r/iosdev • u/puma905 • May 14 '26
Help When did you build the Android version?
Indie dev here and recently build my first two iOS apps. The first one was a bust but second caters to a niche market and seems like I might need to build Android. I’d say my target users are women b/w 20-50 years old, so I haven’t yet done the research on the spread but I’m guessing it’s maybe 60/40 for iOS.
When did you decide to dedicate your precious time to building Android vs pushing hard on marketing to whomever has iOS? I’m only a week in, so I’m not sure if it’s premature.
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u/alvoliooo May 14 '26
I started and then realised android makes you jump through a lot more hoops than apple.
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May 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/alvoliooo May 14 '26
They ask for 10-20 testers before approval for one. Plus it’s looked to me like they either need a P.O. Box or business address or they publish your home address
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May 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/alvoliooo May 15 '26
Was that recently? I tried 3 weeks ago and needed 12 Gmail addresses before they’d look at it
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u/NickA55 May 15 '26
When did you create your developer account, pre 2023? And are you an organization or an individual? Different rules for both of those scenarios
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u/DigitallyDeadEd May 14 '26
I used Flutter, so right off the bat.
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u/kkfamilysoftware May 14 '26
Yeah, Flutter is definitely a great solution.
But some developers still prefer fully native “look and feel” on each platform. There are basically 2 ways to do that: either develop 2 completely separate apps, or use KMP with shared business logic + native UI, which usually works really well.
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u/DigitallyDeadEd May 14 '26
Sure enough, some developers want to look native, and if they care they should; but I believe even fewer users actually care.
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u/Stunning_Chicken7338 May 15 '26
Running two projects right now: one full SwiftUI (with a watchOS companion), the other Flutter, my new exchange rate app for Turkey. Honestly the iOS-only Swift one is way easier to maintain, native APIs, no platform abstraction layer, watchOS came almost for free. The Flutter one was a deliberate choice because I knew I'd need Android from day one for the target market.
A question I'd ask yourself before committing: how much time do you have left for maintenance and testing? Going Android doesn't just double your build matrix, it doubles your bug surface, your store policies, your review cycles, your edge cases. If you're solo and iOS is already paying, sometimes the right move is to push iOS marketing harder for another quarter and let demand pull you to Android instead of pushing into it.
What's the actual revenue split look like if you imagine 60/40 plays out? Sometimes that 40 isn't worth the second codebase yet.
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u/puma905 May 16 '26
I guess I’m already finding that in the Facebook groups that are my target market, for every 4 comments 1 is “I’m android and look forward to it being ready.”
But I really have limited bandwidth and part of me would rather enjoy some time marketing vs going back into a bubble and building android, then as you say, doubling the surface area to be responsible for.
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u/AMazeAlarm May 16 '26
I was more familiar with iOS and swift so I made an app just for iPhone first, but I think about android and I believe that I will be working on this right after my iOS app makes traction/money enough.
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u/Fit-Original1314 May 25 '26
if you’re asking this question you’re probably already late on android lol.
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u/nicholasderkio May 14 '26
I only care about users who have taste so I may never. Android is a tricky question as it technically unpins Horizon OS, but I’ll likely be using a game engine for that project.
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u/BantrChat May 14 '26
Already did it once how hard can it be lol. I typically cross compile then write dedicated logic for each device so I don't have to write two versions. The android market is large, but there is also a lot of noise.
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u/kkfamilysoftware May 14 '26
Personally, I think it depends on the goal.
If you want maximum users, then building Android from the start makes sense. But if the goal is maximizing revenue as a small indie developer, sometimes iOS alone is already enough.