u/Local_Ad9169

Last Thursday was the launch of Aware on Product Hunt, and it was very disappointing. Aware is my Chrome extension that keeps you aware of where your time goes, tracks your browsing habits and helps you cut distractions. It started as my own itch, I was cutting my smartphone screen time and the app from Apple was helping me a lot, but I didn't have something similar on Chrome to help me stay productive, so I built it to solve my own problem.

Then I polished it and shared it on the Chrome Store with other people and it got interest (160 installs in a single day). I reached 400 weekly users and 250 daily users, and only one person supported Aware and bought the lifetime plan for $9.99 (thanks to him). Since then, no more positive reviews (stuck at 9 five-star reviews), no more people supported Aware (stuck at 1 sale), and the daily users are stuck between 250-270.

Back to the Product Hunt launch, it was a fail for me. Not even 5 installs during that day coming from PH, only 3 upvotes (coming from X). I added a banner on the Aware popup asking people to support Aware but no one did, and that made me feel sad.

Honestly I am thinking about giving up on the extension and putting the effort into new ideas. But at the same time, I know there are people out there who need a simple, free way to track their browsing time without bloated apps or subscriptions.

For those of you who use productivity tools daily, what makes you stick with one? And what makes you actually pay for it? I know I still need to put more effort on distribution and marketing, but I'd love to hear what I should do better from a user's perspective.

Last Thursday was the launch of Aware on PH, and it was very disappointing for a product like Aware, my Chrome extension that keeps you aware of where your time goes, tracks your browsing habits and helps you cut distractions. It was first my own itch because I was cutting my smartphone screen time and the app from Apple was helping me, but I didn't have something similar on Chrome to help me, so I built it to solve my own problem.

Then I polished it and shared it on the Chrome Store with other people and it got interest (160 installs in a single day). I reached 400 weekly users and 250 daily users, and only one person supported Aware and bought the lifetime plan for $9.99 (thanks to him). Since then, no more positive reviews (stuck at 9 five-star reviews), no more people supported Aware (stuck at 1 sale), and the daily users are stuck between 250-270.

Back to the Product Hunt launch, it was a fail for me. Not even 5 installs during that day coming from PH, only 3 upvotes (coming from X). I added a banner on the Aware popup/sidepanel asking people to support Aware but no one did, and that made me feel sad.

Honestly I am thinking about giving up on the extension and putting the effort into new ideas and trying other niches (I have plenty in draft, just needing a good polish).

What do you think guys? Am I doing something wrong? I know I still need to put more effort on distribution/marketing/ads, but let me know what I should do better.

Do you actually know where your hours go online?

I built Aware to answer that question. It tracks your browser screen time by website so you can see exactly what's eating your day, with no guesswork, no guilt, just data.

400+ users, Chrome Featured badge, and a few 5-star reviews so far.

Launching on Product Hunt this Thursday (May 14th) and could really use your support:

As a thank you for launch day support, use code [PH10OFF] for 10% off Pro.

👉 Product Hunt: [link]
👉 Chrome Web Store: [link]

If you've ever closed your laptop wondering where the day went, this is for you.

Aware is a free Chrome extension (with paid version) that tracks your browser screen time, so you actually know where your hours go.

We've got 400+ users, a Chrome Featured badge, and a few 5-star reviews, but Product Hunt is a different beast and I could really use the community's help on launch day.

If it sounds useful, here's where you can check it out, and follow to get notified on the launch day:

• Product Hunt: [Aware on ProductHunt]
• Chrome Web Store: [Aware on the Chrome Web Store]

Thanks in advance, even just an upvote means a lot.

Built a Chrome extension (Aware, browser screen time tracker) that somehow got traction before it could make money. Featured badge, growing installs, 400 users, and $10 revenue.

The problem was embarrassingly simple in hindsight: the free trial was silent. Users got Pro features automatically, never consciously opted in, and felt nothing when it expired.

Shipped the fix this week, visible countdown, locked UI on expiry, blurred overlays, and a day-before notification with the user's actual usage data. Making the loss felt instead of invisible.

One conversion for the moment but launching on Product Hunt on next Thursday May 14. Hoping the combination of a fixed funnel + launch day traffic finally gets me to first sale.

If you've shipped a similar fix to a broken trial, what actually moved the needle for you?

Sharing this because I couldn't find many posts showing the real CWS impression curve, so hopefully this helps someone.

I built Aware, a screen time tracker for Chrome. Here's what 30 days of impressions looked like:

Days 1–12: 3–66 impressions/day. Basically nothing. The listing was live but the store wasn't surfacing it to anyone.

Day 13 (Apr 19): Jumped to 167 overnight. This was after posting in a couple of communities. The spike was real, Reddit traffic seems to feed directly into the store algorithm.

Days 20–30: 526 → 1,089/day. This is where it got interesting. I didn't do anything different, the store just kept compounding. My theory: install velocity + a few ratings in a short window triggered the algorithmic boost.

A few things I think actually mattered:

• Getting installs in bursts (not a slow trickle) seems to signal the algorithm
• The Chrome Featured Badge helped, I think it puts you in a different discovery pool
• The listing description matters more than I expected. I rewrote mine once and saw a visible uptick the next week

Still early days on monetization, but the traffic side is moving. Happy to answer questions if you're working on a CWS listing.

A few months ago I caught myself opening Twitter for the 11th time before 10am and thought: I genuinely don't know how bad this is.

So I built Aware, a Chrome extension that quietly tracks your browser usage during work hours and categorizes every site you visit: productive, neutral, distraction, or full-on brain rot. At the end of the day, you see exactly where your time went. No lectures, no locks, just the truth.

It's been live on the Chrome Web Store for a bit, and now I'm gearing up for a Product Hunt launch on Thursday, May 14th.

Here's my honest question for this community: Is Product Hunt still worth the effort in 2026?

I've read the "PH is dead" takes and the "PH gave us 3k signups overnight" success stories. I genuinely don't know what to expect.

If you've launched recently, what was your experience? And if you want to support Aware on launch day, I'd really appreciate it 🙏
🔗 [Drop your PH profile below and I'll follow back — let's support each other's launches]

The most-requested feature for Aware turned out to be one I was skeptical of: a focus mode you genuinely can't exit early.

Once you toggle Nuclear Mode and start a session, the stop button is gone. No workaround. Session runs until it's done.

My hesitation was obvious, just have discipline. But that's circular logic. You're using a tool like this because discipline is what you're trying to build. Removing the exit ramp is the whole point.

The other thing I fixed this update: the blocked page when you hit your daily site limit. Before, it was a dead wall. People didn't want a jailbreak, they just wanted agency. So now there are two options:

• Continue for today: one-time bypass, limit stays active tomorrow
• Remove limit: if the limit itself was the wrong call

The insight: friction that feels fair gets respected. Friction that feels punitive gets uninstalled.

Would love to know, do escape hatches undermine the point of a site blocker, or do they make it something you'll actually keep using?

>

Quick honest update on Aware, my screen time tracker extension.

Three months ago: 0 users, no revenue, no audience.

Today: ~300 daily users, Chrome Featured badge, first sale at $9.99 lifetime.

The things that actually moved the needle:

• Getting the Featured badge tripled organic CWS traffic overnight
• Honest Reddit posts drove more installs in one day than two weeks of passive CWS traffic
• The silent trial was costing me every potential sale, so I made it visible fixed it in 48 hours

v1.3.0 ships soon with site blocking, focus sessions, and goal notifications.

Still early. But the direction is clear.

Posted here a few days ago about Aware having 250 daily users and $0 revenue despite a 39% conversion rate.

The diagnosis was a silent trial, users never felt it starting or ending, so they never made an upgrade decision.

v1.2.0 went live with a visible trial countdown, locked UI on expiry, and a day-before notification showing real usage data.

First sale came in today. $9.99 lifetime.

Small number. Huge signal. The product wasn't the problem, the value exchange was invisible. Making it visible was enough.

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the last post. It directly shaped what got built.

Most people think they have a focus problem. Usually it's an awareness problem.

Aware is a Chrome extension that silently tracks where your time actually goes online, by site, by day, by week. No manual input, no setup. Just open it and see the reality.

The pattern most people discover: it's never one big distraction. It's 4 minutes here, 7 minutes there, a tab opened and forgotten. Individually invisible. Collectively, an hour gone.

Seeing it clearly is usually enough to start changing it.

✦ Free to use
✦ Chrome Featured Badge (Google's quality review)
✦ 100% local — nothing leaves your browser

Aware on the Chrome Web Store

Happy to answer any questions about how it works.

No code shipped this week.

Just me, grinding through subreddits, CWS listing optimization, and figuring out how to get people to actually find what I built.

• Reddit: 12 hours
• Chrome Web Store: 1h17

I used to think building was the hard part. Turns out telling people about it is a full-time job on its own.

For anyone else in the "I shipped it, now what?" phase, you're not alone.

Distribution is just as unglamorous as it looks.

PS: If you want to try it to track your building journey and see where you time goes, try Aware for free