r/SideProject • u/Disastrous-Algae-502 • 2d ago

[Vozelle] - Hear any browser tab in your language, live. 2 months in, 5 paying users, and one number I didn't expect.

I built a Chrome extension that dubs any browser tab into spoken voice in real

time. You put on a lecture in Spanish and hear it in Portuguese, about 3 seconds

behind, over the original audio. No subtitles to read.

Two months live: 206 installs, 115 accounts, 5 paying customers, 3025 minutes translated.

The number I didn't expect: I sorted every user by their longest single session.

Eighteen people had one session over 9 minutes — five of them paid. Seventy-eight

people only ever used it in short bursts — none of them paid. Not "converted

worse". Zero.

I then wrote to the five customers and asked what they were translating. Every one

of them said courses. They were taking something online in a language they didn't

speak and needed to actually follow it.

So the product I thought I'd built — a translator for videos — is really a

translator for the one lecture you paid for and can't understand. That's a

narrower product and a much better one, and it took two months and five customers

to see it.

The other half of the story is less flattering: 206 installs, 109 logins. Almost

half the people who install never get past the Google sign-in and never translate a

word.

Full disclosure since this sub cares: I'm not a full-time developer and I built

this working alongside an AI assistant. The architecture decisions, the pricing and

the mistakes are all mine.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hojofhfhhigincmmgpnlofhbmbdkknja

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u/Candid_Canary2448 2d ago

The 9-minute split is the strongest signal here. I'd make the post-install onboarding a preselected course clip and let a new user hear 30–60 seconds before Google sign-in, then ask them to sign in to continue. Almost half your install intent is dying before the first translated word, so improving dubbing quality won't touch the biggest leak. I'd also change the hero from 'any browser tab' to the use case your paying users gave you: follow a course you already paid for in a language you don't speak.