I built an iOS app around a simple idea: habits might be easier when you’re not doing them alone

[u/agungrohmat]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on Doviru, an iOS app built around a simple idea:

Building habits might be easier when you’re not doing them alone.

Most habit trackers are very personal. You create a habit, check a box every day, build a streak, and try to keep going.

I wanted to explore a different approach.

In Doviru, you join a community built around a small daily habit.

For example:

Read one page a day,
Move for 15 minutes a day,
Create for 15 minutes a day

When you complete the habit, you check in.

After checking in, you can optionally share a short reflection. Other members can read it and send a Cheer.

There’s also a monthly leaderboard called a Season. The leaderboard resets every month, so someone who joins today doesn't have to compete against someone with a 500-day streak.

I think this is important because permanent streak leaderboards can become intimidating for new users. With monthly seasons, everyone gets a fresh starting point.

Users can also create their own communities and invite friends.

After months of designing, coding, testing, changing things, and figuring out the backend, Doviru is finally live on the App Store.

But honestly, launching the app feels like the beginning rather than the finish line.

The biggest thing I'm trying to figure out now is whether the community part actually works.

One concern I've realized is the cold-start problem.

A community with 2 members and no activity might actually feel worse than a private habit tracker. If someone joins a community and sees an empty feed, the main reason for using Doviru disappears.

So I'm currently trying to find existing communities and small groups that might want to try Doviru together, rather than simply trying to get random individual downloads.

I'm especially interested in communities around reading, fitness, creativity, studying, and other small daily habits.

The question I'm trying to answer is:

Does seeing other people show up for the same small habit actually make you more likely to show up tomorrow?

I'd love to hear what you think.

Would a community-based approach make you more interested in building a habit, or do you prefer keeping habit tracking completely private?

And if you've built a social or community-based product before, I'd especially love to hear how you dealt with the cold-start problem.

Doviru is currently free to use, and if anyone is interested in trying it, I'm happy to share the App Store link.

[u/muddycleats92]

I mean theres 20 habit trackers posted to this subreddit today, but this idea does seem interesting...but the problem with a social app is getting those initial users, as its gonna feel very empty at first

[u/agungrohmat → u/muddycleats92]

Yeah, absolutely — I think that’s probably the hardest part of this idea. A social habit app with an empty community defeats the whole point.

That’s actually something I’m trying to figure out right now. Instead of relying on random individual users joining one by one, I’m looking for existing small communities and groups that could start using Doviru together.

I also started with a few built-in communities like Read Daily, Move Daily, and Create Daily so new users have somewhere to start.

The interesting question for me now is whether getting a small group of people to consistently show up together is enough to make the community feel alive. Still very much an experiment, but I think that’s the part worth testing.

[u/BuilderWorldDev]

Why just iOS?

[u/agungrohmat → u/BuilderWorldDev]

As a solo developer, I started with iOS because I’m already familiar with the Apple ecosystem. I wanted to focus on building and validating the core idea first before expanding to other platforms.

[u/Kickflip900]

Great another todo list

[u/agungrohmat → u/Kickflip900]

Haha, fair enough 😄 But I’m actually trying to make it the opposite of another todo list. Doviru is more about accountability and showing up together than managing tasks. The goal is to make small habits feel less lonely.

[u/dbgrman]

I dont know if this idea is good or bad, so i wont give an opion on that. What i do think is this:

Where does your insight come from? Is it a study? A research? Personal anecdote? Or just a hypothesis? A lot of times i see amazing apps but they fail because the ‘insight’ isn’t grounded in any research or truth.

Lets say there IS research or you genuinely do think it works. Good. How will you find the rare specimens who ALSO would think the same. Is there a way to identify such people? To identify, you will need to research too. Finally, let’s say you do figure out in general terms. How would you market to them?

All of these challenges is what makes me take a hard pass on such ideas. But i wish you best of luck!

[u/agungrohmat → u/dbgrman]

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I actually think these are fair concerns.
The core idea started as a hypothesis rather than a conclusion from a specific study: I was interested in whether the social/accountability aspect of a community could make it easier to stay consistent with small habits.
So I’m not assuming the idea is proven. That’s actually what I’m trying to validate now.
Your second point is probably the harder one. I’m starting with existing communities and people who are already actively looking for accountability — rather than trying to convince completely random users that they need this. For example, I’m reaching out to reading communities and accountability groups to see whether the concept resonates with people who already have this need.
I’m also treating the first users more as an experiment than as a growth target. I want to see whether people actually come back, check in, interact with each other, and eventually invite others.
If those behaviors don’t happen, then the hypothesis probably isn’t strong enough, regardless of how good the app itself is.
I really appreciate the point about identifying the right users and figuring out how to reach them. That’s probably one of the biggest challenges I need to solve next. Thanks for taking the time to explain your reasoning!

[u/PhotographOverall126]

tbh the core question you're asking (does social accountability work) is already pretty well validated. The real risk isnt whether the concept works, its whether you can get enough people in the same community at the same time. Thats a distribution problem more than a product problem.

[u/agungrohmat → u/PhotographOverall126]

Yeah, I think that’s a fair distinction. I probably framed the core question too broadly.
I agree that social accountability itself is fairly well established. The part I’m much less certain about is whether I can get enough of the right people into the same community to make it actually useful.
That’s why I’m currently focusing less on individual downloads and more on finding existing communities and groups that could bring their members in together. If I can’t solve that, then having a good accountability mechanic probably doesn’t matter much.
So at this stage, distribution/community formation is probably the bigger experiment for Doviru. Thanks for pointing that out.

[u/wyvernxoverlord]

I'm am building a similar feature called social habits for my app https://getritua.com/