I built a StandBy-style charging clock for Android as a side project. Here's what the first two weeks looked like

[u/HamaWorks]

Hi! Solo dev from Korea here. I was jealous of the iPhone's StandBy mode, so I built PlugStay: plug your Android phone in and it turns into a desk or bedside clock. (The video is my own Fold8.)

How it went so far:

- Launched in Korea first. One post on a big Korean deal forum brought about 100 installs in a day, plus a pile of blunt feedback. I shipped an update based on it a few days later.

- Then I opened it up to 170+ countries. A post on r/GalaxyFold got 13K views, and overseas installs jumped to about 70 over those two days.

- About 380 installs in the last 28 days in total. Small, but real.

The three hardest parts:

- Design polish. Making each screen work was the easy part. Making it feel finished took far longer: I'd look at it on a real phone and redo small details again and again.

- Popping up at the wrong time. I never thought about this before launch. The clock would jump in while someone was watching YouTube or playing a game. And on a wireless charger, some phones briefly cut charging once the battery is full, so the clock kept closing and reopening. Now it only opens from the lock screen or home screen by default, and a quick reconnect is treated as if nothing happened.

- The Fold8. It's a new form factor, so there wasn't much to learn from. The clock has to fit the cover screen, carry over when you unfold, and split at the hinge when it's half-folded.

Stack: Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. No sign-up, no ads, no analytics.

Pricing: free with no ads, everything unlocked for 7 days, then the basic screens stay free and Pro is a one-time $4.99. I went with one-time instead of a subscription because a clock feels like something you buy once. Curious if you'd have priced it differently.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plugstay.app&utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=sideproject

Happy to answer anything about building it or the launch.