this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023

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My wife's app went viral on X and made $233 in one day (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by amani_art@alien.top to c/sideproject@indiehackers.space

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It all started when my wife sent me this photo in January of 2022

https://preview.redd.it/rx8iowipvt2c1.jpg?width=591&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f6eb8c05f3c35a49cd6c8c88ffca171cd2778ad

She asked if i can turn this into an app for her. I said yeah sure thing babe! I'll be done in a week. 😅

Well... 10 months later, and i kept procrastinating until December of 2022 when i eventually started design and development of the app.

It was my first build in public product. You can follow the journey on X . When i started i didn't expect anything really it was a FREE app. But People following my journey loved the app and the idea behind it. So i kept posting and updating my audience.

A couple months after i launched, people started asking for premium features like cross platform support, sync / backup, rich text formatting, image attachment etc.

I quickly added those and added a paywall as well. I had to go down this path, since these features would require a server for them to work.

Fast forward 11 months later someone made this post about the app on X and it went viral. Generating 400k+ views, 400+ quotes in one day.

24hrs after the app went viral:

23 Purchases

$222 Revenue

1,061 Installs

https://preview.redd.it/qrxo5tzwzt2c1.jpg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f398ec669b66d13f73d85c8683c1b714dadf7d80

This blew my mind. I didn't imagine the app to go viral or generate this much revenue in a single day.

I guess what they say is true. Just build something useful and people would come.

!The app is called Obim - Which means my heart in my native language.!<

!Available for download on iOS and Android!<

top 48 comments

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[–] CalendarExpert7578@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

One of the dumbest things ive ever seen

[–] alerenn@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Such an amazing idea good work

[–] sweetbytes00@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Cool, good luck with it!

So now I'm curious, what is your native language? (you said Obim means my heart in your native language)

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ikwerre language from Rivers state, Nigeria.

[–] sweetbytes00@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks! Now I spent about an hour of my morning on youtube listening to Ikwerre music and conversations. Beautiful language and interesting history!

[–] tontodi@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I believe it's igbo

[–] Coz131@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Congrats, this is a the kind of project that suits here imo. The design is very beautiful.

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Thank you for the kind words

[–] Tintedlemon@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Love this - congrats to you both!

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Thank you.

[–] MagicalVagina@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This seems to be extremely similar to Daylio which is already really popular (10M+ downloads)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.daylio

[–] Alfagun74@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I hate people suggesting more popular alternatives in this sub. So what? There's two pizza restaurants in the same street in every larger city of the world too. Competition is always good.

[–] MagicalVagina@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm not saying competition is bad. I'm simply saying this is going to be very difficult without having some competitive advantage of some sort. Competitor analysis is the first thing you should be doing.

[–] PickleSavings1626@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Who cares tho? I make apps for my own enjoyment lol. Not to be over competitive and crush my enemies. It’s just a mood tracker brah.

[–] tennytwothumbs@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Looks great, but the continue button on Android (where it displays the pro version during onboarding) appears to be broken. The loading spinner appears and disappears quickly and I'm returned to the same screen.

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I've pushed a new update to Playstore it should be up in a couple hours.

[–] si_the_programmer@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Looks awesome, it's such a great feeling when you create an app and people start to use it and support it.

Best of luck :)

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I'm using RC Kit. It's a revenue cat client

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah it truly is. I'm so grateful for the experience.

[–] LeRosbif49@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Fantastic work. I can’t get twatter to open properly on my phone. Did you design all the components or use a component library?

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oops sorry about that. I designed and built everything from scratch.

[–] LeRosbif49@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Well this makes me even more envious. Again, great work

[–] 87thesid@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What is the app you are using to track purchases/conversions?

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm using RC Kit. It's a revenue cat client

[–] 87thesid@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks! I’ll have to give it a shot!

[–] brave_cocopop@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hiya what tech stack did you use?

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Ionic / CapacitorJS & React

[–] Captain-Random-6001@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Cool story and I have to say I love the UI! What are your future plans with the app?

[–] notfrontpage@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Here’s why it went viral.

The comment “There’s levels to this romance thing” combined with “I, made this app to help my wife document, and rate her mood”

Good job.

[–] Kingoftheblokes@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

"Obim - my heart" I'm guessing you're Igbo. How far boss? Congrats on going viral.

[–] thuurvdp@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Nice story and so cool you made this with your SO.

[–] ManaPot@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

You just made me realize that there is the name "JASON" in the abbreviated months. Neat!

[–] peeshivers243@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Just downloaded and will be trying this out. Thank you.

[–] autotom@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

400k+ views -> 23 purchases seems like there's potential to improve conversion

[–] fakehalo@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

It'd be cool to keep that original graph paper/color pencil look in the UI.

[–] UltimateD123@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Trash monetization. Only option is subscription.

[–] wnwentland@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

??? I didn’t subscribe and am using it. Only thing i care about that i can’t do is post pictures to journals it seems. Might upgrade if i find myself using it in a week

[–] UltimateD123@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Subscriptions to things like this are predatory. Either charge a one time fee of $9.99 or go the free route. There’s no reason a subscription here is necessary except hoping people forget to cancel. It’s trash.

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what this person's problem is. Everything works without paying for anything. The premium features are mostly server backed and requires money to keep it running.

Things like auto backup and cross platform syncing won't work without a server.

BTW Thank you for checking out the app.

[–] Alfagun74@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Screw him.

[–] Beneficial-Sign-569@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Yup time to leave 0 star ratings. Sorry, Not sorry OP.

[–] Bon_Visions@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

It's amazing that the first project achieved such great success!

I guess, was it implemented using Flutter?

[–] bohdan-v@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

Wow, cool!!!

[–] Boy_Boss@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I remember seeing the original post! So cool to see this follow up one.

[–] Educational_Gap_6030@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

I downloaded your app, and it looks as first good app for mood tracking, calendar looks very informative and motivates to fill it out

[–] SuperHumanImpossible@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

X, lmfao

[–] Impossible_Map_2355@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is so cool… had a lot of black and red days for the first part of the year. Would have been cool to see it slowly fade back into color.

[–] amani_art@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

It would have. Perhaps you could start again next month.