... want to reduce their screen time or build better focus habits is honestly a weird loop. Every place where indie makers hang out (Twitter, Reddit, PH) is engineered for maximizing engagement. For those of you building tools around digitalwellbeing or focus: how are you actually finding your first users without contributing to the exact noise you're trying to help people escape ...

... auth its just device id stored in keychain no accounts needed which keeps onboarding super minimal biggest challenge has been text extraction different sites block scrapers differently. revenucat for subscriptions has been great tbh, saves a ton of time vs rolling your own Comment from Ryan Hendrickson(@ryan_hendrickson): @iamdhaven  Interesting about departures.to, I had never heard of that platform. I'll have to look at that for one of my own apps. Agree with you on the experience ... ... imagine you're thinking about a backend to enable storage and collaboration features down the line? Comment from Ryan Hendrickson(@ryan_hendrickson): @maria_vannicola  Nice! Was there something that brought you to use Firebase over other alternatives

... most present? I would say that for attention etc, the best are IG and X :) Comment from Nakajima Ryoma(@nakajima_ryoma): As a solo developer, I'm doing both simultaneously. I'm building Tomosu (an iOS app for digitalwellbeing), and my personal brand as the founder is inseparable from it. People trust the person before the product especially in the wellness space. What I've found: sharing my personal story of why I built it resonates far more than ...

... alerts with immediate location sharing, or scheduled automatic check-ins, put the power to signal for help directly in the user's hands. It transforms the app from a monitoring tool into a personal safety device. DigitalWellbeing Insights (Not Just Snooping) For parents, it s not just about location. It s about context. Modern platforms can analyze patterns in device usage like a sudden spike in late-night screen time or a complete drop in social app activity ...

... about context, communication, and proactive insights. Dedicated platforms build on location to offer what generic tools can't: Predictive Routines: Learning that a late ping from soccer practice is normal, but a stop on an unfamiliar street is not. DigitalWellbeing Features: Extending care beyond physical location to screen time or app usage patterns. Multi-Member Management: A single dashboard for the whole family's safety, not just individual device tracking. We built Number Tracker for families who need ...

... comments here were really helpful to me. Comment from Nakajima Ryoma(@nakajima_ryoma): Nika, great timing on this! I'm in almost the same boat launching Tomosu today on PH (an iOS app that locks apps by default for digitalwellbeing). Your point about "reach out to founders of similar products" is exactly why I'm here. The tips in this post are gold. Rooting for your re-launch too! Comment from Douglas Li(@dougli): @byalexai  This is fantastic ...

... question you have! Comment from Purva Gupta(@purva_guptaa): @rohanrecommends  Thanks for pointing out the gap. PS I know I'm biased but our model works best and can actually offer in-depth insights that no current competitor is currently matching. I'll somehow integrate that in my tagline. :) Comment from Purva Gupta(@purva_guptaa): ChatGPT but for your Meta Ads Manager Comment from Tom Tomaszewski(@tom_tms): @aaronoleary  yup, spot on. 10 points for you mister. Comment ... ... speed and workflow integration. One keyboard shortcut instantly captures any text from your screen, no need to save screenshots, upload them anywhere, or switch contexts. It's built specifically for this one task and does it faster than any alternative

... forward hopefully that day isn t too far away :) Comment from fzero17(@fzero17): My first vibecoded project was OpenFolder a macOS menu bar app that turns your desktop into a calm personal launchpad. I built it using GitHub Copilot + VS Code, which felt like coding with a quiet partner who always had my back. The hardest part wasn t the code, but building something truly minimal yet delightful to use. I released it commercially on the Mac App Store ... ... launching on PH this week, so full circle. Wouldn't call it "money from that first version" though, that one barely resembled what exists now. Curious how many other people here started completely outside software like I did vs