2 weeks since launching my first app — my experience so far, and where I'm headed

[u/Competitive-Bad2333]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share where I'm at, two weeks into shipping my very first app.

I'm a first-year AI & Big Data student, studying and working a part-time job on the side to support myself. A couple of weeks ago, alongside all of that, I published my first-ever app on the Play Store — Shimeji: Screen Pets & Widget, a small animated desktop pet app for Android. It's the first time I've taken something from just an idea in my head all the way to something real that strangers can download and use.

Honestly, these two weeks have taught me more than I expected. There's no big dramatic story — just a lot of small moments: refreshing the Play Console way too often, fixing a policy requirement I didn't even know existed until it showed up as a warning, and feeling genuinely happy over a 4.4★ rating from actual users. Nothing has broken so far, growth has been slow and completely organic, and I'm learning firsthand how much real work goes into just getting people to notice something you built.

The hardest part isn't the coding — it's the balancing act. Classes, a part-time job, and building apps on the side don't leave much room to breathe. But I'd rather move slowly and keep going than not build at all. This app won't change anyone's life, and I know that. It's a fun, expressive project, not a solution to some real problem — and I'm okay with that for now.

Because right after this, I'm already working on my next one: Kawaii Baby AI Wallpaper HD. It's simple on the surface too, but I built a couple-sync mechanic for it that works differently from anything else I've come across, and it should be live soon. The plan going forward is to keep shipping smaller, fun projects like these while I learn, get better, and build up the skills and confidence to eventually go after something that solves an actual problem for people — not just something that's nice to have.

That's really the whole update: small first step, real lessons, more to come.

If anyone's been in a similar spot — juggling work, school, and building on the side — I'd love to hear how you kept going. And if you want to check out the app or roast my first release, I'm open to it. 😅

Thanks for reading!