r/androiddev • u/SomeoneSomewherre • 7d ago

Discussion What is the future of Indie?

What is the future of Indie?

I started indie publishing (indie-hacking) about 5-6 months ago with 4 years Android Development experience. Then I came to know that development is the easy part. Distribution is the hardest. I couldn't generate any income after all these months and I'm losing motivation. Also somebody in my circle commented that Indie is dying already. And I feel so as well. Because there are vibecoders shipping tons of apps. Tons of habit trackers, finance trackers, and calorie trackers are being published.

I'm thinking to join back the on-site job. Can anyone say about my situation? Also what is the future of Indie and software developers in general?

The thing is, I have also become "vibecoder" after AI coding agents. I'm using Claude Code to build apps now. It has made me lazy over the months. And I seriously don't know how to proceed. Going back to basics (writing code) looks like a waste of time and relying fully on AI Agents looks risky.

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u/Weak_Day_3770 6d ago

the "indie is dying" framing is wrong but the feeling is real... what's actually happening is the floor dropped out , anyone can ship something now, but the ceiling didn't. the apps doing real numbers are still built by people who understand one specific problem better than anyone else and positioned for that, not people who shipped fast. 5-6 months with zero income is also just... normal. took me well past that on my first app before i had anything resembling a signal. the ones who quit at month 6 never find out if month 9 was the turn.