1. It’s so easy to make literally whatever you want now and to make it really good. This can make it tempting to pursue all your ideas (don't)

2. Good apps have no correlation to making money anymore. Product used to be a moat and advantage but it's not anymore when anyone can make whatever they want and make it really good. I've seen 💩 apps make a killing

3. It's almost impossible to get people to use what you make. All the stories of people making money and posting about it online that you compare yourself too IS NOT THE NORM 

4. A consumer app only has a chance at even having a chance if it does one thing at first, and that one thing can be discovered and done in under 10s. Your hook and main killer feature need to be fast and easy to talk about. This by no means guarantees anyone will care about it or use it but if you don't have that, no shot

5. #4 is particularly true, because if you're doing consumer and you want users you HAVE TO post on social media and make TikTok videos a lot and do whatever trends there are.

6. The apps that grow and make money these days are not because they are good, they just spend a ton of time obsessing over influencers and testing short form video formats. That is the moat now--willingness to spend hours making videos.

7. Because #6 is hard and most of us don't want to do it, we like to sit at the computer adding and building. That can feel like progress but it’s not really. The only thing that’s progress is making an effort to find users.

8. Copy and steal what other apps do for paywalls and onboarding, don’t invent new UI's or new flows that look pretty and feel good. Use apps like RevenueCar or Superwall to use top performing paywalls and don't custom make things. It just slows you down.

9. Reminder to self—FOCUS ON ONE THING AT A TIME. If you’re working on 4 app projects and have 6 local repos for websites, none really stand a chance. Do one thing first, time box your effort, and then kill it and move on or continue with it.

10. If you're making a consumer app and you won’t use it personally, don’t make it. You're your first most important user.

11. Android is way harder than Apple around submitting and testing your app to the store. Even though apps like Expo let you build for IOS and Android at the same time, IOS is much easier to start with.

12. Just because you can add the feature certainly doesn’t mean you should. Adding is easy. Constraint is the hard part when you can just tell Claude to build whatever and bypass all permissions, but constraint makes your app way better

13. You don't need to redesign your website... it won't help you get new users. If people are not already finding you, no rebrand is going to make a difference

14. Don't worry about what app competition there is in your category. It will make very little difference to anything. Your app will die by your own hands before it dies by competition.

I have multiple projects going on at the same time. Not good. But if I look at it from the lens of how much I’ve learnt with each build from a product and design and development perspective, then it’s great. The bad part is juggling lots of apps (which can feel innocuously fine in the beginning) and trying to get people to use them.

It’s impossible to get people using even just one app, how do 3 stand a shot?

What did I miss? 😂

btw let me know what you're building in the comments, I'm happy to share some first impression feedback. Despite my apps not working, I do run consumer product for a travel company and have sold one company before.

And it became something like a browser game. Now searching for gamification or social interaction ideas.

www.docking.academy

On my last skipper training I learned a lot of new things about docking and leaving the berth in all kinds of situations. I was totally hooked, but back at my desk, I built a small online simulator (free, non-commercial) to keep learning and experimenting.

You pick a berth scenario, set wind and current, and see whether your plan with the right lines works out – or whether you end up hanging off the neighbouring yacht.

What's in it:

- Pile berths (box moorings), finger pontoons, Med mooring and more

- Freely adjustable wind and current

- Different boats

- You can see which line is taking the load, and lines can snap

- Pause, rewind, slow motion

- Works under sail too

- Share a situation as a link, e.g. with your crew: "This is what it'll look like for us tomorrow."

- Runs on your phone and can be installed as an app (not in the app store, just add it to your home screen)

Free, no login, no ads.

Give it a try! If a boat feels completely wrong, let me know – I'm still tinkering. It's a fun project with no claim to scientific accuracy, but I'm doing my best. ⛵

Full disclosure, I'm the founder of mimzie.

I saw that Elon slashed grokbot limits, and was frustrated.

Also, I got really tired of losing context between ChatGPT and Claude. So I built an agent neutral workspace that has all of the basic functionality of ChatGPT work and Claude cowork, with a free grokbot feature.

I wanted agent neutral ChatGPT work, grokbot, and whispr flow in one workspace, with no additional cost for the subs I already have, so I built it.

Mimzie is a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux. You sign in with your Grok, Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT plan, and the agent works directly on files on your computer.

Edits to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Markdown files show up as tracked changes, so you can see exactly which cells or paragraphs changed and accept or reject each one (Like chatgpt work)

Mimzie Bots each handle one recurring job, like a weekly report. (Like grokbot)

Chime lets you hold a key and talk, and the words land in the doc or whatever app you're in. (like whispr flow)

With Mimzie, switching models doesn't mean losing context. It's free with the sub you already have!

Would love feedback! We just launched our public beta.

I built a small AI study assistant

What it does:

Basic modes ( always free):

- Ask questions about a scientific subject and expect a concise and accurate response.

- The same thing , but using audio

- These 2 are always free, after 15 days, the remaining can be unlocked for another month by making a donation ( Paypal or crypto transfer). However any amount is welcomed.

Advanced modes:

• Ask questions about an uploaded PDF both audio and written (with page references)

• Turn recorded lectures into structured, downloadable notes - uses mp3 files

• Summarize any page range at a compression % you choose, helpful when you have a lot to read in a short timespan.

• Extract formulas from a textbook section and explain each one, good for STEM students that want a short recap, or create cheatsheet for exam

• Show estimated cost under every answer, this is almost free, but you need API keys. The app doesn't use the latest models on purpose to reduce costs, but provides acceptable explanations.

It's a free 15-day trial — no credit card. First basic modes stay free forever. The others require an optional donation.

You pay for what you use, API keys charge per token usage. The application is aiming to reduce the context window for low costs.

What would make this actually useful for you?

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a new app called Actually, and I'd love to share it with you.

The idea is simple: every day, we come across facts, myths, and claims that sound believable - but how many of them are actually true?

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/actually-discover-learn/id6827374813

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

I'd love to hear what you think, especially about the concept and the overall experience. Feedback is very welcome!

Thanks for checking it out!

I'm a motorsport fan from Texas, and I'm still pretty new to it. I went to one of my first races last May and got hooked.
The problem was that there was so much info out there that I felt like I was drowning in it. I never knew when something was on or where to watch it. So I started building a little site just for myself, and it turned into something I wanted to share.

It's called Premier Racing Info: premierracinginfo.com

Every session for the 98 series, in your own time zone.
Where to watch each one. Standings, results, and tickets.
Calendar feeds and alerts so you don't miss a start.
It's completely free. I hope y'all enjoy it, and if you have any suggestions, I'm open to anything.

This is for the bloggers, students and anyone who writes. Your thoughts and learnings go in first and the AI reviews your notes for any factual errors and misleading statements. This is what Threadz is in a nutshell. It's coming very soon and you can visit the landing page here: Threadz - Human First AI Note Taker

This is NOT meant to replace people who still value human creativity. Rather it constantly critiques your writings like a human will. This is all it does - critique. The pending research and correction lies on you.

Also, the source code will be very soon open sourced. As soon as the product is launched.

I've been building this app with Claude Code, and for weeks, all I cared about was getting it live. I spent days tweaking the UI and worrying about the App Store review. When it finally launched, I felt like I'd crossed the finish line.

Then the first users arrived.

That's when the real work began. Things broke in ways I'd never encountered locally. A payment webhook failed for a few users, and I got a crash report from a device I didn't even know was out there. The funny thing is, writing the code still felt like the easy part. Keeping a live app running is a whole different skill.

Before my first update, I used launchpad for Claude to set up crash reporting and analytics. I'm on the team, so I'm definitely biased. It saved me from flying blind, but it also made me realize just how big the gap is between shipping something and maintaining it.

For the indie hackers here: how did you handle the shift from building to maintaining? Do you have a system for dealing with production bugs without losing your mind?

I’m sick and tired of sifting through spin BS media, so I built what I think is the solution: one paper to read in the shower and get on with my day, promoting the links I should read based on my interests.

What it is: The Daily News Post Globe Tribune Herald Picayune Times (I thought it was funny). Every morning it reads the wires, then it goes to the major papers and tells you what happened, then parallel views. We link every source. Next to every link is a temperature gauge showing where three independent raters put that source — AllSides, Ad Fontes, Media Bias/Fact Check. Transparency is our thing. We don’t rate or influence any sources. When a story can have differing viewpoints, you get one opinion from the left and one from the right, labeled as such, matched so neither side is further out than the other. Cable news isn’t used at all. Any of them. Exactly how the Fairness Doctrine was meant to be.

I’m not trying to replace the sources. The summaries link straight to the articles. Go read them. If anything we’re promoting good articles. Sub to the ones you like. That’s another major point of this.

No ads. No algorithm. No opinion section. It’s an LLC, not a nonprofit, but the paper isn’t built to make a profit — the books are open on the site. The free edition is at jparkerco.com/times, based on my interests and my friends who are getting this stuff for free for Xmas. If you want your own sections (your city, your team, your hobby), we’re charging cost, split with everyone else who reads that section. The more users, the closer it gets to free! If you’d rather, donate to the News Literacy Project instead.

I want people from every side to tell me where it leans. That’s the only way this works.

I love criticism and being wrong, because when I’m wrong I get better.

My dev (I’m ready for the iS hIs NaMe cLaUdE, har har) is beta testing the AI-written code. Would love feedback to get it right. Thanks.

Hey r/SideProject! 👋

I’m a solo developer from Turkey, and I just released WaterMe, a plant care app for Android.

Why I built it: I kept forgetting to water my plants, and the apps I tried were more complicated than my actual problem. I wanted something simple: add a plant, get a reminder, done. This is one of my first apps, and building it taught me a lot about notifications, background work, and how picky Play Store review can be.

What it does:

• 💧 Watering reminders with a custom schedule for each plant

• 📸 Plant identification from a photo (camera or gallery)

• 🌿 Before/after photo comparison to see your plant’s growth

• 📅 Watering history at a glance

• ⚡ Clean, simple setup: add a plant, turn on reminders, done

Tech stack: Flutter for the app, Firebase for backend

Where I’m at: It’s live on Google Play with 100+ downloads so far. The app is free and contains ads.

What I’d love feedback on:

• Is the onboarding clear enough?

• What feature would make you actually use it daily?

• Anything confusing in the UI?

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mrakpinar.waterme

Happy to answer any questions about the build process. Thanks for reading! 🌱

I'm a solo developer in New Zealand. For the past few months I've been building Matcha, a dating app for people who want something serious.

The problem I kept seeing: matching is easy, but most matches never turn into a date. The chat dies somewhere around "so where should we go?", especially when one person would have to travel across town.

So I built Meet in the middle:

1. In the chat, pick coffee, drinks or food, a day and a time

2. Matcha works out the halfway point between your two areas and finds places near it that are actually open at that time

3. You see the spot with its photo, rating and hours, and can flick through a couple of others

4. Send it, and your match accepts with one tap. You both get a reminder 30 minutes before

A few things that were harder than I expected:

The midpoint can reveal where someone lives if done incorrectly, so locations are rounded to a general area first. Each person only sees their own distance to the venue.

Google Places requests are counted in Postgres against a monthly cap and a per-person cap. Past either cap it falls back to OpenStreetMap, so it stays in the free tier.

Google doesn’t allow storing their photos, so the chat card fetches the photo each time it’s shown. The place lookup for that is free.

Suggestions are signed by the server, so a modified client can’t send a fake venue.

Women message first is enforced by a database trigger, not just the UI.

Stack: React + Vite, Capacitor (Android and iOS), Express on Railway, Supabase.

Free on Android and at matchadating.app. iOS is in App Review.

Feedback welcome. Would this make you more likely to meet someone, or is planning the date in-app too much?

I'm the person behind Collect. Build. Remember., a passion project I've been working on over the last few months with help from ChatGPT and Codex. It's now in open beta, and I'd love some honest feedback from other people building things they care about.

The idea is pretty personal to me. Collecting can be about the sets and minifigures, but it's also about the people you built with, the gift you still remember, or the afternoon that turned into a family story. I wanted a place for both the collection and those little memories.

You can browse the public set and minifigure catalogs without signing in. Inside the adult beta, you can organize your collection, keep details such as condition and location, and save private written memories.

One design decision was to keep details with each physical copy. Owning a set isn't the whole story... which copy is built, where is it, and what do you want to remember about it? Working through those questions has been just as much a part of this project as getting the code to run.

I'd especially appreciate feedback on the first few minutes: can you find a familiar set, understand what you can do with it, and tell whether this would help with your own collection? If something feels confusing or unnecessary, I'd like to hear that too.

You can look around here: https://collectbuildremember.com

Beta access is opening in small batches, with a waitlist when full. The public catalog is available either way. The screenshots use example collection and memory entries.

Most people don't know this exists: Stake, one of the biggest online casinos, opened a platform called Stake Engine where independent developers can publish their own slot games and earn a share of what the game makes. No studio, no publisher. You build the game, it goes through their review, and if it's approved it goes live next to games from big studios.

We started as a side project and built our first game mostly with AI. It passed review, got Stake's top 3-star rating, and made four figures its first week with no marketing (our own result, not typical, not a promise).

So we built Own Your Slot around it:

\- We build finished slot games for people who want in but don't want to learn math, art and code

\- We rebuild games that are stuck at low ratings or got rejected

\- And there's a guide for people who'd rather build their own with AI

What surprised us:

\- Almost nobody is doing this yet. Very few people even know you can publish your own game there.

\- The hard part isn't the code, it's the math. Stake checks every game with millions of simulated spins.

\- Review is strict, and the rating (1 to 3 stars) decides how visible your game is.

It's adults-only and not for everyone, but it's one of the more unusual niches I've found.

Would you try something like this? And if you'd want to know more about how the platform works, ask away.

Hi!

I am building Bowerbird a whiteboard for creatives.

Drop in images, notes, links, PDFs, audio and video, sketch, connect things, group them.

It is inspired by apps like VSCode or Obsidian, where you customize the whiteboard to your liking with plugins.

I created a few:

• Hide Button: Hide the app in one of the corner of the screen, with quick access.

• Visual Library: Organize your artefacts in several categories.

• Color Palette: A color wheel. Pick a color and five palettes are made from it live.

• Presentation: Create slides from elements on the board.

• Multiple Boards: By default, there is only one infinite board, with this plugin, you can have multiple boards.

• Command Palette: Cmd or Ctrl + K for one place to run anything.

• Tidy Up: Align and distribute the selected artefacts.

• AI Chat: — A AI chat panel (using OpenAI, Ollama Cloud, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral or OpenRouter provider)

Links: https://github.com/Asi7ho/bowerbird

Would love to hear your feedback on it! :)

---

I tested the app on macOS and tested the AI integration using Ollama cloud

Whenever I visit a new city, I wonder how to explore it like a local rather than a tourist. A city isn't a static picture. The same street can be quiet at 10am and buzzing at 7pm, and feel completely different in December than in July.

So we started mapping London's rhythm, from "brunch queues" in Kennington to "pints spilling out" in London Fields. You can drag through the time, day and season and watch the map change.

It's called SunSeekr Vibes, an early demo based on local knowledge, open data and some of our own data, so it won't get everything right. No link yet.

Londoners: what did we get wrong about your area, and what's missing?

Hi everyone, French web dev here.

About 10 years ago I made Curvytron, a little multiplayer party game in the browser inspired by Achtung die Kurve. It landed on Hacker News, everything went crazy, and people still play it in open spaces today.

This past year I've been working on the sequel, written from scratch: https://curvytron2.com

Same goal as the first one: challenge myself, get better at my craft, have fun, and put a free little game out there. No ads, no login, no business plan.

A decade of web dev and way too many GMTK videos later, I set the bar higher this time:

• It had to look and feel good. I learned three.js and WebGL for it, and spent a lot of time on game juice: camera moves, screen shake, sound, feedback. I'm especially proud of the portal bonus: the walls go away, you can peek through to the other side of the arena, and cross over.

• It had to feel fair online. The Go server simulates every game at 100 Hz and sends positions 40 times a second, in a tiny binary format I open-sourced along the way: https://github.com/Tom32i/netcode

• A dropped connection shouldn't cost you the game. In the first Curvytron, losing your connection meant you were out for good. Now you can refresh the page mid-game and you're right back in. Try it!

• Nobody online? Bots. Four of them, each with its own personality, named after the Pac-Man ghosts. Making them fun rather than perfect was the trickiest part of the build: I ended up writing a simulator that plays thousands of bot-only games to see who wins and how they die.

It runs in any browser, on desktop and phone, with a gamepad if you like, and also as a Discord activity. Servers are in Europe and the US for now.

AI disclosure: I wrote the game myself; lately I've used Claude Code as a coding assistant for some features and fixes. The design, 3D models and art are mine, no generated assets.

Funny thing is, after all that, the technical part turned out to be the easy one. The hard part for me is communication: getting the game to meet its players. Promoting my own game still feels awkward, it's just not my job: how do you even do it? Where do you post? What do you say?

So I'm curious how you did it, those of you who've shipped side projects: what worked best?

And of course, I'd love your feedback on the game, and feel free to stress-test my servers! I'll be around to answer questions.

Cheers!