Jack Smith 👨‍💻

New app launched, it's totally free for anyone who downloads in the first month (plz rate & review ❤️). Quit sucking on your ciggies, vapes and pouches. 🔗 apps.apple.com/app/id67389188… Indie dev and app people roast my screenshots if you like I'll try not to cry

@swiftheroes_it was a ball - learned stuff, made tonnes of friends, drank a lot of coffee and ate pizza & pasta. What more could you ask for? (Nothing, the answer is nothing)

In Turin for the week for @swiftheroes_it, any indie devs/iOS devs also travelling alone and fancy hanging out, going for dinner, beer, generally chatting dev/business - drop me a DM! Let’s make new pals 👌

@hiddevdploeg Had no idea, will probs use this every day now. Thanks dude.

Here's a 1-minute (not 30-seconds, Hidde!) tutorial on how you can easily create custom SF Symbols and how to use them for everyone who needs to know!

Anyone else in the Apple small business program noticed their proceeds drop to 30% lower than their sales in AppStore Connect since the beginning of 2025? This a bug or is something going on? From what I can see we don't have to re-enrol every year, right? #iosdev #indiedev

@indieappsanta No probs, thanks for the service!

@HomeCookJack Wohooo...thank you for sharing, Jack!

I'm committing to spending 50% of my time on marketing in 2025. Got started with an @indieappsanta campaign. ~4k downloads 30 App reviews at 4.8 Increased search rankings Lots of feedback VALUE If you're an indie app dev, I recommend giving it a shot for sure. #indiedev

@DamjanDabo @tahatuna_ @indieappsanta @ItemlistApp Great result! Yeah I agree, at this point for me my currency is feedback and ratings so. I think when you consider how much it would cost (time and money) for the same amount of downloads from ASA for example then any amount of downloads above 2000 is likely worthwhile.

@HomeCookJack @tahatuna_ @indieappsanta @ItemlistApp got more than 10k downloads 2 years ago, but only a fraction of those users are still using the app. However, the feedback from them is invaluable.

@tahatuna_ @indieappsanta Free Lifetime yeah - and I don't have a solid reference point here so can't say really. Only thing I can say is that for the fee I'm happy with the results - I think my rating request timing could probably have been better though. Have you had better results?

@HomeCookJack @indieappsanta Discount or Free Lifetime? 4k downloads seems a bit low for a free lifetime offer, no?

@verderveremem That's wild, whatever happened to a free market?

My brand new palm reader app was rejected 🥲The reviewer response was market is saturated with similar apps: “Your app primarily features astrology, horoscopes, palm reading, fortune telling, or zodiac reports that duplicate the content and functionality of similar apps in a saturated category. These app features may be useful, informative, or entertaining, and your app may include features or characteristics that distinguish it. However, there are already enough of these apps on the App Store.” So keep in mind that you should avoid building such apps in the future :) #buildinpublic #buildinginpublic #iosdevs #aso #iosdevs

@verderveremem I had a similar feedback on my latest app which has a hard paywall at the end of onboarding. Was asked to specify in my description that features require additional purchase so I stated what the users can do during onboarding and what needs payment. Got accepted in the end 🤷‍♂️

i didn't know that hard paywall is forbidden. is it? #indiehackers #IndieDevs #iosdevs #aso #buildinpublic

@verderveremem At this point you could probably even sell these keywords 😂 Crazy finds.

looks like 2025 will just make me a millionaire 😄 jokes aside, i am sharing my best strategies and insight on #ASO keyword hunting. though i am not entirely sure if they are perfect, they definitely seem to be working 🚀 lets connect and grow together! 🔥 #buildinpublic #indiehackers #iosdevs #indiedevs #androiddevs #flutter

@adamlyttleapps Like this idea - like keeping a royalty. Would make me more inclined to consider selling apps.

This could actually work…

@stphndxn I’m actually considering the opposite - spend the time localising every region to see if the launch boost is magnified by this - so far the boost for my previous apps with softer launch approaches has been a bit meh

I’m curious, I’m considering launching my app in one territory first—somewhat of a soft launch—then open up in other territories a little later on. Have others done this before and if so, how did it go? #BuildInPublic #IndieDev #iOSDev

@michal_creates Thanks 👌 nice for sure! Really happy to get there with 4.8 - here’s to many more (hopefully) 🥂

@HomeCookJack 🥳 great milestone!

Woohoo - 100 ratings for BrainDeck @ 4.8 ⭐️ Now make me some money cmon

@RJMcCollam Thank you! 🙏

@HomeCookJack This is awesome, congrats 🎉

@twostraws The golden ticket - congrats!

Some personal news 🇮🇪

Here's why @RevenueCat should pick me 🙋‍♂️ for the #RCGrowthChallenge Last March I wen't indie, and shipped my first monetised app BrainDeck. I worked hard to gain a decent conversion to paid and sit on the edge of ranking in the top 5 for my target keywords. I feel like I'm sat just under the tipping point to getting big organic downloads, and who would be better to help me get over the line than @stevepyoung and RC? 🤷‍♂️ apps.apple.com/app/id64767919…

@mbrkhrdt Awesome - sent mine in, thanks a bunch 🙏

Hey indie devs, if you're planning on running a black friday app sale - please let me know! I'll be writing a story this weekend rounding up all of the deals 🙂 If you'd like to submit, send me an email michaelb@9to5mac.com with your pricing details and a quick summary of your apps top features - and please include "black friday" in the subject line. Thanks!