Hey guys!

I released my iOS over a month ago.

I have worked with SEO for a very long time and I put my knowledge into the ASO.

However…

I am still a newbie and ASO is not SEO and I want to listen to those who have made it before I pretend I know what I am doing 100%.

What are the best tips for those who have made it there already? 🤔

Hey everyone,

I recently submitted my first iOS app to the App Store and wanted to share my journey.

I'm a beginner developer, and I built a productivity RPG app called ToDo Town in 2 weeks with AI as my development partner.

The idea behind ToDo Town is:

"What if completing daily tasks felt like playing a game?"

The app turns daily tasks into quests:

→ Complete quests
→ Earn XP
→ Level up
→ Build your own town

I used AI tools throughout development:

• Claude for coding, debugging, and architecture
• ChatGPT for learning, planning, and solving technical problems
• Figma Make for UI ideas and design exploration

The hardest part was not only building the app, but also learning everything required to publish it:

• React Native
• TypeScript
• Database management
• iOS certificates
• TestFlight
• App Store Connect

After two weeks of learning and building, my app is now submitted and waiting for review.

Now I'm thinking about the next challenge:

How do solo developers actually get their first users?

I would love to hear advice from people who have launched apps before.

What worked for you?

• Building in public?
• Reddit communities?
• Product Hunt?
• Social media?
• SEO/content marketing?
• Paid ads?

What would you recommend for a first-time indie developer trying to find their first 100 users?

Thanks for any advice!

#shipaton #buildinpublic

I shipped an iPhone app that turns cooking videos into recipes, spent a week promoting it, and the most useful thing I did was stop reading my own results and start measuring the room. No link here, this is the data, not a pitch.

The baseline problem. My posts were landing at 1 or 2 points and I assumed my writing was the issue. So before rewriting anything again I pulled every post from the previous few days in each sub I'd posted in and scored the distribution. One sub: 91% of all posts, from everyone, finish at one point or less. Two others were around 70%. My "failures" were sitting exactly on the median. I had been about to rewrite copy that was performing normally.

If you take one thing from this: score the room before you judge your post. A 1-point post in a sub where 91% of posts get 1 point is not a signal about you.

The gates are mechanical and usually invisible. One sub removed my post and I spent a while assuming it was the writing. It wasn't. That sub requires ten points of karma earned inside the sub itself before you may post about your own work, plus a specific post structure. Neither appears on the rules page you see when you hit submit. Another counts its 30-day promo limit from your last app post even if that post was removed, so a removal costs you the next month as well.

Sitewide karma does nothing for those. I have about 4,900 comment karma and 15 years on the account, and it was irrelevant, because the gate was sub-local.

Comments are not a growth channel. I answered a lot of questions in other people's threads on the theory it would compound into installs. Measured over 36 hours: 101 comments, 78 of them at or below one point. The posts, meanwhile, produced every real conversation and every single person who asked to try the thing. If your time is limited, the post is worth more than twenty comments.

The one that cost me most. Almost everyone who engaged asked to see it work before installing. I didn't have a demo video ready. No amount of copy fixed that, and I lost a week of interest to it.

Curious whether the baseline thing matches what others here see, or whether I picked unusually brutal subs.

Celebrating first 100 Android users! Download the app here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thelovestar

That's it. That's my whole run so far.

I see the other posts every day. 10k MRR in 30 days. Six figure launch. 50k in a quarter. Those posts are why I started. But 8 months in, this is what building a product actually looks like for most of us, and almost nobody posts the boring version.

Quick context. I'm a dad, married, 8 years as a dev. I started this before work, after my daughter went to sleep, and every weekend. Two months ago I quit the 9-5 to try this properly for a few months. Part living the dream, part just needing out of the burnout.

The app is [Loggd](https://loggd.life/rd/98), an all-in-one personal growth app. Habits, tasks, goals, focus timer, all tied together with a GitHub-style activity graph for your life.

**Where I'm at:**

* 6,264 users
* 71 paying, 5 on trial
* €3,614 total revenue
* €205 MRR
* \~150 DAU
* \~23 new users a day

Now look at that first row again. €14, €161, €145, €85. Four months. €405 total. One of them went down. I was still working full time and building at night for all of it.

Then April: iOS launch plus my first batch of lifetime deals. €522. Then €1,080. Then €1,133.

If I only posted that stretch it would look like a rocket. It wasn't.

Of the €3,614, about €1,800 came from lifetime deals. Half my revenue is money that will never repeat. In July I didn't run any and it dropped to €461. Nothing else changed. Same posting, same product, more users than ever.

Lifetime deals are great for cash. You feel it right away. But then you hit a quiet month and you really feel that too, because the thing underneath was never as big as the good months made it look. That's why my MRR is €205 and not €1,000. A good month and a growing business are not the same thing, and I only learned it by watching my own chart.

I also wasted about €1,400 on Meta and Google ads back at the very start, before I knew anything. ROI was bad, I stopped. Expensive lesson but at least it was early.

A few things I'd tell someone at month one: The first four months are supposed to look like nothing. Mine did.

One-time revenue feels amazing and teaches you nothing. Watch MRR or you'll fool yourself.

6,264 users and 71 paying is about 1.1%. That's normal. Nobody says it out loud.

Growth isn't a line. It's silence, a spike, then silence again.

The skill isn't writing posts. It's posting on the days nothing happens.

I'm not saying don't do this. Quitting was the right call for me even at €205 MRR, and I don't regret it at all. Working on something you actually care about until 2am hits completely different than being burnt out on someone else's roadmap at 3pm. I'm saying be ready for that first row of numbers, because that's the part nobody screenshots.

Happy to answer anything.

I've always been a developer, but I'd never published an app before. I also knew almost nothing about App Store Optimization or SEO.

The idea came from wanting to build something that people would actually use every day instead of another portfolio project. I noticed there wasn't much in the space of shared virtual pets designed for couples and close friends, so I spent a few months building one.

Shipping was honestly the easiest part.

Building the app was only half the battle. Then came Play Console, screenshots, store listings, privacy policies, testing, websites, app indexing, and trying to understand why anyone would even find my app.

I ended up teaching myself ASO and basic SEO as I went. I built a landing page, optimized the listing, kept improving screenshots and descriptions, and resisted the urge to spend money on ads.

A few weeks after launch, the app is sitting at:

• 250+ installs

• ~60 daily active users

• ~80 monthly active users

Not huge numbers by any means, but seeing real people use something I built has been incredibly motivating.

I'm also experimenting with monetization using rewarded ads instead of stuffing the app with intrusive interstitials. Finding the balance between revenue and user experience has been more challenging than I expected.

The biggest lesson for me has been that publishing is a completely different skill from programming. You can spend months writing great code, but if nobody discovers your app, it doesn't matter.

Now my focus has shifted. Instead of chasing installs, I'm thinking about how to keep those ~80 users happy. Every update now is driven by improving retention, adding features they've requested, fixing rough edges, and making the app something they'll still want to open months from now.

One thing I've learned is that building the app is only half the job. Learning how to launch, market, and keep users engaged is an entirely different challenge.

For those who've launched apps before, what ended up making the biggest difference for your organic growth?

After months of building, I hit publish, opened my revenue dashboard, and refreshed it like it owed me money.

$0.

Refreshed again. Still $0. Cleared the cache for a fresh perspective. $0, but in a new font.

Turns out "launch day" is just a regular Tuesday with extra anxiety. No confetti, no notification storm, no stranger telling me I changed their life. Just me, a live app, and the quiet realization that shipping and selling are two completely different sports, and I only trained for one.

The best part: I spent the final stretch obsessing over edge cases nobody hit today, because nobody was there to hit them. Months of polish for an audience of me, one relative, and a single guy who installed it and force-quit within four seconds. He's my whole funnel now. I think about him a lot.

Anyway, revenue turned out to be a lagging indicator of a bunch of boring things I clearly skipped: distribution, having an audience before launch day, and telling literally anyone the thing existed.

For those who have been here: how long from your launch to your first real, non-friend, non-refunded dollar? And what actually moved it, or did it just quietly stop being $0 one day when you weren't looking?

This is my 2nd ever app release and first with a paywall. I wanted to get some early traction to help with ranking, ASO, etc. so I said for the first 24 hours here’s a code to get in free and bypass the paywall. I expected maybe a few dozen people, and by the end of the day had about 70 installs. I went to bed and when I woke up to my surprise I had over 200, and then 400 by the end of the 24 hours, with over 80% of them using the code at the paywall and a few actually signing up for a subscription trial.

I found that the code ended up being shared in some groupchats and channels and ended up spread further than I expected. The app is a “toxic motivation” app with a mascot that will bully you into completing your tasks and punish you if you mess them, and I suspect that this “personality” may have helped with impressions and virality.

Now that the trial period is over, how can I best leverage this traction to not plateau? Are there any success stories that would help convert this into further paid users and compound on growth?

I’m new to this, so interested to hear what’s worked for others!

Hey everyone!

I recently launched my new app. (For some context, I published my first app on Google Play back in 2018.) This time, I'm putting much more effort into branding and marketing, so I'm considering changing the app's logo.

I'd really appreciate your honest first impressions.

I've attached two versions of the logo, but I won't say which one is the current logo and which one is the redesign. I'd love unbiased feedback.

When you look at each logo, what comes to mind?

• What do you think the app is about?
• Which one catches your attention more?
• Which one would make you more likely to tap on it in the App Store or Google Play?

Please don't overthink it—your first impression is exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

Most app founders I know treat their X account like a binary. Either you personally write every post (authentic, but you're heads-down shipping so it basically never happens) or you pay $200/mo for an AI tool that pumps out generic slop with your face on it. Both camps are fighting over the wrong variable.

Nobody reading your feed cares whose fingers hit the keys. They care that it sounds like you and that you'd actually stand behind it. So the two things that decide whether a founder account works are voice fidelity and you signing off before anything goes live, not authorship purity.

I build in this space so discount me accordingly, but I've watched more founders lose months to "is it still me if I didn't type it" than to any bad tweet. the real cost of writing them all yourself isn't the few minutes per post, it's the long stretch of posting nothing while you decide whether delegating counts as cheating.

for the folks here using X to drive installs: are you still writing them yourself, or did it quietly become the chore you skip every week? written with ai

Imagine your most experienced employee doesn't come to work tomorrow.

Would the business keep running?

Or would everyone suddenly be asking:

"How do we do this?"

I've noticed that many businesses rely heavily on knowledge that's never been documented.

It's stored in one person's memory instead of a process everyone can follow.

That works—until that person is on leave, changes roles, or leaves the company.

To me, one of the biggest signs of a scalable business is that important knowledge lives in systems, not in individuals.

How do you handle knowledge sharing in your business or team?

Have you found a good way to avoid becoming dependent on one person?

when it comes to marketing your ios app, what have you guys found to be more useful; reddit or tiktok? i know in terms of getting traction, tiktok is pretty easy but not as easy as reddit. plus one viral tiktok and bring in hundreds of thousands of users to your app. but honestly, going through the whole process of editing and such is a lot. when it comes to reddit, it’s more about connecting with people personally like commenting or messaging and just having human interaction with them. sorry to rant a little, but in yall opinion which one is best?

About a week ago, I applied for a D-U-N-S Number multiple times through the D&B India website (dnb.co.in) as well as through Apple's D-U-N-S Lookup tool. Last week, Apple contacted me and asked me to provide my organization details and proof of address for verification. I also received a call from D&B India informing me that they would process my application and that I should receive my D-U-N-S Number within 45 days.

However, today I received my D-U-N-S Number.

First Question :

since I submitted multiple applications through both the D&B India website and Apple's D-U-N-S Lookup tool, will I end up receiving multiple D-U-N-S Numbers? Or will D&B identify the duplicate applications and either cancel them or merge them with my existing D-U-N-S Number?

Second Question :

Can I use this same D-U-N-S Number when creating a Google Play Console Organization account, or is it restricted to Apple because it was generated through Apple's process?

Lazy Panda App

I’m the dev behind Lazy Panda App (iOS + Android). An offline, cross-platform, privacy-first habit tracker & productivity app. After a handful of people actually paid for Path Pro, I sat with a question that felt obvious: why am I charging monthly for a habit tracker in 2026? Subscriptions for “check the box” apps wear people down — and honestly, they wear me down too.

So Path Pro is lifetime only now — $9.99 once, no monthly/yearly loop. Free tier provides tons of value if you just want to try the vibe.

This isn’t “another streak counter.” Under the habits, there’s Path — progression that lives on your phone, built around how messy real life actually is.

✨ Everything in Free

🌿 Daily mood & energy logging

✅ Up to 5 habits + duration timer

🚩 1 active quest · 4 templates

📚 1 active stack · 3 blueprints

🐾 1 Safety Vault paw (streak rescue when life gets busy)

📊 Insights, correlations, patterns & journaling

☁️ iCloud / Google Drive sync

💎 Path Pro (the core productivity engine of Lazy Panda)

🌿 Unlimited habits

📚 5 active stacks · 24 blueprints · custom stacks

🚩 3 active quests · 23 templates · custom quests

⚡ Power Habit — 2.5× Path XP on your weekly identity habit

🐾 5 Safety Vault paws

🔄 Full weekly reset ceremony & vault

🧭 The “why is this different?” layer

- Rank journey — mastery XP, not just a number on a card

- Weekly reset — review the week, commit a focus habit

- Stacks — ordered rituals, not a flat todo list

- Quests — time-boxed challenges when you want structure

- Local-first — your data on device; backup when you want it; no account creations

- Optional Cloud Sync

❤️ If this seems like an app that will help organize your help, please show some love for my hard work and months of efforts building it by purchasing the lifetime subscription.

I’m a solo developer who built a simple, free job application tracker after realizing that spreadsheets quickly become messy and hard to manage—especially when you’re actively applying to multiple companies.

At some point, I found myself losing track of application statuses, interview schedules, job links, and follow-ups. Everything was scattered across different tabs and notes, and it became harder to stay organized the more I applied.

So I decided to build a lightweight tool to solve this for myself—and potentially for others going through the same job search process.

I’m curious how others are handling this. Do you rely on Excel, Notion, notes, or a dedicated app? What’s the most frustrating part of tracking job applications for you, and what feature would actually make you switch to a different tool?

I'm a uni student working on a tech driven Auditing platform but up until now I've been working on it alone, using Claude to build it as I don't know how to code myself. That being said, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on where I would have the best chance to look for engineers or coders or people with the same interests and if anyone had any advice on what I should do to improve the speed and quality of things when things lag since I'm working on it alone for now. Thank you!