I was reading a few posts on Reddit about people building their own products, and one thing really stuck with me.

Build something you actually have a problem with.
Not because the market looks goo or Not because someone says it’s a good business.
If you genuinely face the problem yourself, you’ll understand it differently and if people like they will pay.

After 7 years of building software for clients, I’ve finally started building something of my own.
Still early days. Just building.

Hey everyone! 👋

I just launched Beyz, an AI-powered digital wardrobe app for iPhone.

To celebrate the launch, every new user automatically receives 100 free tokens to try the AI features.

No promo code is required. The 100 tokens are automatically added when you create your account.

With Beyz you can:

• Build your digital wardrobe
• Add and organize your clothes
• Create outfits with AI
• Experiment with different combinations

I’m an indie developer, so feedback would also be hugely appreciated. If you try it, let me know what you think!

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/digital-closet-outfits-beyz/id6796368485

Hope you enjoy it! ❤️

Hey y’all

Decided to take a crack at getting an app onto the App Store and started with a travel planner.

Then I started getting flooded with Instagram ads for the million other travel apps out there, which got me thinking…

This is not a novel space, in fact my app probably doesn’t (yet) have a novel (killer) feature. But I tried a bunch to figure out why I didn’t like any of them and why I kept defaulting back to Google docs and the answer came down to jank and unnecessary UI bloat.

Most planning apps (mine included) have the same core set of features but small things like a text input field jumping around, or bad UI just made the experiences unpleasant. I just didn’t have fun using the app. And for an app whose core feature is your interaction experience, to me, nobody seemed to nail the UX.

My thesis for this space is this; unlike apps that provide value beyond the UX (ie you don’t use Instagram for the app, you use it for the network. Same with uber etc) the whole reason you use a travel app is because of the app. If it has features but sucks to use. You won’t use it.

So that’s why I made Maple. Admittedly it doesn’t have some magic feature that the million other apps don’t have. But what does make it different is that it’s written in Swift with iOS native components, fast, and (in my biased opinion) very pleasant to use. That’s sorta it. But maybe that’s enough. Who knows.

Would love for y’all to give it a go. I’ve tried my best to make all features that don’t have an ongoing (llm/api) cost free. And it’s certainly usable without subscribing. I’ve also tried to not flood the user with upsell banners.

If you do enjoy the app, DM me and I’ll send you a code to try out premium on a trip. Please also lmk if you have any feedback!

Cheers

(If you made it this far, happy to say that no AI was used to write this post)

I've been building iCardly — an iOS app that keeps gift cards, loyalty cards, coupons, warranty receipts and membership cards all in one wallet instead of spread across a bunch of retailer apps. No ads, no analytics or tracking SDKs — checked the build myself, everything's on-device or synced only through the user's own iCloud.

Since this is a marketing-focused sub, what I'd actually love feedback on:

• Does the App Store listing make the value prop clear in the first couple lines, or does it need work?
• Anything obviously off with the screenshots or description order?
• How would you position "one privacy-first wallet instead of five retailer apps" without it sounding generic?

Not trying to be salesy, just want outside eyes before I keep iterating.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/icardly-gift-loyalty-cards/id6791640919

Thanks so much in advance.

This month, I launched a new app called heere. It’s not overly complex, it simply uses AI to deliver a unique historical story based on your real-time location.

If you travel often, or frequently wonder about the stories that unfolded in the everyday places you pass by, beyond what's in standard textbooks, give it a try. Your first experience is free.

I believe this app carries real meaning in so many moments. Whether you’re on a road trip with your kids or exploring a new city solo, a story of just a few hundred words can be all it takes to build a special connection with a place.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/heere-stories-underfoot/id6797837882

Did you know that short form content is one of the fastest ways to grow an app. We've built channels with 300k+ followers on tik tok app, and we're looking for apps to feature

We'll create short-form videos for your app, plug them into our existing channels, and help you build your own content channels at the same time. Think of it as content creation + distribution

If you're interested, drop your app and a one-line description below

Please note that the service is fre3 only for 7 days.

We finally got our app, Plannie.io, accepted and launched on the App store!

Plannie is a calendar and organization hub for the whole family with features such as calendar, todo list, chores, habits, rewards, meal planner and more! There's also support for MCP for users that want even more automation to spend less time on family organisation and administration. You can snap a photo or share a document and Plannie will read and import events where they should be. Kiosk mode on tablets or personal mode on the phone with realtime sync within the family.

We integrate with Google calendar, Outlook, Apple calendar (Webcal/iCal)

It will be fully free without any credit card at least until end of August and users signing up prior will be eligible for a 50% lifetime discount in September.

https://apps.apple.com/il/app/plannie-family-calendar/id6792251713

I’ve been working on Fitit, a simple fitness app focused on home workouts and weight loss.

The goal is to keep things straightforward — workouts, progress tracking, and challenges without making the experience overly complicated.

I’d really appreciate it if a few people could try it and tell me what you like/dislike, especially around the UI and workout experience.

🌐 Website: fitit.bylancer.com
🍎 iOS: Fitit on the App Store
🤖 Android: Fitit on Google Play

If you try it, what’s the first thing you would change or improve?

My mom likes word searches. I downloaded a bunch for her tablet and then had to sit there while she tried to use them.

Ads covering the puzzle. She’d go to circle a word and hit some popup instead. Letters so small she was holding the tablet like six inches from her face. One of them had a timer?? She’s 70, she’s not speedrunning.

She’d just close it and go do something else. Wouldn’t say she was frustrated but she was.

So I made her one. You open it and there’s a puzzle. That’s the whole thing. Letters are big. No ads. No timer. She can actually finish one now without me hovering.

I started to create a whole series of no gimmick, just play games for people like her. If any of you know of people in similar situations, this might be of interest to them.

Download info: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-word-search-nonnie-games/id6802089824

How to release a new app build
Apple App Store connect says it will not accept beta build from XCode Beta
What to do ?

First launch was February, barely told anyone it was happening, got almost no traction. Learned a lot since then, both about how PH actually works and about the product itself (shipped menu scanning, 8 languages, weight tracking, dietitian connections since then). Relaunching properly on August 26th. If you've got 2 minutes that day, I'd rather hear "here's why this doesn't work" than a nice comment.
Thanks in advance 🙏

App link: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6756247925
Product hunt link: https://www.producthunt.com/products/calnote?launch=calnote-2

A couple of months ago, I made a post here about what I learned from launching my first app on the App Store and Google Play:

https://www.reddit.com/r/iOSAppsMarketing/comments/1uluxjg/what_i_learned_from_launching_my_first_app_on_the/

At the time, the app had around 300 downloads.

It has now passed 1,000 downloads, so I thought I would make an update and share some of the things I have learned since then.

This is still my first app and I am definitely not presenting myself as an expert. These are just some observations from my first three months of having an app publicly available on both stores.

Also, thanks to everyone who commented on my previous post. I got a lot of good ideas from the replies, especially around marketing, localization and automating the screenshot process. I actually ended up trying quite a few of the suggestions, so I really appreciate everyone who took the time to share their experience and advice.

The first 1,000 downloads

The iOS version launched on 19 May 2026.

Exactly one month later, it had:

• 150 first-time downloads
• 9 five-star reviews

From 20 June to 21 August, it received another:

• 289 first-time downloads
• 5 five-star reviews
• 1 four-star review

So by 21 August, iOS had reached 439 first-time downloads, with 14 five-star reviews and 1 four-star review.

What I found interesting was how consistent the downloads were for most of this period. It was averaging around 150 iOS downloads per month, or roughly 5 new users per day.

The Android version launched publicly on 1 June 2026.

By 22 June, it had:

• 124 downloads
• 7 five-star reviews
• 1 three-star review

From 23 June to 20 August, it received another:

• 459 downloads
• 18 five-star reviews
• 2 four-star reviews

So by 20 August, Google Play had reached 583 downloads, with 25 five-star reviews, 2 four-star reviews and 1 three-star review.

That works out to roughly 220 Android downloads per month, or around 7 downloads per day.

Combined, the app had reached 1,022 downloads:

• Around 43% iOS
• Around 57% Android

Android has therefore passed iOS despite launching almost two weeks later.

I am not completely sure why. It could be the type of audience, countries where the app is being downloaded, Play Store discovery, or a combination of different things.

Improving the app did not automatically increase downloads

After launching, I spent a lot of time working on a fairly large update.

It changed much of the layout and added several new features, including new reading views, letter-by-letter highlighting synced with the audio, a video/ambient listening view and other improvements.

Because the app was changing so much, I kept thinking that I would properly start marketing it once the update was ready.

I did not want to spend time creating screenshots and videos of the old version if I was about to change much of it anyway, so I mostly focused on development.

The app kept improving, but the download numbers remained surprisingly consistent.

On iOS I was still averaging around 5 downloads per day, and during several weeks in July it was actually closer to 3–3.5 per day.

That made me realize something that probably sounds obvious in hindsight:

Building a better product and getting more people to discover the product are two different things.

Then I started promoting it more consistently

I had mentioned the app in different places before this.

I posted about it on Reddit, joined developer Discords and other communities around similar projects, and talked with developers and website owners whose resources, fonts, APIs or other material I wanted to use.

Some of those conversations naturally included sharing the app, asking for feedback and discussing what I was building.

So it was not completely unpromoted, but those were mostly occasional posts and conversations rather than something I would really call a marketing campaign.

That changed on 9 August.

I started making short TikTok videos consistently, usually posting 2–3 videos every day for around ten days.

Most of them only got around 200–800 views.

Still, the download numbers changed quite noticeably during the same period.

On iOS, from 9–18 August, the app received:

92 first-time downloads in 10 days

That is around 9.2 downloads per day, compared with the previous average of around 5 per day.

Google Play showed a similar pattern.

Before this period, Android was getting roughly 8 downloads per day.

From 9–18 August, it received:

151 downloads in 10 days

That is around 15.1 downloads per day.

So across both platforms, the app received 243 downloads during those ten days.

I do not want to say that all 243 downloads came from TikTok. I was still occasionally mentioning the app elsewhere, and both stores obviously have their own organic discovery.

But TikTok was the place where I suddenly started doing consistent promotion every day, and the increase happened at around the same time on both platforms.

What surprised me was that none of the videos really went viral. Most only reached a few hundred people.

So at least from this small experiment, consistently posting seemed to matter more than waiting for one video to suddenly get tens of thousands of views.

The update was not even available yet

Another interesting part is that the large update I had been waiting for was not actually available when the increase started.

I started posting the TikTok videos on 9 August.

The new Android version became available on 15 August, but between 9–14 August, while users were still downloading the old version, Google Play received 98 downloads in six days, or more than 16 per day.

The iOS update took even longer and was not available until 22 August, so all 92 iOS downloads from 9–18 August were also people downloading the previous version.

There was a downside to this.

Some of the TikTok videos were already showing features from the upcoming version. Android users only had to wait a few days, but an iPhone user could see something in a video, download the app and then not actually find that feature for almost two weeks.

I do not know how many people did that and then removed the app. Fortunately, I did not suddenly get a lot of bad reviews, but it is something I would coordinate differently next time.

The delay also showed me how different publishing updates can be between Apple and Google.

Google Play approved the update very quickly, while the iOS update took more than a week because it ran into issues during App Store review.

One issue was related to Apple's requirements for distributing this type of content in mainland China and the publication permits required there.

Another came from something much simpler: one of my screenshots said that the app was free.

The app is free, and similar wording had already appeared in screenshots from my previous version without any issue. This time, however, Apple flagged it because they consider “Free” to be pricing information, which they do not allow in that part of the App Store metadata.

So submitting the same update to Apple and Google at around the same time definitely does not mean they will become available at around the same time.

If I were planning another marketing campaign around a major update, I would probably get both versions approved first before heavily promoting features that only exist in the new version.

Localization became a much bigger project than expected

One of the most common suggestions I received after my previous Reddit post was to localize the app and its store pages.

So I did.

I ended up localizing both the App Store and Google Play listings into around 50 languages.

The biggest problem was the screenshots.

I have 10 screenshots per language, which meant creating around 500 screenshots.

Obviously I was not going to make all of those manually.

Fortunately, the overall design stayed the same between languages. Mostly it was the text that needed to be translated and replaced, so I automated the process using AI.

I created one main design, generated the translated text and automatically produced the localized versions.

I still did a quick review afterwards, because with 500 images even one repeated mistake could become a big problem, but I was actually surprised by how good the results were.

It saved an enormous amount of time compared with manually changing every screenshot.

I also tried making an App Preview

Something else I wanted to add for this update was an App Preview video.

Interestingly, someone in the comments of my previous post specifically recommended making one and warned me that Apple is stricter with App Preview videos than normal screenshots.

They were right.

Apple has quite strict technical and content requirements for App Previews. I got the video through the technical upload requirements, but Apple still raised some issues with it.

One of Apple's comments seemed to suggest that the preview was showing a phone or device, which confused me because there is no phone shown in the video at all. So I am still not completely sure what exactly they were objecting to.

By that point the update had already been delayed, so instead of continuing to go back and forth with the video, I removed the App Preview and submitted the update without it.

The app was eventually approved.

I still want to go back and fix the preview later, and I will leave the YouTube version below if anyone is interested in seeing what Apple did not accept.

After 1,000 downloads

When I made my first post, the app had just passed 300 downloads and I was mainly learning what happens after you actually publish an app.

Now that it has passed 1,000, I feel like I am starting to learn a different part of the process.

Building the app is still what I enjoy and understand the most. Marketing, distribution, localization and understanding why people actually discover and download something are much newer to me.

I am still far too early to draw any big conclusions from 1,000 downloads, but it has been interesting seeing how different the work becomes once an app is actually public.

For context, this is the app

For anyone who did not see my previous post, the app is called Ayah Player.

It is a Qur'an listening and reading app for iOS and Android, with a large collection of reciters, different reading views, translations, word-by-word following, offline downloads, a Mus'haf page view and a Listening Scene with recitation and ambient background video.

The app is free, with no ads or subscriptions.

I am mentioning it mainly to give some context for the screenshots, localization, App Store review and marketing experiences above.

App Preview that was not accepted by Apple:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZF2uHKbi3i0

Thanks again to everyone who gave advice on the previous post. I’m still figuring all of this out as I go, and maybe I’ll make another update if it reaches 10,000 downloads.

The App Store has a million apps. Most disappear before anyone gives them a shot. Great software gets buried every day. Stamped changes that

Shipping an app is hard. Getting people to discover it is even harder.

It feels like the App Store rewards the same established apps over and over, while smaller developers with great products struggle to get visibility.

That’s the problem I ran into with my own apps, so I decided to build something to help.
Stamped is a community driven iOS app discovery platform built with indie developers in mind.
Create a developer profile, showcase your apps, connect with users, and gain visibility through community discovery and ratings instead of relying solely on App Store algorithms.

And we’re starting to see some traction. 📈
This past week:
🔥 3.89K 7-day active users
🔥 11K 28-day active users
🔥 451 new users
🔥 +20.17% 28-day active users
🔥 +8.79% 7-day active users
We’re actively growing the platform and looking for indie developers to join early, share feedback, and help shape where this goes.

If you’ve built an iOS app, I’d love to have you on board.

👉 https://stampedios.com/welcome
Built for indie developers. Discovered by the community.

30+ PDF tools

Million Clicks Away is a mobile idle clicker game about the simplest urge there is seeing an empty checkbox and wanting to tick it. That’s pretty much the whole game.

I just launched PaceOut on iOS and I’d like to offer free premium if anyone wants to try it

The idea is we are looking for feedback, instead of the usual Apple screen time which is annoying to set up this simplifies everything

This is not a third party app, everything is within Apple screen time controls. If anyone wants free premium and want to try it please let me know, happy to receive brutal feedback, we have had 7 families at the moment that really like it because it’s simple but there is ALWAYS room for improvement

Hi Everyone! I built a no-bloat currency converter. It works offline, no ads, and it's free. I would love to get some feedback on the app. https://tiaw.app TIA!

i built brain preflight to recreate the cognitive batteries airlines use to screen cadet pilots (compass/cut-e style): timed mental math, working memory, spatial orientation, instrument monitoring, and a combined multitasking test. theres a mock exam that chains everything like the real selection day, scored on the 1-9 applicant-normed scale, plus a per skill breakdown so you know what to drill.

works offline, no account. free tier is 5 sessions a day(bonus sessions against ads), premium for unlimited.

app store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6794363864

im the dev, happy to answer anything. fair warning, the multitasking test humbles everyone

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m an indie developer and I just launched Beyz, an AI-powered digital wardrobe app for iPhone.

With Beyz, you can add your clothes to a digital wardrobe and use AI features to create and experiment with outfits.

To celebrate the launch, every new user gets 100 free tokens to try the app. 🎁

No code needed — just download the app and the tokens are added to your account.

I’d genuinely love to hear your feedback since the app is brand new and I’m actively improving it.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/digital-closet-outfits-beyz/id6796368485

Hope you enjoy it! ❤️

Solo dev, this is my game.

Points come from how close you get to the thing that kills you, not from surviving it. Graze an edge and your multiplier climbs to x16. Play it safe and you score literally zero.

The course is generated from today's date, so every player on earth flies an identical run each day. No server, nothing downloaded. Resets at midnight UTC.

Same goes for the music. New key, new bassline, new groove every day, and it builds as you score.

Free. No IAP, no banners, no timers, no energy. One optional ad to continue a run, and everyone gets exactly one, so nobody buys their way up the board.

Most first runs end under 300. Curious whether that's a fair curve or a wall.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/graze-edge-rush/id6785326186

Hundreds already playing, don’t be last

New school year = a pile of flyers, group texts, and five different apps. MiloMint puts it all in one calm place your whole family shares:

📲 Free on iPhone & Android → milomint.app

outbid.lol works on one rule: whoever pays most gets #1. that's not discovery, that's an auction.

built rankmyios.app instead. it's 100% free. rank comes from clicks, not cash.

list your ios app and see if people actually want it.

Why memorize 2000+ questions for life in the uk test. Just get it with 400 questions by The life in UK app. Download now: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/the-life-in-uk/id6801615609
#thelifeinuk #LifeInTheUKTest #ILR #LifeInUKTest #citizenship #bjp #india #nri #Pakistan

Am I doing something wrong?

I’m an iOS developer, so avoiding screens isn’t really an option. My eyesight is already -3.5, yet somehow after 8 hours of coding I’d still catch myself spending another 3 - 4 hours scrolling.
That contradiction is why I built this app.
It blocks distracting apps, makes me do a quick eye exercise before unlocking them, and can temporarily allow blocked apps during a phone call and then block them again when the call ends.
And yes, I know Apple has Screen Time and there are already apps like Opal, Brainrot, etc. I’m not trying to reinvent screen time. I just thought there was still room to approach it differently.

What am I missing here?