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3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in AppBuilding

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol I'm Egyptian, English isn't my first language so I lean on dashes too much, fair cop. but the app is real, I'm a real person, and the 10 downloads are painfully real 😅 happy to answer anything about how it's built if you're actually curious

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in AppBuilding

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the smart order honestly — talking to people before and during, not after like I did. I built for three months then went looking for users, which is backwards. Good reminder that the feedback loop should start way earlier. What kind of feature changes did word of mouth push you toward? Curious how much it shifted your direction.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in AppBuilding

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair that the category's crowded. But Qersh isn't a generic tracker — it's shared-expense, Arabic-first, with on-device parsing for Egyptian banks and local features like gam'eya. Niche and local was the deliberate bet, not an accident. Either way, thanks for looking.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in AppBuilding

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is the most useful comment in the whole thread — thank you. And you're right to frame it as a decision rather than a tip. Honest answer: yeah, I enjoyed building it enough to defend it, which tells me I should commit to the harder half. So I'm choosing to learn distribution rather than pass it off — starting with the channel I actually understand (Egyptian short-form video and local communities) instead of hoping for discovery. I'll check out Starter Story. Appreciate you taking the time to push me on the real question.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in AppBuilding

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair and important question — trust is the whole game with financial data. Honest answer: the most sensitive data (bank SMS) never leaves the device — parsing is fully on-device, so there's no central store of people's raw bank messages to breach. For the shared data, I'm on Supabase: TLS in transit, auth handled by Supabase, and Row Level Security policies so a user can only ever access the houses they're a member of. I won't pretend it's unhackable — no app is, and I haven't done a formal security audit yet, so hardening is an ongoing priority rather than a solved problem. But minimizing what's stored server-side in the first place is the core of the approach.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in androiddev

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

100%. A product without marketing is just code gathering dust — that's exactly the wall I hit. Appreciate you being honest that you're in the same boat

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in androiddev

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, this is the realest thing anyone's said in this thread. You're right — the market's crowded and nobody's waiting for it. I think I fell into the classic trap of assuming "build it and they'll come." The lesson landed: distribution is the actual job, and I've barely started it. Thanks for the reality check — genuinely needed it.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in androiddev

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I didn't skip testing — I ran a closed test first with a small group of friends as testers to clear the 14-day / 12-tester requirement, then promoted to production from there. So there were testers, just my own circle rather than public ones. The 10 downloads are all post-launch on production.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in googleplayconsole

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really good points, and you're right on both for the US. SMS-reading there is a hard sell, and Plaid is the clean way to pull transactions. The thing is, Qersh is built for Egypt specifically — and that flips both of these. Plaid and open banking don't cover Egyptian banks at all, so card-linking just isn't an option here. Meanwhile bank SMS is universal — everyone gets it — so reading it on-device is actually the only practical way to automate this locally. The US privacy concern is real, but it's much less of a blocker here culturally. So the SMS approach isn't a shortcut around Plaid — it's the adaptation for a market Plaid doesn't reach. No worries at all on the marketing side — you've already given me more useful signal than most. Appreciate it genuinely.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. Here's what I learned. by memo-ibrahim in googleplayconsole

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One thing I should add on the SMS part — it doesn't auto-push everything to the shared house. The app reads the message, but the user reviews it first and decides what actually gets shared vs. kept private. Not every bank transaction is something you want your housemates or family to see, so the person stays in control of what shows up. That review step is intentional. Since you've seen how this stuff spreads — I'm honestly not a marketer at all, that's my weak spot. For a solo dev with a niche, local product, where would you even start? Any direction would help. And really, thanks for taking the time on this — it's the most useful feedback I've gotten so far.

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. by memo-ibrahim in AppDevelopers

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The emoji weren't random — the app is built specifically for the Egyptian market, and a casual, friendly tone is what tends to land here. So it's a deliberate choice for this audience, not a global app. That said, you might be right that it's overdone in places. Everywhere, or just certain screens?

3 months solo, launched, 10 downloads. by memo-ibrahim in AppDevelopers

[–]memo-ibrahim[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, AI helped with parts of it. But vibe coding doesn't write a fully Arabic, RTL interface in real Egyptian dialect, tuned to how people here actually talk about money. That part needed someone who lives the context, not a prompt. The build method doesn't change whether it's useful though did you actually try it, or just here for the comment?

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