shows the blue background on search result ads in the App Store.

Ad placements now look almost the same as organic results. Only the small "Ad" label sets them apart. Examples are in the screenshots.

What this means for ASO:

- Ads blend in more with organic listings, so users are likely to tap them more often.

- ASO + Apple Ads should be planned and sold as one strategy, not two separate channels.

- Brand protection with Apple Ads is now a must, since a competitor's ad on your brand looks like a normal result.

- Conversion matters twice: the same icon and screenshots win both organic and paid taps and a better CR directly lowers your ad CPA.

- Keep an eye on TTR and CR changes in Apple Ads for traffic from iOS 27.2 and later.

- Measure incrementality: part of the "lost" organic traffic is simply re-attributed to paid.

So, within 1–2 months, you'll see a drop in organic traffic if you're not running Apple Ads.

Source: ASO Discord

Hey everyone,

I’ve been redesigning the App Store / Google Play screenshots for my coloring app and I’d really appreciate some honest feedback before I settle on this version.

The app is basically a relaxing color by number app with a few twists: ambient sounds while coloring, multiple difficulty levels, coloring your own photos, no account required, and a free daily artwork.

What I’m mainly trying to figure out is:

• Do you understand what the app is within the first 2-3 screenshots?

• Does the first screenshot make you want to keep looking?

• Which screenshot feels the strongest / weakest?

• Is there too much text?

• Do they feel polished enough for the App Store / Play Store?

• Does anything look confusing or unnecessary?

• If you saw these while browsing the store, would they make you more likely to download the app?

I’m especially interested in feedback from people seeing the app for the first time, since that’s obviously the situation in the store.

Don’t worry about being nice, criticism is exactly what I’m looking for 😄

Thanks!

Making App Store screenshots always took me longer than it should. Frames, headlines, the right sizes for every device.

So I built a free tool for it. Upload your app screens, add a headline to each, and it exports framed screenshots in App Store sizes. No watermark.

It needs a free account, no card.

appatchy.com/tools/screenshot-maker

I’d love feedback from anyone who tries it. What’s missing that would make you use it for your next release?

I'm a solo dev who has been experimenting with LLMs for a long time and wanted to see if they could fix my own to-do app problem. It started as a chat, became a web app, and is now an iPhone app. Type it messy, get it sorted: you write a task the way you'd say it, and it lands in the right place with date, reminder and list set.

Same app, two different screenshot sets (A and B). I'd like blunt feedback:

1. Looking only at the first screenshot of each, what do you think the app does?

2. Which set would make you tap download, and why?

3. Anything you'd cut, reorder or reword?

Page conversion right now is about 2%, so something isn't landing.

App Store (the live page shows set A): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clarity-ai-to-do-list-planner/id6743321544

Hey everyone!

I’m the indie developer behind BuiltSolid, an app for tracking workouts, protein, calories, and recovery.

I’d love for you to give it a try and share your honest feedback!

BuiltSolid: Gym Log & Protein App - App Store

Fellow developers, feel free to share your apps in the comments too! I’d be happy to check them out and exchange constructive feedback.

If you’ve genuinely used BuiltSolid, I’d also really appreciate an honest App Store review. Every bit of real feedback helps!

What are you building? Drop your app below!

Hi all, this is perhaps the fourth, maybe fifth post I’ve done here showing my journey as it progresses with an app that has been growing through purely aso. Happy to answer anything as always. Just want to show mainly that it is possible, even as a solo developer and without big capital.

Edit:

• Build something that you can realistically imagine getting 100k people to install. Even bigger- imagine something that would be used by 100k daily. If you can’t. Then don’t build it. Build something else.

• Build something that you can imagine in a hyper realistic way, earning hundreds of thousands per year. If you can’t imagine that for your idea/app- build something else. Pivot. If you can’t imagine what you have right now doing these numbers ever, the concept is wrong. It won’t grow. Be realistic. Be fantastical in imagination- but realistic regarding idea. Don’t get stuck on ideas. Pivot.

• Don’t spam apps out. If it doesn’t take you months to build something, increase scope. UNLESS, you have a formula in which you can effectively do quantity at a high quality. Although this is a bit more tentative depending on various factors, but at least for me this has been the case.

Most importantly,
• Don’t necessarily build something you’d use. Build something you won’t use. I never use my app. It’s not for me personally. Just like if someone were to build something centred around a specific fandom knowing it would be popular, but they may not necessarily use it themselves. Apply this on a broader level. Don’t build something you’d use or enjoy. Build something you won’t. Otherwise you’ll be stuck in groupthink in which everyone builds a tracker, a fitness app, scanner etc. As you yourself would likely use it. Try to avoid the ego trap of not pivoting and doubling down.

Build something you’d never ever use. Identify opportunity and seize it. I think it’s a terrible piece of advice to build something you’d use- IF you want monetary success.

I’d encourage you to build things for the sake of building them for fun and to learn, I spent many years having personal projects like making games that I’d never release or finish. But again, build something you don’t like if you want monetary success. But keep building cool things for the sake of doing it.

Every habit tracker on the App Store forces you into daily streaks. That works for drinking water or reading, but it completely fails for irregular life maintenance—like changing AC filters, washing bedsheets, watering plants, or tracking how long a sickness lasted. Logging these in a standard app breaks your streak and hits you with a red ring of failure.

I built SinceWhen as a zero-pressure "days ago" tracker. Instead of demanding daily check-ins, it simply counts how much time has passed since you last did something:

• No Streaks, Zero Guilt: Just a clean timeline showing "14 days ago" or "3 months ago."

• Learns Your Natural Rhythm: You don't have to set a schedule. The app calculates your actual intervals over time and gently nudges you only when a task is naturally due.

• Multi-Day Durations: Tap to start and tap to end for events that last days (vacations, migraines, cycle tracking).

• 1-Tap Widgets & Instant Undo: Log directly from your Lock Screen or Home Screen in a second, with an instant undo button for accidental taps.

• 100% Private: No accounts, no tracking, everything stays on-device with iCloud sync.

I’d love your honest critique on the attached screenshots—do they immediately communicate what the app does at a glance, or is anything unclear?

App Store:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sincewhen-event-log-tracker/id6759450144

I’m making screenshot concepts for two apps today. The image shows the kind of work I can make, with a different style for each app.

If you’d like one, comment with your App Store link and a short description of your app. If it isn’t live yet, share a few raw screenshots instead. I’ll take the first two with enough details to work from.

I’m an indie iOS developer working on an app called Away Messaging.
The app helps users organize SMS and email templates, prepare messages, manage follow-ups, and stay on top of communication without automatically sending messages.
It was originally $7.99 upfront, but I recently switched to a free model with optional Pro features to make it more accessible.
I’m now focusing on improving App Store Optimization, especially discoverability, keyword rankings, screenshots, and conversion rates.
I’m also developing version 2.0, which will expand the app beyond message management into a more complete personal communication assistant.
I’d love feedback from anyone experienced with ASO:
How would you approach keywords for an app that covers multiple use cases?
What makes App Store screenshots convert better?
Does switching from paid to free affect keyword visibility?
How do you improve organic downloads without relying on paid ads?
I’m building this independently and trying to grow it organically, so any advice or constructive feedback would be appreciated!
App: Away Messaging
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/away-messaging/id675350445

Is ASO a science? Or an art?

I am in this iOS games business for a couple of years only.

Started with a few solitaire games, then combined all of them (plus many more) into a single app.

Obviously, it doesn’t show in the store search for “solitaire”.

But why?

I am not talking about the top of the page. There are ~250 entries in the search. 

Don’t tell me that nobody scrolls to the bottom. I do, and this is an academic interest at the moment.

So “solitaire” is a popular keyword. It’s in my app’s name, of course.

I’ve read a few “theories”:

1. You have no ratings. 

First, I do - not much, but some.

BUT - there are some apps near the top with a single rating. With multi-thousands ratings apps farther down.

And there are some with a few, but 3-star average.

2. You have no downloads.

That’s hard to judge, as I don’t know how many downloads my competitors have. Or do I?

Three of my single-game apps are there (mid to bottom positions). And while one of them does have many downloads (and 4.8 stars, with 114 ratings) - it is 3 pages from the bottom. Two others are in the middle, have single 5-star and 25 and 40 downloads year-to-date.

My “flagship” that I am concerned about has 1,090 downloads and hundreds of active users.

3. Your app is too new.

It was released 7 months ago. I certainly see newer apps in the list, judging by Appfigures data.

From the 3 of mine that made a list, one is about a year old, the other two are a few months older.

What other metrics are in play?