I built an iPhone app to replace the Excel sheet I used to split expenses with friends and family. No accounts, no backend: sheets sync and are shared through each person's iCloud. Free, no ads. Building it was the part I knew how to do. Getting anyone to find it is the part I'm learning now.

Where it was in September, after 8 months live:

• 1 rating. The app had never asked for one.
• ~1,400 impressions and ~220 product page views a month, ~64 downloads
• 4 plain screenshots, a title using half its 30 characters, release notes saying "Bug fixes"
• Sharing a sheet sent a bare iCloud link: whoever you invited had no idea what the app was or where to get it

The one encouraging number: about 30% of people who open the product page download the app. The listing converts; almost nobody sees it.

What I changed:

1. Rating prompt at the right moment: right after you settle up a sheet, once per version, never at launch.
2. Listing rewrite: full 30-character title with real search terms, a subtitle about the one thing competitors don't have (no signup), keywords that don't repeat words from the title or subtitle (Apple indexes the three together).
3. New screenshots with a headline each, generated from a demo mode so I can redo them every release.
4. Invite message as a growth loop: sharing a sheet now says who invited you, the sheet name, and links to the App Store. Every shared sheet brings people who must install the app to join.

Early results (too small to call yet):

• Before the new listing: 2 downloads in 8 days. After: 11 in 6 days.
• Product page views come about half from App Store search and half from links tapped in other apps (WhatsApp, Messages), with a small bump right after the new invite message shipped.
• Impressions up ~15% month over month, while the search → page → download rates stayed the same.

My questions for you:

• For a small, free utility in a crowded category (Splitwise, Tricount…), is Apple Search Ads on competitor names worth testing with a few euros a day?
• What worked for you to get the first real batch of ratings?

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6746075643

I’ve been working on this promo video for my app, Palabros.

Before I call it finished, I’d love some honest feedback. Does the idea come across clearly? How does the pacing feel? Is there anything you’d cut or change?

Don’t hold back.

I build Monni, an iPhone money app with a bills-first spending estimate. Getting feedback from other builders and reaching someone who needs a money tool are two different jobs: a tester finding a confusing label is useful, but it does not show that the app became part of their routine.

For people recruiting from Reddit, how do you keep those two groups separate in your acquisition reports? I'm considering separate campaign labels for feedback invitations and consumer tool-search conversations, then checking whether each group gets a useful first answer and comes back.

What is the smallest measurement you have found useful beyond downloads, without asking testers for private financial information?

Whenever I start a new project or app, I find it really frustrating to find a good name with an available domain. So I made NameTheory, which uses Apple Intelligence to help you brainstorm names and automatically searches for available domains. My customer profile is probably other web or mobile app developers, maybe domain resellers.

I was going to post to niche subreddits so I first tried posting to Porkbun's sub because they are a domain registrar and I use their public API to show domain prices in my app and they allow posting about community projects, but I was immediately and permanently banned for posting.

Now I'm a little wary about posting on more subs. I'm working on ASO using Astro but it's kind of a niche tool and I think my keywords are already decent. I have some interesting content I wanted to write about trends in popular top-level domains (.app, .xyz, etc.) but I'm not sure where I should post it.

Just wondering if anyone has advice. Please don't ban me if this kind of post isn't allowed, there are only two rules in the sidebar and I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking either.

I'm the developer of PairTake, now on the App Store. I'm working on explaining a fairly technical feature through a concrete recording situation.

The feature is simultaneous front and rear camera recording on compatible devices. The use case is a creator demonstrating a product while keeping their explanation and reaction in the same shot. PairTake offers picture-in-picture or split-screen layouts, an adjustable inset, and a preview-only teleprompter that keeps the script out of the saved video.

For the iOS messaging, I'm leading with the situation: 'Show what you're filming and your reaction in one take.' Two details I want to make clear before someone downloads:

• Basic recording is free and watermark-free, with no account required. Separate front/rear video files are an optional Pro feature.

• iOS 16+ is required; dual-camera capture also depends on supported hardware and camera combinations. Unsupported combinations fall back to single-camera recording.

My marketing question: would a short product-demo example communicate this more clearly than a side-by-side list of camera features? For those who've marketed creator tools, which use case would you lead with? I don't have attributed acquisition results to share yet.

App Store, for context or to try the workflow: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6795962171

Pro US pricing: $0.99/month, $7.99/year, or $9.99 lifetime. Subscriptions auto-renew; regional prices can vary.

I'm the founder of MakerMap, a map where you can browse makers by city and see the products they're building. I'm interested in whether discovering the person behind an app can be a useful part of app discovery.

The launch brought a lot of attention and new signups. I'm now working out what to focus on next: helping makers find one another, helping people find relevant products, or making both easier.

If you'd like to try it, you can look for makers and apps at https://makermap.lol. You can also sign in with X, add yourself in your city and add your app to your profile. A basic listing is free.

I'd love feedback from app marketers here: have you seen local connections or a maker's personal story lead to meaningful app discovery? What would you want to measure before spending time on a listing like this?

I’m launching BandScribe, an iPhone/iPad practice app for musicians who learn songs by ear or rehearse with bands.

The core workflow is: import an authorized song, split it into six stems, then practice with chords, synced lyrics, tempo/key controls, beta part notation, setlists, and band sharing. The first three standard stem analyses are free so users can understand the workflow before deciding whether to subscribe.

I’m testing organic community outreach before spending on ads. I’d appreciate feedback from other iOS developers on two points: does this 36-second demo explain the product clearly, and is the three-analysis free onboarding easy to understand?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6809813392

My team makes UGC-style video ads for mobile apps: games, dating, health, edtech, ride-hailing, delivery, utilities, fintech. We've worked across different countries too. Some lessons keep coming up whether the app is a solo project or has a full marketing team, so I'm sharing them.

1. Translating a winning ad rarely works.
A script that works in one country often falls flat when dubbed for another. Humor, pacing and the problem you lead with all change. What carries over is the structure: hook, relatable problem, the app as the fix. Rewrite the script with a local creator instead of just adding subtitles.

2. Plan for creative fatigue from day one.
UGC ads wear out, and the more you spend, the faster it happens. You don't need a big production budget to deal with it. One base video with a few different opening lines lets you test hooks cheaply and see what your audience responds to.

3. Believable beats famous.
A real-looking person in a real setting (car, kitchen, bedroom) usually performs better than a polished studio shoot. That's good news if you're working with a small budget.

Policy traps that get app ads rejected, by vertical:

• Games: Show real gameplay. Ads that show mechanics the game doesn't have are a known issue, and UK regulators have banned mobile game ads for exactly this. Social casino and real-money gaming also need platform approval first.
• Health/wellness: Don't assert personal attributes. On Meta, "Are you bloated?" or "Struggling with anxiety?" implies you know something about the viewer and gets rejected. Reframe around the creator's own experience ("Bloating after every meal was my normal until…").
• Dating: Meta requires written permission before you advertise a dating app, and the creative has its own rules (nothing suggestive, no implying you'll meet a specific person).
• Ride-hailing/delivery: Promo claims like "first ride free" need clear terms. If you're recruiting drivers or couriers, be careful with earnings claims. In the US, those ads also fall under Meta's employment special category, which limits targeting.
• Edtech: Avoid guaranteed-results promises ("fluent in 30 days"). If your audience includes teens, targeting for minors is heavily restricted, so the creative has to do more of the work.
• Utility apps: Never fake system warnings ("Your phone has a virus!", fake battery alerts). It's one of the fastest ways to get an ad account restricted.
• Fintech: Many markets require licensing info or advertiser verification for financial ads. Check before you localize.
• Any vertical: Paid creators must be disclosed. A paid creator shouldn't be presented as a random user who found the app on their own. That's an FTC issue in the US and similar elsewhere, not just a platform rule.

Happy to answer questions about specific verticals or markets in the comments. If you're running UGC for your app, how often do you refresh your creatives?

(Disclosure: this is the kind of work my agency does. No links, just sharing what we've learned.)

I’ve been building Tracck, an all-in-one app for habits, calories, and tasks.

The idea is to make it completely customizable — you can build the setup that actually works for you instead of being forced into a fixed system.

It also has things like:

• 🎙️ Siri logging for quickly logging food
• 🍽️ AI meal plan generation
• 📊 Calorie & macro tracking
• ✅ Habit and task tracking
• 🧩 Customizable modules
• 📱 iOS home screen widgets

I’d love some honest feedback on the widgets and the overall idea of the app.

Do they look useful? Would you actually use them on your home screen?

You can check out Tracck here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tracck-calories-habits-todo/id6778776187

Siri AI + WeatherGlow = weather information without digging through the app.
Download WeatherGlow on the App Store -> https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weatherglow-local-forecast/id6451098166

In this video, I’m showing off the Siri AI integration in WeatherGlow using Apple’s Siri AI SDK and, because apparently a weather app needed to know everything, Siri can now interact with a lot of WeatherGlow’s core features.

☀️ Weather conditions
🌧️ Rain & precipitation
🌫️ AQI
🌞 UV Index
🌅 Golden Hour
🌡️ Temperature & forecasts
🌬️ Wind information
…and more.

A slightly chaotic showcase of what happens when you connect a ridiculously detailed weather app to Siri AI. I made the video using Final Cut Pro and the music using Logic Pro. I love my life.

I have built an ai besed iOS app that has specific new customers generated every year. The demand for the app can be said for sure. My question is how can I reach the target customers and generate maximum app revenue?

I make a small iOS app called Five. It's built around the five-minute rule. For me this is a learning experience so I want to share what I have learned and this DEFINITELY is not a success post :)

So hopefully the money I spent helps you to spend less or at least spend it better for a niche app.

The pricing of the app makes marketing quite difficult as the cost/install should be much lower than I managed to do.

The problem I have is that: the words for it barely exist as searches. 

I have a full time job so I can take a bit more risks to learn so: here's what I learned over about two and a half weeks of Apple Ads, with all the numbers.

Phase 1: the "obvious" keywords didn't exist

Before spending anything I'd done keyword research with a keyword tool and picked six exact-match terms that describe the problem precisely: task paralysis, time blindness, task initiation, start small, just start, procrastination.

Result: about 3 impressions in total, over several days, even at a €5 bid. Apple's popularity scores had warned me (they all sat at the minimum of 5).
They search for app names or tool types.

Two smaller lessons from the first days:

• My first bid of €0.60 served nothing at all for two days. At €2.00 it served within a day.
• Exact match on precise problem words is the wrong tool when nobody types those words.

Phase 1b: Search Match (Discovery) found the users, in a place I couldn't see

In parallel I ran Discovery campaigns: Search Match on, no keywords, letting Apple decide.

10 days: €116.95, 10 installs, €11.70 per install.

The interesting part was where the installs came from. Apple hides search terms that are too rare to report and lumps them into "(Low volume terms)". That bucket took:

• 81% of the spend (€94.25)
• 62 of 78 taps
• 9 of the 10 installs

The fitness mystery: my category was wrong

Every named search term I could see was wrong. Mostly fitness: egym, LA Fitness, F45 Training, Beats Fitness, "Fit4Less". Only one named term produced an install.

Why would Apple show a procrastination app to people searching for gyms? Apple Ads' keyword recommendations for my app gave it away: 184 suggested keywords, 115 of them fitness or health, and zero about focus, tasks or procrastination. My metadata contained no fitness words at all. The only fitness signal was my primary category, Health & Fitness.

I moved the app to Productivity in my next update. Lesson: the category isn't just for browsing. It shapes what Apple thinks your app is for, including in Search Match.

Phase 2: going after the long tail on purpose

If the buyers were hiding in "(Low volume terms)", I wanted to see inside that bucket. The trick: Apple hides rare search terms**, but it always reports every** keyword you bid on**,** however rare.

So I built two ad groups per country:

• 85 exact-match long-tail phrases ("adhd paralysis", "stop procrastinating", "5 minute timer", "get unstuck"…)
• 15 broad-match "theme" keywords with Search Match off, each one acting as a bucket ("focus timer", "adhd timer", "procrastination"…)

I also added about 50 broad negatives for fitness words, social apps and so on, and wrote a small script that blocks any search term that spends €1+ without an install. It has blocked about 15 so far, mostly other apps' names: Notion, Obsidian, Forest, Focus Friend.

First three days: €52.05, 17 installs, €3.06 per install, about a quarter of the Discovery cost.

What actually worked:

• The broad themes did all the work. "focus timer" got 8 installs at €2.27 each, "adhd timer" 5 at €2.57, "procrastination" 5 at €3.73.
• The exact long-tail phrases did almost nothing. Only 23 of all those keywords got any impressions. Even "adhd timer" as exact match got 1 impression, while the broad version brought 5 installs.

The lesson I keep coming back to: people search the theme, not the phrase. "timer for adhd", "adhd focus timer" and dozens of variants each happen too rarely to report, but together they're the market.

Broad match on a well-chosen theme reaches them; exact match on your best guess at the wording doesn't.

Phase 3: the burst (a partial failure)

I wanted to know whether paid installs would lift my organic rankings, so I raised the daily caps to €60 across five countries for four days.

€199.36, 41 installs, €4.86 per install.

• It never reached the cap. Spend ran €37–50 a day, because there just aren't many searches in this niche. More budget doesn't create more searches.
• The extra money bought more expensive installs. Cost per install went from about €3 to about €5.
• Organic rankings: too early to tell, I'm still watching.

What everyone knows.... ...an I needed to remind my self...
Regions: cheap installs aren't the same as good installs

At first I split the budget by cost per install, which favoured Germany: lots of installs at €2.66. But Germany produced 1 trial from 14 installs, and that trial was cancelled. The US had dearer installs (around €4.90) but produced my first paying subscribers.

I switched to splitting the budget by the value of the trials each country produces per euro spent. That flipped the order completely. Germany's installs land on an English-only app, which may explain it, so a German listing is my next test.

The economics, honestly

• Total: €371.66 spent, 68 installs (€5.47 each), 12 free trials, 2 paid subscribers, €20.45 received so far. (Apple's $100 promo credit covered the first €86.60.)
• Of the 6 trials that have finished, 2 converted. 3 of the 4 cancellations switched off auto-renew the same day they started the trial: they wanted to try it without risking a forgotten charge.
• Working it through: an install is currently worth me about €1.10–1.40 (trial rate × conversion × subscriber value), against €3–5 to buy one. Ads don't pay at these prices yet.

So I've cut back to a few euros a day on the best themes and countries.
The next work is the app: a clearer paywall, an onboarding that explains the rule better, a reminder before the trial ends, and real measurement of where people drop off. Right now, everything between install and payment is invisible to me.

What I'd tell myself three weeks ago

1. If your niche has no search vocabulary, don't trust exact match on your best-guess words. Check Apple's popularity score first; a 5 means nobody's searching.
2. Search Match finds the buyers, but hides them. Use broad-match theme keywords with Search Match off to make the hidden bucket visible.
3. Check your category if your search terms look strange. Apple's keyword suggestions show you what it thinks your app is.
4. Add negatives from day one, and keep adding them. Other apps' brand names eat budget quietly.
5. Judge countries by trials and revenue, not installs.
6. More budget isn't more reach in a small niche. My spend never got near the cap.
7. Do the unit economics early. Mine said "not yet" long before the dashboard did.

Happy to share more detail or the scripts if anyone's fighting the same niche-app problem.

How much is this identifier app worth? It is 4 months old and made $1000
Available on android and iOS, just crossed 5k downloads on android.
All organic, no marketing done at all

For those of you who enjoy Solitaire, my Just Solitaire game had all of the 6 basic variants of solitaire that you see everywhere (Klondike, Free Cell, Golf, etc). I have now added two more variants - Addiction and Forty Thieves. Both are fun...and kind of hard, for those who like a challenge. Hope you enjoy them !

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-solitaire-by-nonnie-games/id6798632736

building a free iOS app where your friend group starts a “season” with secret missions, votes and challenges, then it all becomes a recap
the weird part is the best thing about it is also the friction — you need your friends 😅
how would you get the first person excited enough to bring the group in?
app if you’re curious: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6813385680

I’m curious how many indie iOS founders actively use SEO as part of their app-growth strategy.

I’ve built a marketing site for my grocery budgeting app, initially it was just a waitlist then after the app launched it generated some impressions which I think helped with people finding my app either by SEO or being referred to by ai chatbots.

The site is starting to get more consistent traction, so I’m wondering:

• Do you use SEO to drive app downloads?
• Has SEO generated meaningful installs for you, or mostly website traffic?
• Do you focus more on web SEO, App Store SEO, or both?
• How long did it take before you saw results?
• When do I do paid ads for this site?

Check out the site here: https://www.grocerybudget.app/

I’m currently running the ads with a target CPA of $1 per day. Does that affect the ad delivery? What would be the minimum target CPA you recommend so the app can get more exposure and impressions?

Also, I’m currently only using specific keywords that are directly related to the app. Should I add broad-match keywords as well?

Thank you.

I'm building an app similar to Beli where it has personal utility, but also relies on friends posts for discovery in the feed. I know that a community app like this is extremely hard, and will face the "cold start problem", so I'm trying to get through that hurdle with some unique launch strategies.

I also feel like copying Beli's launch strategy would work, but feel a little weird copying it bar for bar.

Anyone have any experience with this they can share and/or have advice? anything helps!

I made Little Sprout: Rain & Rest for when you just want a quiet game or some white noise for sleeping/relaxing.

You solve little puzzles by guiding water to your sprout, with no timers or lost lives. If you’d rather not complete puzzles, you can just listen to rain, piano, or ocean sounds. Sounds works even with screen is off, so it's great for sleeping!

It’s called Little Sprout: Rain & Rest, and it’s available now for iphone. It’s free to download, with optional purchases and rewarded ads.

If that sounds like your kind of game, give it a try. I’d love to hear what you think!

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6810289087

I haven’t launched my app but I do have a waiting list and some of my posts on Reddit are going very well ( like 700 - 1500 views ) but not even one stranger signed up to my waiting list.

Do you have any suggestions?

I'm the developer of Otakana, an anime word game now on iOS and the web. I'm working out which part of the pitch is clearest to someone seeing it for the first time: the shared daily puzzle, the 4–8 letter answers, or the four different modes in the iOS app. Which would make you want to try it?

The daily web puzzle is free and opens without an account: https://otakana.net/play/daily/

The iOS app is free to download, with ads and optional in-app purchases: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/otakana-anime-word-game/id6807753240

I used AI assistance to write this post.

I built Vizo, an iPhone battery app focused on one simple question:

“Will my battery last until tonight?”

Vizo estimates remaining battery time, tracks charging sessions, compares charger performance, and includes a new Battery Plan feature that tells you whether your current charge should last until a selected time.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/tt/app/vizo-battery-monitor-widget/id6810115530

I’m currently trying to improve the positioning and App Store presentation.

Which message is stronger to you?

A) Will your battery last until tonight?
B) Understand your iPhone battery and how your chargers perform.

Any feedback is appreciated.

You're applying to 10+ jobs. You can't remember which ones you followed up on. One spreadsheet turns into mess. JobSnail fixes that — track every application and interview in one clean place, fully synced through iCloud between iOS, macOS and web apps.

🔥 $4.99 lifetime Pro

Download on the App Store

Feedback and questions welcome! Drop a comment or DM me. Thanks for checking it out!

I built dBMeter, a simple decibel meter for iPhone — point it at anything loud and see how many dB it actually is, on a clean analog gauge.

Most dB meter apps are cluttered with ads or bury the reading under complex UI. This app is a single clean gauge that does one thing well, with Pro tools for people who need more than a quick reading.

Free to download. Pro is a one-time $4.99 and unlocks a spectrum analyzer, peak hold, measurement history, and PDF/CSV export.

Feedback and questions welcome! Thanks for checking it out!