r/HereIsWhatIBuilt

I kept running into the same problem: screenshots often contain information you didn't realize you were sharing.

An API key. An email address. A phone number. A password field. Customer information.

Usually, you take the screenshot first and then manually look for things to hide.

I built Blackbar to reverse that workflow.

It reads the page before capturing it and automatically detects and redacts sensitive-looking information. The screenshot you get is already the safer version.

The part I cared most about was privacy.

Blackbar runs entirely on the device. It declares connect-src 'none', so Chrome itself blocks the extension from making network connections. It still works with Wi-Fi turned off.

It's also open source, has no account requirement, and is free.

I'd genuinely like feedback from other Chrome extension users/builders, especially on:

• detection accuracy
• false positives/negatives
• the capture workflow
• anything that would make you hesitate to trust it

Chrome Web Store Link

Source

I wanted a private storage app that didn't depend on ads, tracking or always being online.

So I built Lockify. It encrypts files locally and can optionally disguise itself as a normal calculator.

Enter the PIN → tap = twice → the vault opens.

It has since evolved into much more than the original calculator idea:

• 🔒 Local encryption + biometric/PIN unlock
• ☁️ Cloud Sync
• 🎭 Disguise Mode
• 🔐 Decoy Vault
• 📱 Motion Lock
• 📂 File/folder organization
• 📝 Encrypted Notes (currently being built)

After five months, it has reached 12K+ downloads, 4.3K+ installed users, and 4.7★ from 228 ratings. I built and maintain it solo alongside a full-time job.

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leo.lockify

This community is amazing! Basically my listing was stuck to 10 weekly users and I asked for genuine help and feedback. Then I received so many constructive feedbacks like having an exit survey to understand why people are uninstalling, fixing permission issues, listing key words. More amazing was one of the redditors made me these screenshots for free saying only screenshot of the app is not enough, it has to have meaningful captions - I am ever grateful to that person! And within weeks my weekly users have jumped to 57! To many of you such number might look small especially when some extensions have thousands of users but for me every user is a big deal. I would like to continue the journey and rely on you guys all the way to achieve my next target of 100 users.

So I would appreciate any constructive feedback/criticism/ideas to achieve the next milestone! Here is the link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/qorpus-chatgpt-gemini-cla/kkmjccgohiiikgbmalbhkihklhddigkn?authuser=0&hl=en

I built a clipboard manager extension for Chrome, a while back. it's a blind clipboard manager, means it can't see any clipboard history you're syncing across your devices.

genuinely proud of it. zero-knowledge, AES-256-GCM encryption, encryption/decryption happens client-side, it literally can't see what you sync even if i wanted to.

launched it. did a proper launch push too - Product Hunt, Peerlist, PeerPush, the works.

7 months later: 24 users on the chrome web store. closed source the whole time.

that number didn't move for months. i tried more marketing, more posts, nothing worked. eventually i had to actually sit with why, instead of just posting harder.

Here's what i landed on, and it stung a bit to admit: you can't build a "trust me, i can't see your data" product and then ask people to trust that claim from a total stranger, with code they can't even look at. "trust me" isn't a security model. it's just a sentence.

So, about a month ago, i made the extension's source code public. not fully open source, used PolyForm Noncommercial so nobody can just fork it and resell it. But, anyone can read it, verify the encryption actually does what i say it does, build it themselves if they want.

posted about it here, on X, on reddit. didn't expect much honestly.

A month after: 52 users. up from 24. more than doubled, after sitting completely flat for 7 months straight.

being fully honest about the numbers since that's the whole point of this sub - 2 stars on the repo (both mine, not pretending otherwise 😅), zero issues opened by strangers who've actually dug into the code yet.

so, it's not like the dev community suddenly showed up to audit it. what changed was just... people trusting it enough to install it. that's it. that's the whole shift.

the lesson, as best i can tell: for anything that's selling trust as the actual product (security tools, privacy tools, anything where the pitch is "we can't see your data"), closed source isn't neutral. it's actively working against you, because the entire value prop depends on something the user has no way to check. opening it up didn't make the product better. it made the same product finally believable.

still tiny numbers. still a long way from anything that pays the bills. but it's the first time this thing has grown instead of just sitting there, and i wanted to write it down here while it's fresh, mistakes and all.

repo's here if anyone wants to poke around: https://github.com/encryptedclipboard/chrome-extension