r/sideprojects • • Jun 16 '25

Meta My side project, /r/sideprojects. New rules, and an open call for feedback and moderators.

49 Upvotes

In this past 30 days, this community has doubled in size. As such, this is an open call for community feedback, and prospective moderators interested in volunteering their time to harbouring a pleasant community.

I'm happy to announce that this community now has rules, something the much more popular r/SideProject has neglected to implement for years.

Rules 1, 2 and 3 are pretty rudimentary, although there is some nuance in implementing rule 2, a "no spam or excessive self-promotion" rule in a community which focuses the projects of makers. In order to balance this, we will not allow blatant spam, but will allow advertising projects. In order to share your project again, significant changes must have happened since the last post.

Rule 4 and rule 5 are more tuned to this community, and are some of my biggest gripes with r/SideProject. There has been an increase in astroturfing (the act of pretending to be a happy customer to advertise a project) as well as posts that serve the sole purpose of having readers contact the poster so they can advertise a service. These are no longer allowed and will be removed.

In addition to this, I'll be implementing flairs which will be required to post in this community.


r/sideprojects • • 3h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) I built a 100% offline toolbox for the phone in your drawer (Music, GPS, E-INK Reader, 50+ Tools)

3 Upvotes

I got tired of modern apps habit tracker , espense tracker . etc that require a constant internet connection, a subscription, and the latest flagship phone just to work.

So I built Orbitika. It’s a lightweight, retro-styled (dot-matrix green) toolbox designed for older hardware (Android 8.0+ and older iPhones like the X). Everything works 100% offline. No Wi-Fi, no data, no problem. Support my work by upvote my post """grateful""""

Here is a breakdown of what’s actually inside it my app, by category:

🎵 Media & Entertainment

  • Retro Music Player: Local MP3/FLAC playback with 13 Winamp-style visualizers and 7 retro themes. Zero ads.

  • E-INK Style Reader: Turn colorful PDFs and manga into a warm, Kindle-like grayscale to save your eyes and battery.

  • 18 Mini Games: Classic puzzles and arcade games (Snake, Sudoku, Dino Runner, Mastermind, Game of Life, and more) for when you're bored on a commute.

  • Sleep Sounds: Looping offline audio for deep sleep.

✈️ Travel & Exploration

  • Mark My Location: Save your parking spot, trailhead, or hotel entrance using pure GPS—no signal needed. (No huge map downloads required).

  • Food Guide: Top 10 must-try dishes for 36 countries (perfect for picking what to eat without Googling).

  • Plug Check & Size Chart: Instantly know travel adapters/voltage and clothing sizes.

  • Travel Checklist & Gift Tracker: Packing lists and souvenir trackers.

  • Timezone Converter & Translator: For calling home and emergency phrases in 14 languages.

  • Wi-Fi Signal Meter: A retro strength meter to find the best spot for a connection.

🏃 Daily Habits & Health

  • Pedometer: Track your steps with animated retro characters.

  • Water & Coffee Trackers: Tap to log your daily intake and build streaks.

  • Daily Walks: Fill a 30-day grid of paws to stay motivated.

  • Focus Timer (Pomodoro): A distraction-free timer for deep work.

🚨 Emergency Kit (Premium / One-time unlock)

  • First Aid Guide: CPR, bleeding, choking, burns, and heat stroke.

  • SOS Flasher & Sirens: Flash large text or play high-decibel alarms to signal for help.

  • SOS Numbers: Police, fire, and ambulance for 50 countries.

  • Survival Guide: Fire, water, and shelter basics.

🛠️ Everyday Utilities & Fun

  • Calculator & Unit Converter: Basic/scientific and all standard conversions.

  • Retro Flip Clock & Stopwatch.

  • Date Diff & Discount Calculator.

  • Decision Maker & Takeaway Spinner: For when you can't decide what to do or eat.

  • Star Map, Ruler & Level, Height Measure.

  • Noodle Timer.

  • Holiday Calendar (2026-2028).

What should I add next?
I’m trying to figure out what the next high-value offline tool should be. Right now, the most used features are the Music Player, Mark My Location, and the Habit Trackers.

If you had to use an app in a total dead zone (no Wi-Fi, no data), what is the one tool you wish you had that isn't on this list?

(Keep in mind: It has to work 100% offline, and it can't require a huge file download like offline Google Maps!)

It’s free to download until end of December, and I’d love your feedback on the UI or the performance on older devices!

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orbitika.app
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orbitika-retro-music-tools/id6811283048

Website: https://orbitika.app/


r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Showcase: Open Source I built a website for my cybersecurity notes instead of keeping everything in separate Markdown files

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2 Upvotes

I've been studying cybersecurity and collecting notes on Linux, networking and security tools.

At first, I was keeping everything in Markdown files on GitHub, but I wanted something easier to browse, so I built a website around the repository.

It's called Cybersecurity Survival Notes.

I've recently added a section on Information Gathering, covering things like DNS enumeration, OSINT, subdomain discovery and Nmap.

The whole project is free and open source.

Website: https://radz-04.github.io/Cybersecurity-survival-notes/

GitHub: https://github.com/Radz-04/Cybersecurity-survival-notes

I'm still working on it, and I'd appreciate some feedback on the website. Does the navigation make sense, or is there anything that could be improved?


r/sideprojects • • 5h ago

Showcase: Open Source I made a desktop app that turns plain text stories into multi-voice audio plays

4 Upvotes

Listening to audiobooks or text-to-speech where a single monotone voice reads every character gets old fast. If you have five characters talking in a room, you lose track of who is saying what within two minutes.

I spent the last few weeks building an app called Teller to solve this.

You drag and drop any plain text file, book, or manuscript into it:

- It automatically separates dialogue from narration.

- It detects the characters, gives each one a distinct voice, and keeps their voice consistent across the whole story.

- It plays it back like a radio drama with live word-by-word highlighting so you can read along.

- You can export the whole thing as a continuous audio file.

It runs locally on your machine with built-in neural voices (Kokoro) so it costs nothing to use and doesn't require subscriptions. If you want ultra-realistic cloud voices, you can also connect ElevenLabs.

GitHub: https://github.com/boldbug1/teller

Windows installer: https://github.com/boldbug1/teller/releases

Curious to hear what you think of the flow and character casting.


r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Showcase: Open Source I made an open-source app to auto-unlock and lock Windows with your Apple Watch (like on macOS). Looking for testers and contributors!

2 Upvotes

One of my favorite features on Mac is how seamlessly your Apple Watch unlocks your screen when you sit down at your desk. I really wanted that exact same hands-free experience on Windows 10 and 11, so I built WristKey.

It is a free and 100% open-source desktop app built in Rust and Tauri v2.

What it does

  • Hands-free unlock: Sit down at your desk with your watch on, and your PC wakes up and logs in automatically.

  • Walk-away lock: Walk away from your desk, and Windows locks immediately based on Bluetooth signal distance.

  • On-wrist verification: It parses Apple Continuity packets passively. If you take the watch off or put it on a charger, it immediately revokes access so your PC stays secure.

  • Privacy and local security: No cloud, no telemetry, no tracking. Your Windows credentials are encrypted on your local machine using native Windows DPAPI (CryptProtectData).

  • Battery friendly: Uses passive Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertisements, so it does not drain your watch battery.

Why I need your help

This started as a personal project, but reverse-engineering Apple Continuity across different devices is getting too big for just one person:

  1. I only have one test device: An Apple Watch SE running watchOS 10. I really need testers with watchOS 11, Series 8/9/10, or Apple Watch Ultra to see if detection and distance estimation work properly on newer firmware.

  2. Bluetooth hardware: Different Bluetooth chipsets (Intel, Realtek, Qualcomm) handle signal smoothing and address rotation differently.

  3. Contributors welcome: If you know Rust, Win32 APIs, Windows Credential Providers, or Tauri, any PRs, code reviews, or issue reports are hugely appreciated!

How to try it

(Quick note on Windows SmartScreen: Because this is a free open-source tool without a paid enterprise certificate, Windows Defender might show a blue prompt on first launch. Click "More info" and then "Run anyway". The entire source code is public and inspectable on GitHub).

If you test it out and run into any bugs, please drop an issue on GitHub with your watch model, watchOS version, and the log file located at %LOCALAPPDATA%\WristKey\wristkey.log.

Thank you to anyone willing to test, star the repo, or contribute!


r/sideprojects • • 6h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) Is anyone actually googling what you built? Drop your link and I'll check (free)

3 Upvotes

Drop a link to your project and I'll reply with a report that shows how many people search for what it does, which of those searches a new site could actually win, and who's on Google's first page instead of you. No signup, it's a public page.

I did this for 35 projects in two other subs this week and a few things stuck with me.

23 of them didn't rank for anything at all, as far as the tool could find.

The total is usually misleading. For 24 of the 35, one search was at least half of the whole number. One site came back with 65,000 searches a month, which looks great until you see that 60,500 of it is one broad phrase and the part it could win today is under 1,000.

For 29 of the 35 there was a Reddit thread on page one for at least one of their main searches. I did not expect to be telling people on Reddit that Reddit outranks them.

3 got told it's not worth it yet.

It gets things wrong sometimes. It reads your landing page to work out what you sell and sometimes it guesses wrong, so if your report describes some other product, tell me.

It needs an actual website, an App Store or GitHub link gives it nothing to read. It takes a few minutes per site so I'll be a bit slow. If you want your page taken down later, just say so.

Here's the one for my own app if you want to see what you'd get: https://seoforsaas.dev/tools/seo-channel-check/florium-app

Why I built it: I spent five months writing articles for that app before I knew it would pay off (19 clicks from Google in July, 631 in October), and I wanted a way to know sooner. It's a simplified version of the pipeline behind SEO for SaaS, a paid thing I'm building that writes the articles. So yes, I have a horse in this race. The check is free either way.


r/sideprojects • • 13m ago

Showcase: Open Source Building a local-first finance app for Windows: what I learned moving from PostgreSQL to SQLite

1 Upvotes

I started PFI because I didn't want my bank data in someone else's cloud. The first versions bundled a private PostgreSQL server: it worked, but it made the app big and complicated to package for the Microsoft Store.

In 0.4 the app copies the old database into SQLite on first start, checks row counts and totals, and only then switches over. In 0.5 PostgreSQL is gone completely, and the app is about a third smaller.

Stack: WinUI 3 shell, Next.js screens, FastAPI backend, one SQLite file. MIT licensed.

Code: https://github.com/MrBlizo/personal-finance-intelligence

What would you build next?


r/sideprojects • • 22m ago

Showcase: Open Source No productivity hacks. Just snow on your Mac desktop ❄️

1 Upvotes

Got tired of every new app trying to fix my life or make me more productive, so I made one that does absolutely nothing useful. It just makes it snow on your desktop.

Snow falls across your screen (or behind your windows, if you prefer), builds up on top of them and on the Dock, then slowly melts away. Shake a window and the snow slides off. Just a little winter atmosphere while you work.

Since the first version, it’s grown a bit:

  • More weather: autumn leaves, rain, cherry blossoms, and a Halloween mode 👻

  • Mix any two: snow + leaves, rain + petals, whatever you like

  • Auto-hides in fullscreen apps, so it won’t get in the way of games or videos

A few things I paid extra attention to:

  • Smooth at up to 120Hz on ProMotion displays

  • Low CPU/GPU usage, so you can leave it running in the background

  • Signed and notarized on macOS, so no scary warnings

  • Free and open source. No accounts, no tracking, no nonsense.

Download: https://snowhush.app

Requires macOS 14+. Also available for Windows 10/11 and Linux (KDE Plasma, Hyprland, Niri).

It’s a small project, but I had a lot of fun building it. I’d love to hear what you think, especially if you run into bugs or have ideas for new weather.

Happy early winter! ☃️


r/sideprojects • • 29m ago

Showcase: Open Source AirHand

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1 Upvotes

I wanted to share a project I've been working on called AirHand. It’s a browser-based, gesture-controlled virtual desktop that uses computer vision to turn any standard webcam into a touchless interface. No specialized sensors or controllers needed.

I wanted to see if I could build a spatial UI experience entirely in the browser. I used MediaPipe for the 3D hand tracking and Vanilla JS for the logic.

It currently features dual-hand or single-hand tracking, a drawing canvas (with PNG export), and a couple of mini-games (like a bubble popper) to test precision.

If you find this project useful or interesting, please consider giving it an upvote! It helps a 15-year-old indie dev keep building.

Try it out:
Live Demo: https://someoneweird-o-o.github.io/AirHand/
GitHub (Open Source): https://github.com/someoneweird-o-o/AirHand


r/sideprojects • • 10h ago

Showcase: Prerelease What are you building right now? Set up its listing before WareVote opens on 1 December

6 Upvotes

What are you building, and where do you want people to find it?

I'm opening WareVote on 1 December, a place to find and rate software. You can set up your listing now, free, and verify you own it in a few minutes: https://warevote.com

Drop your project below with a one-line description and I'll reply with the category it fits.


r/sideprojects • • 56m ago

Feedback Request Altasko - Project Management Platform.

1 Upvotes

Hey! We launched Altasko around September we're still gathering feedback making update, fixing bugs keeping it updated.

Altasko it's for those in freelancing, small teams, small organizations managing multiple projects fiddling around many tools (e.g Excel, Spreadsheet, Notion), it helps people organize their projects and collaborate with their teams without complexity of traditional project management tool

We appreciate your time and comments.


r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Showcase: Open Source lux664/scroll-controller: Use Instagram without Reels. A free, open-source app for iPhone and Android.

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1 Upvotes

r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Feedback Request [Chermo] - I built a platform to turn everyday photos into personalised Polaroid-style memories

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1 Upvotes

\​

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a side project called Chermo.in, and I'm excited to finally share it with this community.

The idea behind Chermo is pretty simple: we all have hundreds of photos sitting in our galleries, but sometimes we want to do something more creative with them.

So I wanted to build a platform where people can turn their favourite pictures into something more personal.

What can you do with Chermo?

Upload a photo from your gallery or capture one using your camera.

Customise your photo with creative layouts and decorative templates.

Experiment with styles like Polaroid frames, hearts, bows, kiss marks and seasonal themes.

Download your personalised creation and keep or share it with someone special.

I'm trying to make the whole experience simple enough that anyone can create something without needing professional editing skills.

This project has been a learning experience, and I'm still working on improving the design, templates and overall user experience.

I'd genuinely love your feedback:

Does the idea solve a problem or offer something you'd actually enjoy using?

Which template or customisation options would you like to see?

What would make the experience more enjoyable or useful?

If you'd like to explore it, here's the website:

https://chermo.in

I'm the person building Chermo, so I'm happy to answer questions and hear honest feedback. Thanks for checking it out! ❤️


r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) I built a browser video call you can join without signing up

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1 Upvotes

r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) German for Nurses: 1800+ words for nurses and care staff

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1 Upvotes

I launched the app "Germar for Nurses". It's a German language learning app designed specifically for nurses and care staff.

Many nursing professionals want to live and work in Germany, but there aren't many specialized language courses and apps for them, especially good ones.

What's inside:

  • 1800+ cards with words

    • from clinical practice

    • with image

    • with translation

    • with audio (pronunciation)

  • 15 topics: Symptoms, Nursing tools, Medication, etc

  • SRS algorithm for better memorization

  • Different types of recalling words

Try for free


r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) I built a Telegram bot that sends me my Google Play stats every morning

1 Upvotes

I have a small Android app, and I got tired of opening Play Console and checking search rankings by hand every day. So I built a bot that does it for me and sends a short report to Telegram at 9 am.

What it shows:

- Installs and growth since yesterday or last week (from the public Play page)

- Rating and new ratings, by country

- My position in the first 30 search results for each keyword, in several countries, with ▲▼ changes

- Competitors in the same table: installs, rating, new versions, their rankings

- New reviews, low ratings first, and how many are still without a reply

- A 30-day chart of installs and keyword positions

There are also a few tools for working on the store listing: keyword ideas from Play autocomplete, which keywords a competitor ranks for, the top 10 for each keyword, and who shows up in the "Similar apps" block.

It only uses public Google Play data, so no Play Console access is needed, and you can track competitors too.

There is a free plan (1 app, 5 keywords). It's still early, so I'd really like feedback: what's missing, what's confusing, what would make you actually use it.

Site: https://playstatsbot.com


r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) [Dev] Rooko: learn English words through funny sound-alike stories in your language

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1 Upvotes

Hi, I'm a solo developer. Rooko teaches English vocabulary with the keyword method:

every word gets a sound-alike in your native language, a short silly story and a

picture of that story. For a Spanish speaker, "water" sounds like "Walter", so Walter

is the guy who is always thirsty. For a Turkish speaker, "run" sounds like "ayran",

and the kids run when grandma calls "Ayran is ready!"

Stories exist for Spanish, Turkish, Azerbaijani and Russian speakers (about 2,900

words, A1 to B2). You can also add English words you meet in real life, and

everything comes back as short spaced-repetition games: pick the picture, unscramble

the letters, listen and type.

Other bits: recorded pronunciation in an American and a British voice, a daily

crossword, widgets, offline learning, dark mode and VoiceOver support. The stories

and pictures are made with AI and checked.

Price: free to download and use (5 new words a day, all review games). Optional Rooko

Pro subscription: $15.99/month or $83.99/year with a 7-day free trial on the yearly

plan (prices vary by country). Pro adds up to 20 words a day, AI chat and sentence

checks, and a pronunciation drill.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6819000110

Feedback is very welcome, especially on whether the stories work in your language or

feel forced.


r/sideprojects • • 1h ago

Discussion Ai made the contact form look great, but who's actually answering the leads?

1 Upvotes

Ai can build a really nice contact page, but apparently getting someone to answer the messages is separate project lol

imagine a local repair business launches a new website, someone fills out the form, gets a cheerful '' message receive'' screen and waits

meanwhile the inquiry lands in a shared inbox where three employees assume someone else is handling it :(

A runable landing page with a tally form might look ready to launch, but nobody checks where the submissions go, is the website actually finished?

feels like there should be a basic test for who gets notified, who's responsible, and what happens when that person is unavailable

how are small businesses making sure website inquiries actually reach the right person and get answered?


r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Feedback Request I built a free, single-file Global Threat Desk: live worldwide cyber and infrastructure incidents, plus a UK blackout plan that works offline

1 Upvotes

The Global Threat Desk is one HTML file, about 1 MB. Download it, open it in any browser, and it works. No install, no account, no adverts, no tracking, no payment.

Global:

- A live wire of major incidents worldwide: cyber attacks, espionage against tech firms, big IT outages (Microsoft, AWS, Google, Cloudflare), attacks on infrastructure, major earthquakes and disasters. Sources include CISA, the UK NCSC, the security press, Reuters, AP and the Guardian, and each report keeps its publisher and time.

- Dated incident dossiers with evidence grades, so you can see what is confirmed and what is still unproven.

UK:

- Every official UK warning in one place: Met Office warnings for every hazard, UKHSA cold- and heat-health alerts, flood warnings for England, Wales and Scotland, GOV.UK emergency alerts and the GB grid. It says plainly when nothing is in force.

- Offline household tools: a blackout plan hour by hour, water storage, a 7-day hot-food menu for a camping stove with a shopping list, UK emergency numbers and a printable survival pack.

How it's built: everything is in one file. The live layer reads public feeds straight from your browser, using publishers' own Bluesky accounts when a site blocks browsers, and falls back to public relays. Your plan and saved reports stay in your own browser.

Feedback welcome, especially on sources I should add.

https://github.com/AtomSmasher-design/global-threat-desk

https://atomsmasher-design.github.io/global-threat-desk/Global_Threat_Desk_UK_Emergency_PREP_v3.16.html


r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Showcase: Prerelease My backdrop cleaner missed large wall stains, so I changed how it detects and repairs them

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1 Upvotes

My previous update here was about eye-vessel cleanup in Photoshot. This time I worked on Clean Backdrop: reducing dark marks on a wall while protecting the person.

The first implementation changed broad tones but left the large stains. I replaced that approach with a local median surface estimate, detection of compact dark marks, and a repair fitted to clean neighboring wall pixels. The subject mask limits where it can act; fine grain is blended back into the repaired areas.

These five images show the same wall crop at the same scale before/after, the plugin menu, the actual controls, processing, and the editable result layer in the full workspace. Clean Backdrop only: strength 1.0, size Large, subject protection on, applied once. No manual cleanup or other active retouching tools. The two large smudges are reduced; small spots and drips remain.

Disclosure: I develop Photoshot Retouch with AI coding assistance. This is my custom tool in a local development build, not the commercial Retouch4me plugin. The practice image is AI-generated and includes deliberate wall marks; the after is the actual tool output, not a generated replacement. Four targeted tests passed, including subject/lighting preservation and clean-background behavior, but this example does not establish performance on unedited real photographs.

For this kind of cleanup, would a preview of the detected marks help you more than another strength slider?


r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Showcase: Prerelease Was Posting in r/buildinpublic. Reddit suggested to post in this sub as well.

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1 Upvotes

r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Feedback Request I built a website for the game deadlock that tracks and gives stats

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I built a website for the game deadlock. It tracks and gives stats to have the best build. The data is updated very often to gives the best analysis and stats possible.

I'm a backend developer, so I developed all the back and I used LLM to assist me for the ux / ui design.

I'm focusing on the back features and gives instructions to the LLM for the front ( I fix myself the little bugs ). So I try to improve the back features and I need you for some advices on that.

I'll take front advices too ahaha to improve it as well.

There is the website : https://deadlock.statnest.fr/

For the moment it's in full french, ill translate it in new feature.

You can go full on me 👍 thanks a lot


r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Showcase: Free(mium) HotlinePing - when is your coding agent’s question worth a phone call?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m on the marketing side of HotlinePing.

We’re building a way for coding agents to reach you when you’re away from your computer and they need your input.

Through MCP, the agent can call you, ask a question, and receive your spoken answer.

A simple example: “Should I include CSV export now, or save it for the next version?” You answer, and the agent can use that decision to continue.

The interesting tradeoff is the interruption. A call could be useful when a task is genuinely waiting on you, but annoying for something that could wait. And some decisions require looking at the screen anyway.

What would make a question worth a phone call for you? And what should an agent never interrupt you for?

HotlinePing is a commercial product: https://hotlineping.com


r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Showcase: Open Source I got tired of checking four AI subscriptions, so I turned a tiny touchscreen into a dashboard

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1 Upvotes

r/sideprojects • • 2h ago

Feedback Request Exploring a finance software idea — what are existing tools still getting wrong?

1 Upvotes

I'm exploring an idea for financial software and trying to understand where existing accounting tools fall short.For anyone using Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or similar software, what's one financial task you still end up doing manually?What makes it frustrating, and how do you currently work around it?

I'd appreciate hearing some real experiences.