u/Burnskee1

Hi all, I am normally an iOS dev, this is my first time porting my app to android. I am at the part where I need closed testers (I believe I need a minimum of 12).

I have never done this before so any help would be appreciated. Do I just need to add your emails/country?

Would love some assistance with this and I will return the favor where I can!

I have an app and I saw it have a number, then throughout the day it kept scaling back. Is it because sometimes initially admob pays out too much and then scales it back to a proper eCPM? Or are they thinking it’s invalid traffic?

My app is gaining traction, but I'd like to atleast get into double digit reviews. DM me if you want to trade reviews!

(Mods please feel free to delete or not post this, I am not sure if I am breaking any rules here)

I made a little app called Squishy Dumplings: Bao Pop — it's the same unboxing/mystery-pull feeling but virtual, so you can pop a steamer basket and see what bao you get any time, right from your phone. Rarity tiers, a collection album to fill out, daily free pulls — basically a way to get your unboxing fix between physical restocks.

https://reddit.com/link/1upyae9/video/sfdkpc54stbh1/player

Not trying to replace the real thing (nothing beats an actual squishy in hand!) — just scratching the same itch when you can't get to a store.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/squishy-dumplings-bao-pop/id6784870247

Would love to hear what you all think, especially since you're the real experts on what makes a good "pull" satisfying!

I've been free of gaming for about 6 months, and I don't miss it, honestly.
I think beyond just gaming, today we live in a day and age where we are expecting a dopamine spike at every turn. If we aren't gaming, we are scrolling on our phone, or eating unhealthy food, or drinking at a bar, or chugging coffee. We are an extremely stimulated society, and gaming was just an extension of that.

Counter-intuitively, once you stop chasing that next dopamine hit, you actually start to be okay with being bored, going on walks, socializing. Very calm and grounding things. I would say all my relationships have gotten way better, I've gotten healthier, I like myself more, people notice me - I have all the time in the world to chat, to help, to hang out.

I'm not sure how to describe it, but all I will say is that when you first start, you feel like you're losing so much, but in the end you end up gaining all the things that really matter? I don't know.

I think gaming is just one of those things that I can't get back into, because it'll be a hole that ends up draining my happiness. Gaming along with gambling - those have always been my personal vices. I feel a lot better without them!

I’ve played Crossplay and Scrabble Go and I used to play WWF back when it was just one mode. I recently downloaded the game again and to be honest I’m a little overwhelmed with all the different modes.

Which one do you play most/is most fun?

Is there like a meta of what people play most, or do people mostly still play the classic mode?

So I made a Scrabble board solver, it used to give you the top 3 moves with an AI analysis. But, the more I used it the more I would realize top 3 moves just weren’t enough. Even with very explicit prompting the AI would play moves that set the next player up for a higher score - it just wasn’t great.

So I optimized and moved it to top 9 moves, ranked by raw score instead - I left a couple notes above the tile leave, etc. but I took out the analysis part. Functionally the app works much better, it gives users a huge option to pick the best play for their situation.

That brings me to my question - I haven’t changed my initial screenshots, and they convert very well - like 75%-100% well.

But am I doing a disservice by keeping the screenshots? I do see people using the app consistently, so I’m not sure if I just leave it or update everything.

I play word games, most recently Crossplay - and I wanted to see if ChatGPT had the capability of giving me the best answer available based on the board given. The answer it gave me was not only wrong, it was completely unusable - so I did a small amount of research and made a video on it.

I am looking into Apple Ads (not committed to anything) and saw when making a campaign they suggest a per tap price. Mine was $1.65.

I was thinking of going lower than that as I am a solo developer and want to get more bang for the little amount I would be investing currently.

My app is fairly niche so I am wondering where Apple pulls this data from - and more importantly, if I go significantly lower like .50, will I just never get impressions?

I am past the point of building my app and I am ready to promote it. I have been posting and making TikToks, but beyond that I am not sure what to do. I am not sure if I want to start doing paid ads yet, but I feel like my app is somewhat niche.

What has gotten you the most traction for your apps?