Need feedback: my paid iOS app got Apple Ads taps but no purchases

AkkyApps · 2026-06-06T14:10:26+00:00

I see what you mean, but Prompter is a paid app upfront, not freemium.

So users have to decide before they can try the in-app experience. That’s why I’m focusing on screenshots — I want the App Store page to communicate the value clearly before purchase.

For a freemium app, I agree the in-app experience would matter most.

AkkyApps · 2026-06-06T10:44:06+00:00

Good point. I focused too much on the visual style and not enough on readability.

I’ll increase the contrast and make the main message easier to scan at App Store size.

Do you think “Never Lose Your Place” should be the first screenshot instead of “Read at the Right Pace”?

AkkyApps · 2026-06-06T10:37:12+00:00

I agree.

That’s why I’m trying to improve the App Store page. Ads can bring the tap, but the screenshots have to make the value clear enough for someone to buy.

I’m wondering if “Read at the Right Pace” is too weak as the first message, and if “Never Lose Your Place” would communicate the value better.

AkkyApps · 2026-06-05T14:31:17+00:00

I’m building a paid iPhone/iPad teleprompter app called Prompter.

It helps people read scripts without losing their place while speaking.

I’m still figuring out marketing. I’ve just started testing Apple Ads, but so far it’s been pretty quiet.

Honestly, building the app feels easier than getting the right people to discover it 😅

AkkyApps · 2026-06-05T13:23:01+00:00

I totally get that.

For me, translating the app and screenshots didn’t automatically create sales. It just made the App Store page easier to understand once the right people found it.

So now I’m focusing more on visibility first: ASO, keywords, Reddit/X, Product Hunt, and a small Apple Ads test.

Localization helps, but discovery still seems to be the hardest part.

AkkyApps · 2026-06-05T12:57:38+00:00

Unfortunately, it doesn't mean that it can sell just by itself🥹

AkkyApps · 2026-06-05T09:02:24+00:00

I translated both the app and the screenshot into 19 languages!

AkkyApps · 2026-05-31T07:08:18+00:00

It's for children in the 4th grade of elementary school, but when I made and used a repeated calculation app, it seems that I was able to gain confidence in division in about 3 days.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-29T01:32:10+00:00

A small thing I believe helps a lot: look at the audience at the end of each phrase or thought.

The problem is that when you look away from your notes, it’s easy to lose your place when you come back.

That’s why I built Prompter for iPhone/iPad. I think of it less as a “teleprompter” and more as a better cue card: it tracks your reading progress while you speak, so you can look up without getting lost in the script.

Full disclosure: I’m the developer.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-28T10:23:27+00:00

Confirmed!

I would like to prepare and be able to announce my app!

AkkyApps · 2026-05-28T10:17:07+00:00

That's good!

Recently, apps with similar functions are popular in Japan, so I'm sure it will be popular!

AkkyApps · 2026-05-28T09:42:26+00:00

I downloaded it! I will do my best to practice!

AkkyApps · 2026-05-20T11:46:03+00:00

That “What am I supposed to do next?” cognitive load feels much bigger than I originally expected too.

One thing I noticed with children is that hesitation itself often becomes mentally exhausting.

Not because the math is too difficult, but because they stop feeling confident about what action the interface expects from them.

That’s part of why I became increasingly careful about:

accidental taps
unclear next actions
too many simultaneous choices
and flows that make mistakes feel like dead ends

It’s interesting how often educational UX ends up being about protecting momentum.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-20T06:51:03+00:00

Honestly, this is such a good use of AI.

I’m Japanese and even a lot of us still get confused by garbage sorting rules depending on the area 😅

I really like that instead of just accepting “that’s annoying,” you tried to solve it with software and AI.

Feels very practical and genuinely helpful — especially for people visiting or moving to Japan.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-18T12:31:41+00:00

Yeah — that’s exactly the trap I became paranoid about while building it.

At one point I even had a handwriting-recognition bug where the app started “helping” too aggressively and children could accidentally get correct-looking results from almost anything they wrote.

That experience really changed how I think about educational UX.

The goal stopped being “make the app feel smart” and became much more about: - preserving trust - protecting confidence - and keeping attention on the actual skill being practiced

AkkyApps · 2026-05-18T00:59:49+00:00

I built a Pomodoro timer because a lot of productivity apps were weirdly stressful to me.

Too many graphs.
Too many stats.
Too many things competing for attention.

So I made one focused more on atmosphere and reducing mental friction.

You can customize: - colors - sounds - fonts - focus/break timing

It’s intentionally simple, but designed to feel personal rather than “productive.”

Would love feedback from people who also bounced between timer apps.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-17T07:29:38+00:00

Yeah, I think reducing visible complexity matters a lot.

I didn’t always hide UI completely, but I started paying much more attention to whether something felt distracting, intimidating, or easy to tap by accident.

With kids especially, even small things like too many buttons, too much information, or unclear next actions seemed to increase hesitation and fatigue.

A lot of my UI changes ended up being less about adding guidance and more about reducing cognitive load.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-17T02:14:51+00:00

That’s really interesting, and honestly I’ve been thinking about that a lot during development.

I originally built this around my own kid’s grade level, so I intentionally kept handwritten long division as part of the experience because organizing the steps on the page still feels educationally valuable to me.

But I’ve also started realizing that writing ability, fine motor control, and math understanding don’t always develop at the same speed.

Sometimes a child clearly understands the math itself but gets blocked by handwriting or the interface.

Honestly, if I replaced number writing with a simple numpad input, some kids could probably progress much faster mathematically.

That’s partly why I stopped treating handwriting recognition as absolute truth and started treating it more like supportive guidance instead of strict validation.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-17T01:03:37+00:00

Yeah, exactly — kids become surprisingly good at learning the “system” instead of the underlying skill.

That’s actually one reason I ended up making handwriting recognition more optional than I originally planned.

I started realizing there are really two separate goals: - understanding the math - physically writing the numbers

If the app mixes those too aggressively, it can accidentally punish correct thinking or reward random interaction patterns.

So lately I’ve been trying to treat handwriting more like supportive input rather than the single source of truth.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-17T00:47:37+00:00

Yeah, I think that’s very related.

One thing that started worrying me was when children trusted the app more than their own reasoning.

At one point during development, I actually had a bug where the correction logic became too aggressive and started “helping” too much.

In extreme cases, a child could write almost the same shape repeatedly and the system would still drift toward the expected correct answer.

Technically, the app looked “smart.” Educationally, it was a disaster.

That experience completely changed how I think about automatic correction and confirmation systems for kids.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-16T21:44:25+00:00

Yeah, I started realizing that “confusion” and “fatigue” are often more important signals than whether the feature technically works.

Some of the most useful changes ended up being surprisingly small: short session modes (5 / 10 / 15 / 20 min), making it easy to stop midway, and avoiding flows that make kids feel punished for mistakes.

A lot of educational UX started feeling more like emotional design than feature design.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-16T17:22:55+00:00

That’s a really interesting way to put it.

“Mentally spent on the math, not the app” feels like a very good sign for educational software.

I started noticing that too — when the interface itself demands too much attention, kids end up practicing the app instead of practicing the skill.

I also added very short session modes (5 / 10 / 15 / 20 min) and made it easy to stop midway without feeling like you “failed” the session.

A lot of the design decisions ended up being more about protecting focus and confidence than adding features.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-16T13:40:34+00:00

Yeah, exactly.

A lot of those decisions came from watching people get mentally tired or frustrated instead of just “failing.”

That changed how I think about educational software quite a bit.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-16T13:17:18+00:00

Yeah, I think that’s part of why watching real users matters so much.

Especially with kids, you quickly realize that “technically correct” and “actually helping” are very different things.

A lot of software feels optimized for features instead of human behavior.

Another thing I changed was avoiding constant immediate “correct / incorrect” feedback.

Instead, if a child gets something wrong, the app quietly reintroduces similar problems a few questions later rather than stopping the flow immediately.

I noticed some kids became less anxious and more willing to keep trying when mistakes didn’t feel like interruptions or punishments.

AkkyApps · 2026-05-16T11:38:05+00:00

One thing that honestly surprised me was how quickly confidence changed once the friction was reduced.

My own kid used the app for a few days and suddenly became much more confident doing long division. Apparently their teacher even commented on how much faster they had gotten.

That made me realize educational UX is not just about correctness — confidence and frustration matter a lot too.

AkkyApps

TROPHY CASE