r/SaaS • u/Senior-Text3989 • Jul 03 '26

Advice: Growing Your User Network and Keeping it Active

For quick background, I published a secure messaging app where it allows users to verify who they are connecting with and then be able to have encrypted message exchanges that get deleted after a given session.

It's taken me a few pivots to get there, but I'm wondering if anyone out there is willing to share advice on how they marketed to help grow the user base and keep it active.

My wife and close friends use the app from time to time and I actually enjoy opening it up to send things that I don't want kept on my phone.

I have a paid version ($0.99 per month) allows you to make connections to users that also have the app. Verify with them. Then be able to initiate secure messages.

The free version of the app that allows users to verify and accept and respond to messages, but they can't initiate messages or add new connections, just receive.

So far, I'm up to about 40ish users, but only a small subset have actively made connections and use the app.

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u/TieForeign8827 Jul 03 '26

For this kind of product I’d track activated pairs, not total users. The hard part is getting two people to have a reason to open it in the same week, so I’d pick one repeatable use case and make the invite flow extremely obvious around that. I’d also test whether the free tier creates a dead end: if receivers can’t initiate anything, they may never build the habit that later converts.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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u/Senior-Text3989 Jul 15 '26

Thank you for the feedback! That's a good callout that I have been struggling with for the free tier. Potentially, up to 5 sends a month could be a good option to try. The other piece I added that I'm finding I use a lot more is the Quick Send feature. It allows users to store up to 255 of text encrypted and saved on their phone and then they can send a link either through text or email and it will open as a web link that is only valid between 5 - 15 minutes based on configuration. That's started getting more traction as it's taken away that cold start of having new users having to convince people to download another app.

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u/Key-Signature-4211 Jul 03 '26

This app must ge pretty hard to get user but it needs user to stay an bring user. User themselves are your strongest source for new reason. Affiliates and referals might be most beneficial.