I think I failed with my first app. Would appreciate honest feedback.
Hi everyone, I want to ask for some genuine feedback about an app I built.
The reason I made this app was actually because of my wife.
She has been trying to lose weight for quite some time and goes to the gym pretty often, but her progress was always on and off. One thing I noticed was… every time she went to the gym, she still spent a lot of time scrolling her phone between workouts.
So I had this random idea:
“What if some apps on the phone can only be unlocked after you burn enough calories?”
That idea became the app I’m building now.
The intention was never to punish or control people.
I just wanted to create a small system where you finish your workout first, then you earn your screen time after that.
To be honest, when I first built it, I thought maybe this idea could help other people too.
Here’s the app if anyone wants to see what I mean:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/burnscroll-screen-time-control/id6758544932
I’m not a big company or funded startup. I’m just building this on my own and trying to learn as I go. After launching, I tried running Apple Search Ads, worked on ASO, and even localized the app into 13 different languages.
I also honestly hope that one day I can make some income from software I build myself.
The app has been live for almost 2 months already, but the numbers are honestly pretty depressing. When I browse Reddit, I see indie developers sharing how they got 100+ downloads in a single day, while my app barely gets noticed even after weeks.
Sometimes it honestly makes me wonder whether I’m doing something completely wrong.
That’s why I’m here asking for help instead of pretending everything is okay.
Is the app not good enough?
Is the UI ugly?
Is the idea itself too niche?
Or maybe there’s simply no real demand for this type of product?
I’m posting here because I know Reddit has a lot of experienced people — indie hackers, developers, designers, marketers, founders — and I feel like I can probably learn more from honest strangers here than from people around me.
You don’t need to sugarcoat anything.
If you think the app sucks, please just tell me honestly.
I would genuinely rather hear real criticism than keep building in the wrong direction without realizing it.
I’m still learning, and I really want to understand whether this is something worth improving, or whether I should take the lessons and move on to build something better next time.
Would really appreciate any honest thoughts or feedback. 🙏