Cute idea, but would anyone actually use it?
I recently launched Pinky Promise, a little app for making promises with friends.
The feedback has been lovely. People call it cute, say it's a great idea, and seem to like the concept.
But here's the thing: I'm not sure people would actually use it.
It's one thing for someone to see your product and go, “Aw, that's cute!” It's another for them to think, “Oh, I could actually use this.”
So I'm wondering: what do you do when people like your product, but don't seem to have a real reason to use it?
Do you look for a different use case? Talk to more potential users? Try to make it solve a more obvious problem? Or accept that some products are just fun little things people enjoy discovering?
I'd love to hear from people who've been in this situation. How did you figure out whether your product needed a rethink or just hadn't found its people yet?
Replies
The numbers, for social apps usually drop a lot in the first week. If theres no way to make money built into how the app works keeping the servers running for a list of simple text messages becomes too expensive too fast.
I think this might be a fun little thing to discover, I only use similar apps with friends spontaneously. I wouldn't write it off entirely though, if you could find some way to integrate it into things people already use. Try looking into more apps of this genre, is the advice I'd give.
This is a social app, so it's not something someone can use alone. You'd need pairs of people. That makes your marketing that much harder.
My advice would be before you start, you need to define your problem statement: What problem is this solving? Then figure out the magnitude of that problem. Even if it's a cute little app, people will use it only if it solves a problem for them, and the problem could be as simple as "I'm bored", or "I want a way to connect better with friends", or "I want something that keeps me accountable". And then you figure out how many people have that problem. At that point, you should know if it's worth building or not.
I feel like in social apps you have to be more persistent because if more people uses it, it is more likely to be a huge hit but finding initial users are hard
had this with an early build, people said nice things in reviews but open rate was tiny. what actually helped was tying it to a notification people already expect, not a new habit they have to remember
Ngl my first thought reading this was "this sounds like a feature, not an app." Which isn't an insult! Features can become apps if the behavior is strong enough. But maybe test it as a feature inside something people already use — a group chat, a habit tracker, a couples app — and see if it sticks.
"Some products are just fun little things people enjoy discovering" This line hit me. I think there's a whole category of apps that are more like toys than tools. Toys have their own economics. They spread through delight, not utility. Maybe stop asking "would people use this" and start asking "would people show this to a friend?"
i'll be the one to say it: maybe it just hasn't found its people yet AND it needs a rethink. those aren't mutually exclusive. ship a small variation. test a use case. talk to 10 users. you don't have to pick one path, you just have to keep moving. the answer will show up in the data eventually 🤷