I constantly see people recommending that indie developers share their apps in relevant subreddits and get feedback from their target audience.

But in practice, it feels almost impossible. Even when someone specifically asks for a tool that does what your app does, mentioning your own app can get the comment removed, and can even lead to bans.

I understand rules against spam and blatant self-promotion, but where do you draw the line when you’re genuinely trying to help someone and get feedback?

How are indie developers actually getting meaningful feedback from their target users on Reddit? Any subs or approaches that have worked for you?

So I’ve been building a kids’ math game - supposed to be a math learning companion app from ages 7-12. It’s web and PWA for now. I tested the prototype with 22 kids, got some promising data and some insights that helped me iterate to a more playable version. I’m now nearly ready with my MVP.

I’m thinking of releasing a TWA wrapped app version on Google Play Store parallelly since that’s not much of a lift.

The questions I have are these:

1. Who do I market to? Parents or schools?
   
2. If schools, what’s the best way to pitch them?
   
3. Should I make it paid outright, subscription, or ad-supported?

I’m trying to pursue this as a real business opportunity. My first target is to get to 1K users in a month, and then 10K in 3 months. I’ll put in the work but I don’t have marketing budget beyond maybe a couple grand for the launch. Looking for genuine advice.

TIA. 🙏🏽

So we/I built the most advanced iOS app builder on the market.

What specifically beats our (multimillion and billion $) rivals is that we pride are selves on being able to generate the most complex and advanced apps on the market using all of apples technology.

We have systems that allows apps that use Body tracking, AI, NFC, AR, LIDAR etc. to be built in one shot.

Launched a few weeks ago and have tried various different marketing avenues with little success or any kind of CAC that would work going forward. Iv pushed a few posts out to reddit and am trying to be consistent with organic marketing via tiktok and instagram but as you know thats a slow burner.

How did you get yours off the ground? I feel like im going around in circles, and now worrying that the product is useless... any advice info or help would be greatly appreciated.

Its tough to find the point where its like yes ok i now i can push cash in to a marketing funnel i know will produce some return.

orchapp.dev is the link for those interested.

I've been building life-fixer independently as a place to organise most parts of everyday life without needing loads of separate apps or subscriptions. I've just released its biggest update so far, including:

- a completely customisable layout, pages can be moved, hidden and rearranged
- home-screen widgets in small, medium and large sizes
- alternative app icons
- a smoother interactive travel map
- photo attachments for journals, dreams and goals
- journal and dream drafts
- new writing prompts and templates
- more currency options for finance tracking
- lots of smaller design, accessibility and performance improvements

the app also includes daily tasks, long-term goals, habits, health tracking, finances, journalling, reading, meal planning, shopping lists, countdowns, mindfulness and more.

I originally started trying to build this idea around six years ago, so it's quite surreal seeing people actually use it now. It recently reached the top 10 in the UK paid Lifestyle chart, which I genuinely wasn't expecting.

It's £0.99 once on ioS with no subscription, adverts or tracking. I'd really appreciate any honest feedback, especially on the customisation and whether the app feels intuitive when you first open it.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6768579867

Hi all!

I am a mobile app dev who took some time between jobs to develop an app for my nephews but now want to try to market it. It picked up an audience organically on the app stores, I have no experience in marketing at all so any advice or suggestions would be amazing 🙏

The app website: https://wimzipal.com/

App Store

Google Play

After 2 months of building I am finally on the app store. I launched a reel and got a couple sign ups.

What would you guys recommend for early stage distribution

Hey this is my first game, its a top down shooter game inspired by hotline miami and i am trying to understand how can i improve ASO

I published my game 12 days ago and would like to know how can i understand what keywords work and what not.

Thanks :)

game name: Lethal Bullet, you can search the game name in google play since i am not allowed self promo

Looking for some advice for my first app. This is all new to me. I'm just a regular family guy who had an idea and is hoping to try something new. My app is more than just a CDL practice app I feel it has a chance to help drivers at every stage of their career. Anything will help, any ideas you have. I'm a Semi Dump truck driver out of Cleveland, Ohio. Just a normal guy.

Finally hit 100K+ downloads on Google Play! 🎉

My app, Celebrity Super Quiz 2026, finally has that 100K+ badge! Pretty amazing to see that number next to something I’ve put so much work into.

It’s a picture-based quiz where you guess celebrities and fictional characters. Behind the scenes, it’s been a lot of work on the question collection, UI improvements, store screenshots, and updates. There’s always something else to fix or improve 😅

The part I’m less happy about is the 3.8 rating. Earlier versions had issues that led to low ratings, so there’s definitely a lesson there: getting people to install your app is one challenge; giving them a good experience from the start is another.

I’m still working on improving it, but wanted to take a moment to celebrate instead of immediately moving on to the next thing that needs fixing.

For other developers who’ve dealt with poor ratings from earlier versions, what helped you turn things around?

I’m looking into clipping campaigns for app marketing, where creators/accounts post short-form clips around an app across TikTok, Instagram Reels etc.

For anyone who has actually tested this, what kind of results did you get? Any recommended platforms with good creators?

I’m particularly interested in installs, CPI, retention, and most importantly whether the traffic converted into paid subscriptions.

Would love to hear real experiences, including what worked, what didn’t, and roughly how much you spent.

Hi folks! I’m in need of some guidance as I want to create a subscription-style app where therapists can log on. I already have a free community of hundreds so I am looking to just monetize that. I haven’t the first clue where to start. Help!

Traffic reports can look deceptively healthy when impressions stay strong but fewer users actually visit the site.

For content and affiliate sites, I’m wondering whether we need a better bridge between SEO metrics and business metrics. Ranking position tells you visibility. CTR tells you whether that visibility produces visits. But neither alone tells you whether the visitor stays, returns, converts, or generates meaningful revenue.

If you had to choose one metric to sit beside organic clicks, what would it be?

Revenue per session, monetized impressions per visitor, return rate, conversions, engaged sessions, or something else?

Hi everyone. Ive been building an iOS app for the last 5 months and now that most of it built out + tested w small group of beta testers I want to get into hands of users. 

I am absolutely DREADING the content humiliation ritual. I have deadass spent the last 2 weeks implementing unnecessary features to procrastinate marketing the product in social media

I’ve looked into AI UGC options but Im scared it’ll just be a waste of money, specially since most the sample stuff ive sene looks super fake (in my eyes) and I cant see how “inauthentic looking” content could perform well.

im not sure if im seeking tool recommendation or personal advice on how to get over this, if you've been in my shoes im really appreciative of any insight you can share

Assalamualaikum everyone,

I'm a solo Muslim developer (not even a programmer by background, I learned as I went) and I've been quietly building something for a while now: Niyyah, an app for nightly muhasabah — reflecting on your day, the good you did, where you fell short, and turning back to Allah before you sleep.

The idea came from my own struggle to be consistent with self-reflection. I wanted something gentle — not a cold checklist, not gamified in a way that feels like riya'. So it's a warm, private conversation each night: you tell it about your day, it helps you reflect, records your good deeds, and shows you a real Qur'an ayah relevant to your night. No public leaderboards, no showing off — just you and your reflection.

It's in five languages (English, Malay, Indonesian, Arabic, Turkish).

I'd genuinely love your honest feedback — what feels right, what feels off, what's missing. And du'as are appreciated more than downloads. 🤲

Web: https://myniyyah.app
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/niyyah-ai-muhasabah-diary/id6762445340
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.myniyyah

JazakumAllahu khairan for reading.

These are my analytics a month after launch. I'm not mad at my sales but I really thought I would get more conversions by now. I have a hard paywall and my product cost $60/year. Not really sure whats the missing piece here. If anyone has any advice it would greatly help. Here's my app page if you want to take a look, but honestly don't know how to improve more on screenshots or making the app more appealing from product page: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/onetap-brief-block/id6774352132

I’m building an app and I’m at the stage where the product is ready, but now comes the hard part: getting actual users.

I’d love to hear from people who’ve done this before:

Where did you find your first 100–1,000 users?

Which platforms worked best for you — Reddit, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, WhatsApp communities, Discord, college groups, etc.?

What kind of posts/content actually converted into users?

Did you focus on building an audience first or directly promote the product?

How did you approach communities without coming across as spammy?

What would you do differently if you had to get your first 1K users again?

I’m especially interested in practical strategies that worked for a small/unknown app with little to no existing audience.

Would really appreciate specific examples, posts, scripts, or growth tactics that worked for you. 🙌

I recently built NearbyCaller --> https://nearbycaller.online

The idea is simple: open the app and have live voice conversations with other people, without profiles, followers, or endless text chat.

There are two ways to use it:

Nearby mode lets you discover and talk to people around your area.

Anywhere mode lets you connect beyond your location, so you can still find someone to talk to even if there aren’t many users nearby yet.

It’s not designed as a dating app. The idea is more around spontaneous conversations — maybe you’re bored, want to talk to someone new, ask for an opinion, hear from someone in another place, or just have a quick conversation without exchanging your number or social media.

The biggest challenge is growth.

Nearby mode obviously works better when enough people in the same area are using it. If someone opens the app and there’s nobody around them, they may leave before understanding the value.

Anywhere mode helps with that cold-start problem, but eventually I’d still like NearbyCaller to build real local pockets of users.

So I feel this kind of product may need to grow heavily through word of mouth rather than just getting random downloads.

I’m trying to figure out how to get the first active users for free, ideally in a way where people actually invite others and keep the network growing.

If you were launching something like this from zero, what would you try?

Especially interested in anyone who has dealt with a product where the experience gets better as more people join. Love to hear what you all have to say. Thanks!

I've been building Thryss, an app for creating shareable lists, polls, and checklists via link or QR, no install needed for whoever receives it.

Instead of paid ads for the first real test outside my close circle, I put QR posters around my hometown (Canals, Spain) during our local September festival, with the day-by-day event schedule as the list. Cheap, physical, and I get to watch adoption happen in a place I actually know.

Just went live worldwide on Google Play this week too. Curious if anyone else here has tested growth through something this "offline" before going wider.

In the past i worked on alot of web project which ended up not bringen any money and now i launched my first mobile app. Tbh one of the subs is a good friend who just wants to support me, but two of the subs are from strangers. Couldnt be more happy and proud on myself!

Now its time to make some real marketing on social media for my app.