u/JRushantha

I published my first Android app to production on April 27th using a completely fresh Google Play developer account. So far, the app has reached around 100 downloads.

Almost all of the installs came organically through ASO/search visibility, and only about 5–6 downloads were from friends. I haven’t done any paid ads, social media promotion, influencer marketing, or community promotion yet.

Since this is my first published app and a brand-new developer account, I wanted to ask:

Is this considered a decent start?
How long did it take for your first app to gain traction?
At what point did you start focusing on marketing versus improving the app itself?

I’d love to hear realistic experiences from other indie Android developers.

Hey, I'm a solo developer and I just shipped my app NanoPic to production this week! The problem: I kept running into situations where I needed to shrink a photo for email, convert an iPhone HEIC image, or scrub my GPS location before posting online. Every app I tried for these tasks either wanted an account, secretly uploaded my photos to a cloud server, or was completely unusable due to dark patterns. So, I spent the last few months building a clean, modern, all-in-one alternative that just works on-device.

What it does (100% Offline):

Batch Compression: Shrink up to 20 photos at once with a custom quality slider or smart one-tap presets (WhatsApp, Email, Web).
Format Conversion: Easily convert between JPG, PNG, and WEBP. Full HEIC/HEIF support for iPhone photos.
Privacy Mode: Strip GPS location, camera model, and timestamp metadata before sharing images.
System Integration: Appears right in the system share sheet, so you can optimize directly from your Gallery or Files app.
Home Screen Widget: A native widget tracking your lifetime storage space saved. Transparency: The app is free to use. Your photos never leave your device (no uploads, no account). There are no paywalled core features, just a non-intrusive ad flow that I actively tuned during testing to ensure it doesn't ruin the experience. I would absolutely love your honest, brutal feedback. What tools am I missing? How does the UI feel on your specific device? Let me know if you manage to break anything!

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.omninative.nanopic.compressor

I can’t post on almost every sub Reddit

Is this a good start?