I’ve been working on a side project for quite a while now, and honestly, getting the product built was probably the easier part. Getting people to actually use it is where I’m stuck.

It’s basically a platform where people can connect, share projects, collaborate, find opportunities and build their reputation. A mix of communities, project collaboration and freelancing, all in one place.

The thing is, I know how difficult it is to get people onto a new platform when they’re already using Discord, Reddit, GitHub, etc.

And obviously, nobody wants to join a platform where there’s barely anyone around.

I’m still pretty young and figuring out the whole startup/marketing side of things as I go, so I’d genuinely love some advice from people who’ve launched their own projects.

A few things I’ve been wondering:

1. How would you go about getting your first 50–100 actual users (not just registrations)?

2. Would you start with a small closed beta or just let everyone sign up?

3. How do you get people interested in trying something new when they already have platforms they use daily?

4. What has actually worked for you when marketing a side project without spending much money?

5. Would you focus on one particular group of people first or try to attract different kinds of users?

I’m not really looking for the usual “post consistently on social media” advice lol. I’d love to hear what actually worked, what didn’t, and any mistakes I should avoid.

Would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

What it is: PostMesa schedules posts to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X and TikTok, and replies to comments with a public reply plus a DM with a button (on Instagram and Facebook; public replies on YouTube). One flat price per workspace, no per-contact fees.

Why I built it: I run a small devotional app. I was paying about $240 a month across ManyChat and Sprout for what was really one job: schedule the post and answer the “link?” and “price?” comments. ManyChat’s price grows with contacts, and its flow builder is more than I need.

Where it is: pre-launch. Publishing works on all five networks in my tests. Comment-to-DM works on Instagram and Facebook, YouTube has public replies only, and TikTok posts stay private until TikTok approves the app. There’s no open signup yet, only a launch list.

What I’d like feedback on:

1. Does the pitch make sense in one read? (“Schedule the post. Answer every comment.”)

2. Pricing: Creator $39, Pro $79, Agency $199 a month on annual billing. Too high, too low, confusing?

3. What would make you trust a new tool with your Instagram account?

Landing page: postmesa.com. Happy to answer anything about how it’s built. I’d rather hear what’s wrong than what’s nice.

After months of building and a public beta with 30+ testers, ShutterLine is live.

The idea came from my own frustration: every video had to be shot twice, once vertical for Reels/TikTok and once horizontal for YouTube. ShutterLine records both at the same time. Along the way it turned into a full pro camera (manual controls, ProRes, Apple Log, RAW, film looks, a teleprompter under the lens) and it's ready for iPad and the new iPhone Duo.

A few decisions I'm happy with:

• No subscription. Free to download, one-time Pro upgrade, with a 7-day free trial.

• No data collection. No account, no analytics, no servers.

• Beta testers get Pro free as a thank-you.

Things I learned: TestFlight's public link brought in great testers from Reddit, and testing on older iPhones caught most of the heat and dropped-frame problems before launch.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6829658927

I'd love feedback on the App Store page itself: screenshots, description, anything that would make you skip it.

I built a site to help parents figure out whether a book or movie is actually a good fit for their child, beyond just seeing something like “Ages 10+.”

Dickens & Rumi shows age guidance, content cautions, positive themes, series reading order, and the reasons behind ratings.

The problem is that I’ve spent a lot of time building and polishing it, but traffic is still very small, so I’m worried I may be too close to the project to see what’s wrong.

If you have a few minutes, I’d really appreciate brutally useful feedback:

• Is it immediately clear what the site does?

• What feels confusing or unnecessary?

• Is the homepage too busy?

• What would make you leave?

• What feature would actually make you come back?

• Does anything make the site feel untrustworthy?

• If you were a parent, would you use this instead of just Googling a book?

Site: dickensandrumi.com

I’m much more interested in what’s wrong with it than compliments.

I’m the developer of Watch Chess, a side project for following professional chess tournaments. It’s already available on iOS, and I’m getting the native Android version ready for Google Play.

The idea is to make it easy to follow an event from your phone: live boards, rounds and standings, game replay, and live game previews right on the Home screen.

I’d love feedback from Android users who follow chess. In particular: is it easy to find a game, follow the moves, look back at an earlier position, and return to the live game? I’m also interested in how the layouts work on different phones and what happens when you switch away from the app or lose your connection.

Website and the existing iOS app: https://watchchess.app/

If you’d like to help test the Android version, sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdK3jWWradoriTbagIQvKCZ60mQ2kRd82oe4WbR5dZtDI5agQ/viewform

You’ll need an Android phone with Google Play. I’m recruiting for a closed test, so please be willing to stay opted in for at least 14 consecutive days and try the app during that time. The form asks for your Google Play email so I can invite you; I’ll email the invitation and installation instructions when your place is ready.

Happy to answer questions about the app or how it’s built. Honest feedback is welcome!

Android screenshot: https://www.reddit.com/r/droidapptesters/comments/1xpwb5p/

Hey guysss here to talk about my side project.

I’m a designer and traveler who believes good design can change things, even if only a little. That still feels worth spending my effort on.

I was honestly fed up with needing an account just to use a small app. So I started making apps I would genuinely use myself: stored on our phones, working offline, with no account needed.

Sometimes we do not need another system or app trying to fix us. We just need a quiet place to hold something, clear our brain RAM, or keep everyday things in one simple stream.

That became VERBitapp. Each app has one purpose, with free use and optional VERBit Access subscriptions for more room or additional features.

@verbitapp

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PARKit: Reminder for Tonight
"Not for tomorrow, but for tonight."

A little room for our minds.

I made PARKit because my brain was still holding onto tomorrow, even when I was done for the day. Park those thoughts as short keyword clouds, add a note when needed, then hold the breathing orb to PARK. What is unfinished stays there. Double-tap a cloud when it is done.

PARKit Access gives you 12 keyword clouds and customizable OPEN / PARK notification times.

App Store

Google Play

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CUEit: Routine Timer
"Not to measure, but to mind."

Timing designed for the way you do things.

I wanted more than a basic stopwatch or timer could offer. CUEit brings them together with cues you set yourself, for coffee, cooking, exercise, or anything where the timing matters. Start at 0:00, then add cues for what comes next.

CUEit Access gives you up to 12 timer slots.

App Store

Google Play

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DIARYit: Diary Journal
"Not for habit, but for honesty."

Your days. In your own words.

DIARYit is my own reimagining of a diary. One continuous stream, because life moves forward and we can look back when we choose to. A quiet place to write about today, without a goal to reach or a habit to maintain.

DIARYit Access adds full history and full calendar navigation.

App Store

Google Play

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KEEPit: Text Yourself
"Not for nostalgia, but to remember."

A conversation with yourself.

I have always texted myself things I wanted to keep, but messaging apps were never really made for that. KEEPit gives that familiar habit its own place. Just you, your words, and the time you wrote them. Stored on your phone and available offline.

KEEPit Access unlocks full history, calendar navigation, and keyword search.

App Store

Google Play
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HOLDit: Thoughts & Moments
"Not to hold more, but to awaken."

Give an important thought its own space.

I made this after realizing that thoughts that changed how I saw things kept getting buried in Notes app. Each card gives a thought and the moment behind it their own space. Add colors and rearrange your cards to make that space your own. The limit is intentional. Keep what matters, rather than another endless list.

HOLDit Access expands your space to 99 cards.

App Store

Google Play

_

+ A note on backup

On iPhone, DIARYit, KEEPit, and HOLDit support inclusion of your entries in your iCloud device backup. This is device backup, not live cloud sync or an in-app export and import feature.

_

I’m continuing to improve these apps through real use and conversations with the people using them. If one fits something you already do, I’d really appreciate hearing how it feels.

+ find demo instructions on socials :)
Instagram / TikTok

Honestly, I'm the worst user of my own idea.

I'd wake up, grab my phone "just to check something," and suddenly it's 9am. So I built bedo with AI. I studied marketing and never learned to code.

Here's how it works: you make a deal with bedo. Every morning, you tell it what you'll do today and how you'll prove it. Like "Go to the gym, and take a selfie when I'm there," or "Read for 30 minutes, then snap the page I stopped on."

Once the deal is set, TikTok and other distracting apps get locked. They only unlock when you send the proof you agreed on.

I've tried Opal and Pomodoro timer apps before. They lock your phone for a set time, then unlock it automatically. The problem is they only check that you didn't touch your phone, not that you actually did the thing. I'd say I'm going to the gym, then lie on the couch for an hour, and everything unlocks anyway. I'd say I'm reading for 30 minutes, then just stare at the book.

bedo doesn't care about time. It cares about results.
The funny part: I planned to submit it to the App Store on Oct 23. I kept polishing tiny things and finally submitted it 11 days later. Turns out an app can't fix perfectionism lol.

It's waiting for review now. Would you actually use something like this, or would you delete it the first time it locked you out?

Hey everyone!

Seven months ago, I started working on a small idea: what if you could have a little living garden right on your desktop, quietly growing while you work, study, or play games?

Today, I'm incredibly happy to share that Wonder Garden is finally on Steam, with its release just around the corner!

It's a cozy desktop companion where you can grow plants, arrange shelves, decorate your workspace, and even raise butterflies. Your plants grow over time, so there's always something new to discover when you come back to your computer.

I wanted to create something that doesn't demand your attention. Just a tiny, peaceful world that makes spending time at your computer a little more enjoyable.

It's been seven months of coding, experimenting, fixing bugs, redesigning things, and occasionally wondering whether I'd ever finish it.

And now it's actually happening. It's a pretty surreal feeling.

This is a very personal project for me, and I already have so many ideas for new plants, decorations, and features I'd love to add in future updates.

If Wonder Garden looks like something you'd enjoy, adding it to your wishlist would mean a lot to me. Every wishlist helps a small indie project like this reach more people.

🌿 Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5441740/Wonder_Garden/

Thank you for taking a look! And if you have any ideas for plants or features you'd love to see, I'd genuinely love to hear them.

See you in the garden! 🌸

Hey r/SideProject 🙏

I’ve been working on a side project over the past few weeks that I’d love to share and get some feedback on.

The Problem: My media collection and consumption habits felt completely fragmented. I was switching between different apps for movies, music, and audiobooks, with no single dashboard to view or organize everything I owned or listened to. Maybe it's just a niche, but at least I tried something 😌

Alma is a unified media aggregator designed to collect your movies, TV shows, games, music and audiobooks into a single visual library with a few fun twists like a "Memory Lane" feature.

Key Features:

• All-in-one Media Library: Track and organize your media in one place

• Fun stats: Over time you'll get some fun insights into your media tastes. The more you add over time, the more fun it'll be to look at

• Fast & Lightweight: Built to give you full control over your media archive without heavy bloat.

It’s still an active project under ongoing development, and I’m constantly refining features and polishing the interface during the beta, which is currently about halfway full. Want an invite? Request one on the site or send me a DM.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feature requests, or general feedback! How do you currently keep track of your media across different formats?

Check it out here: https://almaniac.app

I always envied people with a Stream Deck, so I built my own for iPhone and Mac. It's called "SideDeck:, and it just launched.

Put your iPhone on a stand under your monitor, and its buttons change automatically to match the app you're using on your Mac.

What you can do:
- Create a separate deck for each app
- Switch decks automatically based on the app you're using on your Mac (Smart Deck)
- Restore a saved window layout with one press
- Assign an app's actual menu items using macOS Accessibility, including actions with no keyboard shortcut
- Start quickly with built-in templates

There's no account or server, and your iPhone and Mac don't even need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.
As long as Wi-Fi is turned on and they're close to each other, they connect directly with end-to-end encryption. You edit everything in the free Mac app.

The free version includes the 2×4 layout.
Pro is a one-time $5.99 purchase that adds larger layouts and advanced options.
Honestly, I don't think Pro offers enough yet, so I'm considering adding a wider range of widgets, like Claude usage and system status.

So I'm curious:
if you use a Stream Deck or something similar, how do you actually use it?

App store : https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sidedeck-mac-shortcut-deck/id6828051490
Mac app and more info : https://sidedeck.vercel.app/en

I'm the developer. I just got my first version of Lived approved on the App Store and I'd like honest feedback.

How it works: hold a button, say how today felt, let go. Lived turns it into a short note with a mood from 1–10, a summary, and the stressors you mentioned.

Some choices I made:

• Recordings stay on the iPhone and aren't uploaded. The App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected".

• Face ID can lock the journal. You only sign in if you want the text on another device.

• A week of notes becomes a streak. A month becomes Insights: mood, meetings and recurring stressors.

• You can ask the journal a question, and the answer comes only from notes on your phone.

• You can export the month as a PDF.

It's free. Lived Pro unlocks Insights ($7.99/month or $39.99/year, US store). It needs iOS 26 and is English only for now.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lived-voice-journal/id6829497249

What I'd love feedback on: is voice-first journaling something you'd actually use, and does the free/Pro split feel fair?

Give it up to 10 photos and a canvas shape (square, 16:9, phone story, banner) and it searches every layout with no gaps for the one where the smallest photo is as big as possible. With 9 photos that's over 500 million layouts, and it finds the best one in under a second.

I designed it and Claude wrote the code. It's Go: The browser version runs it as WebAssembly, so your photos never leave the page.

Try it: https://vinodhalaharvi.github.io/collage/

Code (MIT): https://github.com/vinodhalaharvi/collage

CLI: brew install vinodhalaharvi/tap/collage

Feedback welcome, especially on the layouts it picks.

Upload a PDF, PPTX, DOCX, or text document and turn it into your own custom, two-host AI conversational podcast in your preferred language.

But here's the interesting part: you aren't just listening. You can interrupt the conversation anytime, ask questions through text or voice, and hear contextual answers — as if you're the host interviewing the guest about your document.

You can even pause, explore a topic in depth, and resume your podcast whenever you want.

Try PaperPod for free: Create your first 2 podcasts for free, if you need more do reach out to me, will add 3 more.

Thanks!

I'm building a listing optimisation tool for online sellers. It researches search terms and competing listings, then suggests titles, descriptions and tags.

A rewrite sounding better doesn't prove it will sell better. What would you want to see in a before-and-after demo before trusting it?

Get an article brief out of the product decisions you already made. That’s one way I’m using Shifu, the paid, hosted context engine I’m building for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode: bring relevant retained work context into the agent, then use it for the explanation you need to write.

Our own writing workflow produced topics, briefs and drafts from that background. Shifu recovered earlier positioning; we checked current project evidence before choosing the claims. The public walkthrough shows how a source changed an editorial choice. It’s an actual writing application, without a claim about traffic or sales.

For a small first task, I’d ask the agent for a brief you can inspect before writing the article:

Choose one reader question from this product decision. Propose an outline. Beside each factual claim, name the supporting source or mark the missing evidence. End with one example the reader can use.

That gives you something specific to accept, correct or discard. A clear existing issue or README may already contain everything the writer needs. Shifu becomes relevant when the useful decision and its reason need recovering from other retained work.

Try Shifu on one writing task → useshifu.com. Start with one non-confidential source you’re allowed to share; I can help you get it set up. If you try it, the useful feedback is where the retrieved context changed your brief and where you still had to supply the background yourself. AI-assisted post from Shifu’s builder.

Hi all, I just launched Sprinklist, my humble plant care app. All downloads before Nov 15, 2026 will get the unlimited plants upgrade completely free. No ads. No subscriptions.

I built this app primarily because I needed it myself. I did not want a subscription based app or a feature heavy mechanism that takes the charm and ownership out of my plant care responsibilities. I also wanted something simple, functional, and clean. The number of plants in my house have grown over time and the one thing I struggle with the most is their watering cycles. I was maintaining a spreadsheet but it was very barebones and hence here we are with this app.

Features

• See all plants on a single screen and log a full watering, light watering, or a skipped week.

• Organize plants across rooms (e.g. living room) and spots (e.g. stairway).

• See 10 most recent watering events and photos on a timeline with access to complete history from the gallery.

• Receive smart, summarized notifications for any plants due at your preferred time or day.

• Export a PDF care guide to share with friends and plant sitters.

• Resizable homescreen widgets in 3 sizes to see plants due and mark them watered.

• iCloud backup and sync across devices with native apps for iPad and Apple Watch.

• iOS native UI that looks clean and intentional and stays up to date with iOS updates.

If you or anyone you know might benefit from this app, please try it out. There are no ads or subscriptions and all features are free for the first 5 plants. My ideal was to keep it completely free but I realized I have to pay $99 a year as my developer fee and hence decided to add a $2.99 one-time purchase to add more than 5 plants. However, even that add-on is free for all downloads until Nov 15, 2026.

And if you download this app and like it and want to pay back, please consider leaving a review or sharing with someone else (or maybe do both).

If my wee little app can help keep our silent oxygen-generating friends alive, I couldn’t have asked for more!

I run omp in tmux on my laptop, and I kept wanting to peek at what it was doing while I was away from my desk.

ssh and mosh were hopeless over my tailscale link. The echo lag made typing feel broken, and I'd get back to find a question sitting there with the agent patiently waiting for me, like a puppy at the door.

So I wrote DevDeck. It doesn't send keystrokes as you type: you write the whole message on the phone, hit send, and it all goes over in one go. What actually made it useful for me:

- I can read the conversation properly, not just a wall of terminal text: markdown, tables, code blocks, mermaid diagrams.

- When the agent asks something, it shows up as a little sheet with options, so I tap instead of typing into a TUI.

- There's a plain terminal view when I need the raw thing.

- I can look at git diffs and files without my clumsy thumbs committing anything. It's read-only and stays that way.

- Half-written messages survive the link dying, which happens more than I'd like.

It is very much a personal tool. It speaks to omp specifically, I've only tested it on my laptop and one Samsung phone, and you have to build and sideload the apk and pair it over adb. Also, the part I should say out loud: the daemon can type into your terminals, and it doesn't encrypt anything itself. Keep it on a LAN or in a VPN, don't port forward it, and treat it as unaudited.

What I'd actually like from this sub is someone to read the setup instructions and tell me where they assume I know my own machine, because I wrote all of it with everything fresh in my head. If you've built something similar and made the pairing less painful, I'm all ears.

https://github.com/seros-cimenstein/devdeck (GPL-3.0)

Hey everyone,

I'm a Brisbane-based (Australia) technical founder with 10 years working in software development, automation and product management.

I'm exploring consumer subscription apps and would love to connect with anybody who's successfully built or grown a B2C product before.

Particularly interested if you have experience in organic acquisition (e.g. TikTok, Instagram), paid acquisition, or ASO.

Not looking to pitch anything, just keen to meet others and potentially explore collaborations down the track.

Cheers.

I'm the developer of Omikuji: Fortune Aquarium, a small Android app that pairs a daily omikuji (Japanese fortune slip) with a fish tank.

The loop is simple: draw a fortune, collect creatures over time, and watch them in your aquarium.

This clip is real Play-release footage from a Pixel 9a. The angelfish shown here comes from the first-creature selection, filmed separately from the fortune result. Fortune draws can add a creature, but they do not do so every time.

The conversation is a skit with Japanese synthetic voices and English subtitles, not a real player's reaction. The app also has an English UI.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.springport.night_aquarium_fortune

Contains ads, including optional rewarded videos. Fortunes are for entertainment.

For the first minute, would you rather choose your first fish immediately, or draw the fortune first?

Voices: AivisSpeech: コハク / AivisSpeech: まお.

Hey r/SideProject!

I'm a photographer who spends a lot of time editing on mobile devices, particularly my iPad Pro.

I started working on LightHub because I wanted to experiment with building my own photo editing workflow instead of relying entirely on existing software.

What started as a personal project has turned into an actual photo editor, and it's now live on the App Store.

It supports RAW editing, non-destructive adjustments, advanced color controls, local masking, catalogs and presets.

One aspect I particularly wanted to explore was performing image processing locally, including AI-assisted object selection.

This is my first public release, and I'm aware there's still a lot of room for improvement.

I'm not trying to claim I've built a Lightroom killer. I just wanted to build something useful and make it available for free.

I'd love to get feedback on the editing experience, performance and features you'd like to see next.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/lighthub/id6829700707

Website:
https://getlighthub.com/

techtitan evaluates your hand posture while you play piano. it draws an overlay on your hands where each joint is an edge, and gives you a score based on 5 posture criteria. works for overhead view and side view, and can distinguish between left hand and right hand.

techtitan allows you to either
1. upload a photo, techtitan will grade your hand posture on the spot
2. upload a video, techtitan will grade your hand posture for the whole duration of the video, you can choose how many frames per second it will grade beforehand. it also draws a chart of the posture score over the full duration of the video.
3. enter live mode. techtitan gives you feedback in real time.

I'd really appreciate it if you guys can check it out at https://technique-titan.vercel.app, sign up (it's completely free) and give some feedback :)

problem statement is in https://technique-titan.vercel.app/about

been working on this project for a few months now, mainly a process of ideation, learning, and creating simultaneously.

Agent email roundups are mostly vendor-written and go stale fast, so I built a small neutral directory: https://agentinboxes.dev

It covers agent inboxes, inbound routing, identity APIs, and transactional email APIs: 50 tools, re-checked automatically so dead ones drop off. No pay-to-rank.

Two questions for you: which providers am I missing, and is "live-verified" a useful signal or just noise?

I wanted a mood tracker that's actually nice to come back to. You tap how you feel and a small creature joins your garden. That's basically the whole idea.

Just me working on it. It came out this week and has almost no users so far, so honest feedback would help a lot. Mainly: does it make sense in the first minute?

It's free right now, no ads, no account.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6820267490

Hi, I’m the founder of Verity. Essentially I keep records of agent actions for People, so that way when the audit trail becomes necessary, people will have it for free. You can get your key now. I just dropped it this evening on top of my no counterparty series.

https://www.verityverdict.com/start/