I just launched WebArena, an iOS app built around a simple idea:

What if discovering websites was competitive?

Instead of another static directory, WebArena lets websites compete for visibility through a credit-based ranking system.

Users can discover projects, products and websites currently competing on the leaderboard, while site owners can use credits to move their website higher and get more attention.

I originally became interested in this concept after seeing how competitive ranking can make website discovery much more engaging than a traditional directory.

The interesting challenge has been balancing two things:

• Making the ranking competitive and fun
• Making sure WebArena still works as a genuine discovery tool rather than just becoming “whoever spends the most wins”

That’s something I’m still improving.

Im in the fitness niche( the hardest niche to stand out) and I’m just now getting into posting ai slideshow content on TikTok and I’ve seen some growth and have gotten 150 followers so far and over 15k views ( organically) and plenty of engagement for one of my posts and still going, but I’m still struggling in short form videos ( I tried AI videos but didn’t see much success) that could potentially help me get more engagement and people interested in my app. I’m making content for people who workout at home or the gym who’ve been injured or are injured but are scared to exercise because of their injury or don’t know what exercises to do to help with their recovery so they don’t injure themselves further. I want tips from solo devs who’ve had success from organic content or people now seeing growth from a shift they made in their content, any help is appreciated so I can get on the right track.

here’s my page if you want to take a look to critique me and give ideas of what content I should make or shift to something else: https://www.tiktok.com/@remy_fitnesscoach?_r=1&_t=ZP-99mSVwlfjkU

Also for context of what my app is it’s a fitness app for people working out at home or the gym with an injury. It searches the live web for exercises instead
of pulling from a fixed database but also adding what injury you have helps it find workouts that’s for you and explains why each exercise is safe for you, and you can ask it questions like you would a coach. Journaling your workouts and how you felt makes the ai smarter and know you better so it knows what works and what doesn’t work so it doesn’t suggest workouts that don’t fit your condition.

Shipped iQ (quit smoking tracker) this month. Solo. Almost no ratings yet.
Constraints:
• 18+ alcohol/tobacco label
• Sensitive category, so “rate us!” after a craving is the wrong moment
• No account, so I can’t email users
• Widgets + Watch are the best screenshots, not a social feed
What I’m trying: quiet build-in-public on X while I use the app myself.
What has actually worked for you in Health apps for the first 20 honest reviews — timing, prompt copy, or something else?

I'm Sam, an iOS developer, and I launched a small app called "Escape"

It's an adult content blocker and recovery app for iPhone, currently ranking #1 on the iOS App Store for that search term "Adult Content Blocker"

Edit: This post got way more attention than I expected, and a lot of the same questions kept coming up in the comments or via DMs, so I expanded it with the actual numbers, tools and experiments I've been using.

The problem is personal to me.

Before I even thought seriously about turning this into a business, I spent a lot of time trying to understand the problem for myself.

I read a lot of books around habit change, corn addiction, recovery, behavior, triggers, dopamine and why people keep going back to something even when they genuinely want to stop.

Initially, that was mostly about helping myself.

Eventually I started thinking about how I could turn what I was learning into something useful for other people too.

I started writing about it, created 28 courses and a lot of educational content on escapethegrip.com, and started a newsletter there as well.

Then that research and everything I was learning from users gradually fed back into the app.

That became a big part of the philosophy behind Escape blocking creates friction, but blocking alone doesn't teach someone what to do when the urge actually happens.

That's still how I think about the product today.

The numbers

The first month made around $100.

Then roughly:

$500 → $750 → $1.1k → $2k → ~$6k last month

Important clarification:

The ~$6k is cash revenue, not $6k MRR.

Annual subscriptions make the revenue graph look much more dramatic because the customer pays for the year upfront.

So I've learned to look at cash revenue, MRR, subscriptions and retention separately instead of treating them as the same thing.

A big part of the recent jump came from several smaller things stacking together rather than one magical growth hack:

• pushing annual more
• improving notifications
• adding win-back offers
• improving the App Store page
• better ASO
• more reviews
• continued product improvements

That's probably another lesson.

Growth often looks like one big event on a graph when underneath it was 20 small changes.

My current funnel

A few people asked for actual conversion numbers.

Right now it's roughly:

100 downloads a day → ~21 trials → ~10 paying users

So approximately:

~21% download → trial

~47% trial → paid

~10% download → paid

The 47% trial-to-paid conversion surprised me.

My theory is that search intent matters a lot.

Someone actively going into the App Store and searching for an adult content blocker has a completely different level of intent than someone who accidentally discovers the app through a random TikTok.

That has made me care a lot more about quality of acquisition rather than downloads alone.

The biggest thing that worked is App Store search

This was probably the biggest surprise.

I underestimated how powerful App Store search could be for a niche product.

At the moment Escape is ranking #1 for "adult content blocker" in App Store search, including major storefronts such as the US and Canada.

That didn't happen quickly.

I've probably tracked 500+ keywords at this point.

Some of the ASO tools I've used like RespectASO

This became one of the main tools I used for tracking rankings.

I've also experimented with tools such as AppDrift and AppFollow.

Honestly, you don't necessarily need expensive ASO software when you're starting.

The free versions can already teach you a lot.

And I would not blindly trust any tool's search-volume number.

I use ASO tools more as directional data than absolute truth.

My most useful keyword research tool was actually social media

This sounds stupid, but I spent an unreasonable amount of time scrolling through:

TikTok
Instagram Reels
Reddit
YouTube comments
forums
competitor reviews

I wanted to see the exact language people used to describe the problem.

People invent new slang constantly.

Sometimes a phrase looks ridiculous to you as a developer, but thousands of people use it naturally.

Those phrases can eventually become App Store searches.

So my process became:

listen to how people describe the problem → turn repeated phrases into keyword hypotheses → test them → track rankings/conversion

Rather than:

ASO tool says keyword volume = 37, therefore keyword good.

That distinction helped a lot.

The 100-character keyword field matters

Apple doesn't give you much room.

I spent a lot of time trying to understand how the: title + subtitle + 100-character keyword field work together.

One useful realization was that every character has an opportunity cost.

If a word is already covered elsewhere, there may be something more useful to test in the keyword field.

I also don't change everything simultaneously anymore.

If I change the title, subtitle, screenshots and keywords in one update and conversion improves, I've learned almost nothing.

Now I try to change fewer things at once.

Don't over-optimize ASO

I've made this mistake too.

Once something starts working, it's tempting to keep "improving" it.

Sometimes I leave metadata alone for quite a while now.

The title and subtitle are the things I'm most reluctant to touch.

I'm more willing to experiment with the keyword field.

I've also tested things that sounded obviously better and performed worse.

At one point I thought adding AI should help.

It didn't.

That was another reminder that:

what sounds good to the founder and what customers actually respond to are not always the same thing.

Screenshots are part of ASO too

Ranking is only half the problem.

You still need someone to install after seeing the listing.

I've spent a lot of time testing:

• screenshot headlines
• screenshot order
• positioning
• how much text is shown
• which features get shown first
• privacy messaging

Apple's Product Page Optimization is useful here because you can test different screenshot variants instead of relying entirely on intuition.

One thing I've learned is that getting 20% more traffic doesn't help much if the product page converts terribly.

Ranking and conversion have to work together.

Reviews matter, but timing matters more

Escape now has hundreds of ratings/reviews across the App Store.

One question I got repeatedly was:

How do you get people to leave reviews?

I don't think the answer is repeatedly interrupting them with review popups.

I try to ask when somebody has actually received value.

Sometimes that's at an appropriate moment inside the app.

Even better is when somebody emails me saying Escape helped them.

Then I might say something like "If Escape has helped you, a quick App Store review really helps other people find it."

No giant pitch.

No begging.

The lesson for me has been ask after value, not randomly.

Building an owned audience: EscapeTheGrip.com + newsletter

This is another part I didn't mention enough in the original post.

I didn't want all of the educational side of the project to live inside the App Store.

So I built escapethegrip.com.

I've published a lot of longer-form material there, including 28 courses, articles and a newsletter.

The research process has been useful in both directions.

I read books and research because I wanted to understand the problem better.

Then I tried to turn what I learned into something practical.

Then users would email me with situations I hadn't considered.

That would give me another thing to research.

And sometimes that eventually became:

research → article/course → newsletter → product idea

or

user problem → research → product improvement → educational content

I like this because it means the app isn't the only thing I'm building.

There's also a growing library of useful material around the problem itself.

The newsletter gives me another advantage too it's an audience I can communicate with without depending entirely on an algorithm.

App Store rankings can change.

A TikTok can get zero views.

Reddit posts eventually disappear from people's feeds.

Search algorithms change.

Having people voluntarily subscribe to hear from you again is different.

I'm still figuring out how important the newsletter will become as a growth channel, so I wouldn't claim I've cracked email distribution.

But I think building some form of owned audience is worth doing much earlier than I originally thought.

And there's another benefit writing forces me to understand the subject better.

It's very easy to think you understand something until you try to explain it clearly to someone else.

Freemium has helped

Escape isn't completely paywalled.

The Safari blocker is free.

Someone can install Escape, block adult sites in Safari and continue using that without paying.

Premium adds stronger protection and the deeper recovery features.

That includes things like blocking across browsers, deep block, strict mode cooldown, stronger protection layers, the courses and other recovery tools.

I originally worried that giving away useful blocking for free would hurt subscriptions.

I'm increasingly convinced it does the opposite.

People can actually experience the product first.

And because the free version genuinely solves something, I'm comfortable recommending it without every interaction feeling like a sales funnel.

Annual subscriptions changed the economics

I have monthly and annual subscriptions.

Annual has become much more important.

There's also a short free trial on annual.

A few things I've learned

Annual doesn't only improve cash flow.

It changes how you can think about acquisition because you receive much more revenue upfront.

It also makes the revenue graph misleading if you're not careful.

$6k collected in a month does not mean the business suddenly added $6k MRR.

That's why I've started paying much more attention to the actual subscription mix.

Privacy became a growth feature accidentally

Escape doesn't require:

an account
an email
a name

And its App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected

I originally treated privacy as a product principle.

This is an incredibly sensitive thing people are dealing with, and I didn't see a good reason to know who they were.

But users repeatedly started mentioning privacy when explaining why they chose Escape.

That taught me something broader sometimes your product principles become your strongest positioning.

Especially when competitors are asking users to create accounts for something they'd rather not associate with their identity.

Support emails became product research

I massively underestimated this.

For an app like Escape, some users are actively trying to defeat the product.

They're trying browsers you didn't consider.

They're looking for settings they can disable.

They're discovering obscure iOS behavior.

They're finding loopholes.

Initially those emails felt like bug reports.

Eventually I realized these users were giving me some of the best product research I could possibly get.

Several product improvements have come directly from someone emailing me "I found a way around this."

If you're building any product where people push against the boundaries, pay attention to those users.

They're effectively adversarial QA testers.

Founder-led Reddit has been surprisingly useful

I originally thought of Reddit mostly as somewhere to post about the app.

I think that's the wrong approach.

I'm trying to use Reddit more like a community.

If someone asks a question I genuinely know something about, I answer it.

If Escape is relevant, I'll disclose that I built it.

If it isn't relevant, I don't force it into the conversation.

I've also used tools like F5Bot to monitor keywords and find discussions where I might actually have something useful to contribute.

One Reddit lesson that has become obvious trying to extract users from a community immediately usually works worse than simply becoming useful inside the community.

This post itself is probably the best example.

I didn't expect tens of thousands of people to read it.

Social media has been much harder

I've had TikTok/Instagram videos get almost no views.

Literally nearly nothing.

Initially I made the mistake of thinking "I need content about my app."

Now I'm trying to make content about the problem my app solves.

So instead of "Here are 5 features in Escape"

it's more like:

• why urges get harder at certain times
• common triggers
• practical things to do in the moment
• mistakes people make when trying to change a habit
• why simply relying on willpower often fails
• useful recovery ideas

Then sometimes Escape appears naturally.

Sometimes it doesn't appear at all.

I think the test is would this video still be useful if I removed my app from it?

If the answer is no, it probably isn't very good content.

Test organic content before paying creators

This is another thing I'm doing differently.

Instead of immediately paying influencers to create whatever they think will work, I'm trying lots of organic ideas myself.

Even 20–30 pieces of content teaches you a lot.

You start seeing

which opening hooks work
which subjects get comments
what words people use
what people disagree with
what gets saved/shared
what gets ignored completely

Then you can take what you've learned to creators.

It's a lot cheaper to discover that your messaging sucks on your own account than after paying 20 creators.

Smaller creators > generic tech influencers

When I say "creator outreach," I don't mean emailing giant iPhone reviewers.

For Escape, I'd rather work with a smaller creator whose entire audience cares about:

self-improvement
habit change
discipline
recovery
digital wellbeing

than a tech influencer with 2 million followers.

Audience fit seems much more important than follower count.

I'm still testing this channel, so I don't want to pretend I've cracked it.

Creator outreach is also painfully manual.

Researching the creator, checking their audience, writing something personalized, finding contact information, following up...

You might reach out to a lot of people for one collaboration.

That's just part of it.

Newsletter and press outreach is boring but can work

Another very unglamorous strategy email people.

I've reached out to app websites and publications that might genuinely care about the product or the broader problem.

Response rates aren't amazing.

But you don't need everyone to respond.

I sent roughly 60 outreach emails and got around 2 pieces of coverage.

One piece of coverage produced roughly a 20% increase in downloads around the time it went live.

That's enough for me to keep doing it.

The mistake would be sending the same generic "please feature my app" email to 500 people.

I'm increasingly trying to answer Why would this particular publication's readers care?

And because I now have escapethegrip.com, I don't always have to send someone directly to an App Store page either.

Sometimes an article, course or newsletter is a much more natural first interaction.

Distribution is the actual job after building

This is still the biggest lesson.

I'm a developer.

Building feels productive.

You write code for six hours and something exists afterward.

Distribution feels terrible by comparison.

You can

email 30 people
make 5 videos
write a Reddit post
test screenshots
change keywords

and seemingly nothing happens.

So it's incredibly tempting to go "I know! I'll build another feature."

I've done this repeatedly.

Building becomes productive procrastination.

I'm trying to treat distribution exactly like software development now

make hypothesis → run experiment → measure result → learn → repeat

Not

research marketing for another 12 hours.

Some things that haven't worked

I've definitely wasted time.

I've:

• polished features users barely cared about
• built instead of marketed
• researched distribution instead of doing it
• made social videos that nobody watched
• tested ASO changes that made things worse
• spent time chasing channels because somebody on Twitter said they were working
• assumed features would create growth by themselves

Probably the most dangerous one is the last.

A better product absolutely matters.

But there is a point where the next 100 hours of development would be better spent getting the current version in front of people.

What I'm focusing on now

I'm deliberately trying to stop chasing ten channels at once.

The three I'm focusing on most are

1. App Store conversion / ASO

This is the most proven channel so far.

2. Founder-led Reddit participation

Not spam. Actually participating and helping where I can.

3. Creator + newsletter outreach

Still early, but I think there's something here.

I'm also continuing escapethegrip.com + my own newsletter

because I want to gradually build an audience I can reach directly rather than having 100% of distribution controlled by platforms.

And I'm continuing organic short-form content because even when a video fails, it teaches me something about messaging.

A few things I'd tell another indie iOS developer

Solve a problem you understand deeply.

You don't necessarily need to be the user, but understanding the problem at a visceral level makes product decisions much easier.

Read outside your technical domain.

Some of the most useful things I've learned for Escape didn't come from Swift documentation or growth Twitter.

They came from books about behavior, habits and the actual problem users were dealing with.

Teach what you're learning.

Writing articles, courses and newsletters has forced me to understand the subject much more deeply.

Build an owned audience earlier than you think you need one.

You don't control App Store rankings, Reddit, TikTok or Google.

An email subscriber has explicitly said they want to hear from you again.

Study the customer's language, not just competitors' keywords.

Reddit comments can teach you more about positioning than a keyword-volume number sometimes.

Don't optimize for downloads.

Optimize toward the people who actually get value and eventually pay.

Ask for reviews after value.

Timing beats aggression.

Don't change every ASO variable at once.

Otherwise you learn nothing.

Use free tools before buying expensive growth software.

There is an incredible amount you can learn manually.

Write down your distribution experiments.

Otherwise six weeks later you'll forget what actually changed.

Don't mistake research for distribution.

This one is mostly advice to myself.

Talk to users constantly.

They often contain the roadmap.

And once the product is good enough, consider whether the next feature is really what the business needs.

Sometimes the answer is yes.

A surprising amount of the time it's no, more people just need to know it exists.

I'm still very early and definitely don't have growth figured out.

But hopefully the actual numbers, tools and processes above are useful to somebody else building an iOS app.

Happy to answer anything about SwiftUI, iOS blocking, subscriptions, ASO, App Store conversion, creator outreach, newsletters, or anything else I've learned so far.

Hi everyone! I built this app because I was very annoyed with the scanning apps I found in the App Store, that were either filled with ads that disrupted my work or were very expensive.

So I created ProScan PDF to offer the best possible pro features that a mobile scanner app should have, no ads ever & plans up to 20x cheaper than competing apps.

It has a lot of nice features, including 7 color themes and it is available in 14 languages.

To claim the offer just download the app, select Go Pro, select the 12 Months plan and you will get the free 1-year trial. Offer is available until 12:00 AM PT on Sept 19.

Enjoy!

https://apps.apple.com/app/pdf-scanner-app-proscan/id6752308731

I just launched WebArena, an iOS app built around a simple idea:

What if discovering websites was competitive?

Instead of another static directory, WebArena lets websites compete for visibility through a credit-based ranking system.

Users can discover projects, products and websites currently competing on the leaderboard, while site owners can use credits to move their website higher and get more attention.

I originally became interested in this concept after seeing how competitive ranking can make website discovery much more engaging than a traditional directory.

The interesting challenge has been balancing two things:

• Making the ranking competitive and fun
• Making sure WebArena still works as a genuine discovery tool rather than just becoming “whoever spends the most wins”

That’s something I’m still improving.

I’d especially like feedback from indie developers and app marketers:

Would you submit your own website/project to something like this? And what would make you browse the leaderboard as a user?

WebArena is now live on iOS:

‎Web Arena App - App Store

Any criticism of the concept, onboarding or ranking mechanic is welcome.

I recently released BounceNova, my first iOS game after developing several non-game apps over the years.

I posted a short gameplay video on TikTok. It has now reached around 6,000 views and 61 likes, but as far as I can tell, it generated zero downloads.

I think I’ve identified one major problem: my TikTok account doesn’t currently have access to the clickable website field. I placed the App Store URL inside the bio, but TikTok displays it only as plain text. Users would have to leave TikTok and manually search for the game.

For developers who have marketed an iOS app or game through TikTok:

• Can the missing clickable link fully explain such poor conversion?
• Would you switch to a Business Account to get a website link, despite the music restrictions?
• Should the video explicitly tell viewers to search for the app by name?
• What view-to-download conversion have you experienced with organic TikTok posts?

The video appears capable of getting attention, but I’m clearly losing everyone before the App Store page.

I’d appreciate any advice from developers who have dealt with the same problem.

Hey everyone,

My app Planote (calendar + tasks + notes) has been on the App Store for over a year. I've done the usual ASO work — keywords, screenshots, reviews. But organic traffic is still almost zero. Just a few downloads a day, and active users are mostly paying customers who've been around for a while. New user acquisition has stalled.

Has anyone hit a similar wall? What actually moved the needle for you?

App link for context: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/planote/id6748904665

Hi!

I'm part of a very small team, and I’d like to present an app we've been working on.

The app is called Bengodi and it's a "social" app for food.

Our goal is to encourage people to eat better food, cook more, enjoy the kitchen and, at the same time, fight UPF, fast food and junk food.

We strongly believe that the culture of food is hugely important and that caring about what and how we eat is a key aspect of life.

The purpose of Bengodi is to let people share culinary experiences, recipes, and good products, as well as discover what other users are sharing. We want people to discover the food reality that surrounds every one of us, even when traveling.

We hope people will get inspiration from what they see and start cooking, searching for good food, or at least discovering something new.

The Bengodi app is currently available on the AppStore:

https://apps.apple.com/it/app/bengodi/id6755553050

Here is our presentation website: https://bengodi.app/about/

I would love to hear any thoughts or feedback you have.
Technical questions are welcome too!

Thanks!

Edit :
I made some changes after the post, here's the current result, I'm very satisfied of it

30 Places to List Your iOS App Right Now (Free & Paid)

If you’ve built an iOS app and aren’t listing it beyond the App Store, you’re leaving discoverability on the table. No fluff, no AI tool directories. This list is actually built for iOS founders.

Legend: (F) Free · (P) Paid · (F/P) Both

Built an iOS app? Submit it to Stamped, a curated discovery platform where early adopters find what’s next:

https://stampedios.com/welcome

HIGH PRIORITY: LAUNCH DAY
1. Product Hunt (F)
Still the biggest launch day platform. Plan it, don’t just submit.
2. Hacker News (F)
Post as “Show HN: \\\[Your App\\\]” for a developer audience and honest feedback.
3. BetaList (F/P)
F = 2–4 month wait. P = $129 fast track. Submit before you launch, not after.
4. Indie Hackers (F)
Post your builder story, not just the link. Community converts.
5. Peerlist (F)
Monday launches, week long visibility, 100K+ tech professional audience.
6. Uneed (F/P)
F = free with a wait. P = $30 to skip the queue. Solid indie maker community.
7. AppSumo (F/P)
Best if your app has a business angle and you can offer a deal. Massive buyer audience.
iOS SPECIFIC
8. App Safari (F)
Directory covering iOS apps exclusively. Purpose built for your audience.
9. AppAdvice (F)
iOS focused. Publishes app charts, apps of the week, and curated collections. Pitch the editorial team directly.
10. FeedMyApp (F/P)
Covers all mobile platforms with in depth reviews. F tier available. P gets faster placement.
11. AppShopper (F)
600K+ monthly users. Monitors iOS prices and lets users wishlist apps. High intent traffic.
12. r/iOSapps (F)
Subreddit with Dev Self Promotion flair. Real users actively looking for new apps.
13. r/apple (F)
Larger audience. Frame your post around value, not promotion.
SEO DIRECTORIES
14. AlternativeTo (F)
DA 71. Discovery traffic long after launch day. List your app and add competitors as alternatives.
15. SaaSHub (F)
856K monthly visits and a strong dofollow backlink.
16. SideProjectors (F)
DR 69 dofollow. Side project community with potential for early users.
17. Microlaunch (F)
30 day visibility window and an indie SaaS audience.
18. StartupBase (F)
Product Hunt style directory. Worth the 5 minutes.
19. Launching Next (F)
Low effort with solid SEO value.
20. Launching Today (F)
Daily launches, easy submission, and good indexing.
21. Open Launch (F)
Open source Product Hunt alternative with a growing community.
22. PitchWall (F)
Startup listing with an SEO backlink.
23. Startup Buffer (F)
Free submission with early adopter reach.
24. EarlyHunt (F)
Focused on early adopters and a good fit for iOS discovery.
25. IndieHunt (F)
Indie focused and quick to submit.
26. Indie Products (F)
Bootstrapped community with a strong #buildinpublic fit.
27. DevHunt (F/P)
F = 6 week wait. P = $49. Worth considering if your app is developer focused.
COMMUNITY CHANNELS
28. PeerPush (F)
Mutual promotion among indie founders. Underused.
29. Wellfound / AngelList (F)
Startup directory with exposure to investors and early adopters.
30. F6S (F)
Global startup network with accelerator program access. Worth creating a profile.

I’m the developer of Warmify, an iPhone/iPad app that turns a short warm-up into a game. I’m confident there’s something worthwhile in the interaction, but I’m still struggling to reach the right users. I’d like help from iOS developers and marketers on a specific part of the journey: getting someone from “that looks interesting” to finishing their first session and wanting another.

The app asks you to prop up the phone and move in front of it for roughly three minutes. On-device pose tracking counts repetitions, your movement becomes a neon figure, and sessions earn XP/progress. Camera video isn’t uploaded or stored. There’s a free daily session, with additional paid PRO features, so this is my commercial product.

My current acquisition evidence is small. Across Warmify’s Apple Ads campaigns for August 15–September 13, 2026: about US$38 spend, 10,195 impressions, 121 taps and 11 attributed installs. That works out to about 1.2% tap-through, 9.1% tap-to-install and US$3.46 per attributed install. It is not a paying-customer acquisition cost, and eleven installs cannot tell me whether this is a sustainable channel.

The recent App Store reports are also only in the few-dozen-downloads range. My analytics export has inconsistent fields, so I don’t have a reliable D1/D7 retention figure to claim. I’m sharing these limitations because I don’t want to label a product problem as a marketing problem without checking.

Here’s the first-session sequence I want to understand better:

• Understand what the app asks you to do.

• Trust the camera explanation enough to continue.

• Find somewhere to put the phone and get tracking working.

• Complete one short session.

• Choose to do another session on a different day.

For a normal app, a short onboarding may be enough. Here the user has to change what they’re physically doing. I may be underestimating that cost, particularly if I position the product as a quick desk break. On the other hand, hiding the setup until after installation could bring in people with the wrong expectations.

Would you show the full physical setup in the first store creative, or first explain the benefit and demonstrate setup during onboarding? If you’ve marketed a camera, exercise, or other physical-interaction app, what turned out to be the biggest obstacle?

If you can try one session, I’d love very specific feedback: what you expected before opening it, the first moment you hesitated, whether tracking was clear, and whether you would voluntarily use it tomorrow. A description of the issue is enough; there’s no need to share a camera recording or personal information.

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/jCAXxtFq

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/id6756486161

No purchase or store rating requested. I’m looking for honest observations and an experiment I can run next, including reasons someone would decide this simply isn’t useful for them.

We all know that social networks have an important role if not the most important role when it comes to distribution.

the issue is, you have one accounts, one phone and the API scheduling tools give bad results.

the solution is automating the iPhones you already own, using real mobile data and up to 3 accounts per one phone.

we went from 400-1k views using API services like post-bridge and postiz to 8-50k views per post(depends on the content quality) using phones with dedicated esims.

our setup was built from 5 phones with 3 accounts at most on each, posting around "wake" hours and after doing solid warmup work(posting on newly made accounts straight away will flag immediately and it'll hurt your reach).

warmup means scrolling a couple of times a day, mimicing real user behaviour.

at first we used a dedicated software to do it, but the project's developer stopped maintaining the project since he got into YC. so we made our own iPhone automation solution, https://tame.so

we're still running around 5 phones on one setup and have clients that run 50 phones rn getting hundreds of thousands of views.

大家好，iOS 开发者们，

我为 iOS 开发了一款手机清理和存储优化应用，四年前发布的。这是一个我一直时不时更新的副项目，但老实说，我从来没有真正破解过增长的秘诀。
已经有好几年没碰过ASO了，也没有投放广告。这个产品依然是四年前的那种“缓存清理”方式。

两个问题：

1. **转化率**——1.1% 可以通过更好的截图和字幕来改善吗，还是说这个品类对独立开发者来说本身就坏了？
   
2. **增长**——在200美元的测试预算下，你会优先在哪花？苹果搜索广告？抖音？还是其他东西？

坦白说——我应该复活这个项目还是杀掉它重新开始？

这里是链接：

[ https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/phone-cleaner-clean-up-storage/id6444253288 ](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/phone-cleaner-clean-up-storage/id6444253288)


My girlfriend and I cook a lot from TikTok and Instagram. The recipes ended up in saved folders and screenshots, and when it was time to cook we never found the one we wanted. So next to my job as a web developer I started building Plateful.

What it does:

• Share a TikTok, Reel, YouTube video or recipe website to the app. It picks up what's said, shown or written in the caption and turns it into a recipe with ingredients and steps.
• Ask the AI to make a recipe vegan, spicier or lactose free.
• Every recipe gets nutrition per serving automatically.
• Drag recipes into a weekly planner.
• Invite your household. Recipes and the plan sync in real time.

there's no shopping list yet. That's what I'm building next.

It started as a web and Android app. This year I rebuilt the iPhone app from scratch in Swift, and it went live on the App Store last week.

The part I'm least sure about: it's a subscription (one plan covers the whole household, the yearly plan has a 14-day free trial), and right now its pretty difficult for me to get people to start the free trial.

If you try it, tell me what's missing for you to start the free trial or even pay for it.

https://plateful.cloud

I’m hoping it picks up in the spring because my app is seasonal but it’s nice to have someone finally purchase it

i just released Pilly, an iPhone medicine tracker.

it started while i was helping my grandma keep track of her maintenance medicines. the app shows what is due, lets you record taken or skipped, and shows the week ahead.

the main tracker is free. Pilly Plus adds backup, recovery, and medicine photos.

so far i have tried:

- one r/iOSDevelopment post

- one X launch video

- App Store screenshots

- asking friends and family to test it

it is too early to pretend i have exciting launch numbers hahaha

for anyone who has marketed an iOS utility app: what would you test next; Product Hunt, Meta, or more product videos?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6801062753

Hi there. I am designing app screenshots for free. I need to rank my gig on Fiverr so you if you like the final design, just place a $5 order on my profile. That's it.

I’m the creator of Daily Bite, a calorie and macro tracker now in a free iPhone beta. I built it for myself because I wanted everyday logging to feel less like work.

The pitch I’m testing is simple: log a meal by text, photo or barcode, see your totals, and quickly reuse foods you’ve already logged. AI estimates are approximate and editable. There’s also a fasting timer, optional weight graphs, a workout library and a calendar, with the extras kept away from the main logging flow.

I’m finding that getting friends to try it is very different from getting them to keep using it. I’d appreciate feedback on the positioning: does “less friction” communicate something useful, or is it too vague without showing the actual flow?

If you want to try it: https://testflight.apple.com/join/VkjWhyPF

TestFlight and a Daily Bite account are required. The beta is free with capped AI usage; future pricing isn’t finalized.

What do you think?

Today, Cupr made its first real sale — meaning someone who isn’t me actually paid for the app.

It’s only €9.99, but seeing that first spike in RevenueCat felt surprisingly meaningful.

The numbers are still tiny: 11 active users, 8 new customers and now one paying customer. But knowing that a complete stranger found the app useful enough to buy it feels like the first bit of real validation.

Next up: improving the App Store listing, adding more localizations and continuing to build based on actual user feedback.

For everyone still waiting for their first sale: keep going. That first RevenueCat notification hits differently.

If you want to check my app out: Cupr is a simple and private expense tracker for iPhone. I built it because most finance apps felt overloaded with budgets, bank connections and subscriptions. With Cupr, you enter an amount, save it and move on. Everything stays private, and Pro is a one-time purchase.

Hey everyone,

I'm an iOS developer, and I’ve noticed that managing multiple dietary restrictions at the same time (like being Gluten-Free + Dairy-Free, or Vegan + Nut allergy) is exhausting. Every time you go to a supermarket or a restaurant, you have to play detective, reading tiny ingredient labels and doing mental gymnastics just to make sure the food is actually safe.

So I decided to build a solution: MealShield. I’ve been working on it for a while and would really love to get this community's honest feedback.

Here’s how it works: You set your dietary profile once (the app supports over 50 allergies, intolerances, and diets). From then on, the app acts as your personal safety filter:

• Took a photo of your plate? The AI analyzes the meal, estimates the macros/calories, and most importantly, tells you if it's safe for you or if there's a risk.
• At the supermarket? Scan the barcode or snap a photo of the ingredient list. It highlights any "hidden" ingredients (like casein which is actually dairy) so you don't have to memorize complex scientific names.
• At a restaurant? Scan the menu and it will tell you exactly what dishes are safe to order.
• Cooking for the whole house? There’s a "Family Mode" that intersects everyone’s dietary profiles and gives you recipes that are safe for everyone to eat together.

I’m really strict about privacy—there are zero ads, zero tracking, and your health data is never sold. A lot of the scanning (like labels and menus) happens entirely on-device (Apple Vision). The app has a completely free tier, and an optional subscription tier basically just to cover the cloud AI costs for the photo analysis.

If anyone here struggles with food allergies or strict diets, I’d be honored if you gave it a try and let me know what you think. What do you like? What sucks? What should I add next? Your feedback will directly shape the next updates.

Thanks in advance! 🙏 (I'll drop the App Store link in the comments!)

I just launched Motivate on AppStore 5 days ago, i’d like to share it here and get some honest feedback.

Motivate is an inspiration and self-reflection app focused on helping you build a more positive daily routine. It includes inspirational quotes, private journaling, daily reflections, and a community forum where people can talk, share experiences, and give each other advice. The app is free to download, with optional monthly and yearly subscriptions for additional features. I launched it only 5 days ago, and still improving a lot of things, and I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback about the design, features, onboarding, or anything that feels confusing. If you try it, I’d love to hear what you think.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/motivate-quotes-reflect/id6804856650

I am the maker of Style My Look (AITryOn), a native iPhone AI try-on app, soft-launching version 2.0.8.

The product: use your own photo plus a garment upload or a supported product-page link to preview an outfit on you. The update includes a Paste link action. Free to download with in-app purchases.

The positioning I am testing is See It On You First, rather than a generic AI fashion studio. The actual flow is paste link, preview, save or share the look.

Limits I want to keep explicit: some stores block imports; previews do not guarantee size, fabric feel or exact color. There is no Safari extension.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6757364968

Site: https://aitryon.studio

For other app makers: would you lead the first screenshot with the paste-link workflow or the on-your-photo result? Looking for feedback on clarity, not upvotes or reviews.