I'm a former athlete building a free workout app solo (Kotlin Multiplatform, Android + iOS). It's been live 2 months, and I've been logging every number from App Store Connect, Play Console and Firebase, so here's what actually moved installs, in case it helps someone. **The baseline (first month, Jul 30 – Aug 29)** - Store listing in 3 languages (EN/FR/RU), no onboarding - Android: 39 installs in a month (~1.3/ day) - iOS: 41 installs in a month - Play listing conversion: 19% **What I shipped in late August (one release)** - Store listing + app translated into 12 languages (ES, PT-BR, DE, JA, ZH, HI, TR, ID…), with new localized screenshots - A short onboarding quiz that picks a program for you **After** - Android: 39 → 162 installs in ~1 week, 223 by mid-September - Play listing conversion: 19% → 31%. iOS page-view → install: 21% → 31% - Sep 16–28 (2 weeks with **zero** posting or promo): 234 new installs, ~18/ day - ~70% of those came from non-English devices (Russia, China, Brazil, Germany, Spain…) - Total so far: ~740 across both stores Honest caveat: I shipped translations, screenshots and onboarding together, so I can't fully separate them. But when 70% of installs come from non-English devices, most of it is the translations. Example: China went from ~0 to a top-2 country purely from App Store search once the zh listing went live. **Other lessons** **Play "explore" impressions are vanity.** 1,500+ impressions in a week, 0 extra installs. Search and referral traffic is what converts. **One good Reddit post beat weeks of short-form video.** A feedback post in a watch sub gave my best US day ever. My reels get 200–800 views and almost no installs. **"Workout finished" lied to me.** 60% of finished workouts were people tapping through a preview in under 5 minutes. Real activation (5+ min, real sets) is ~11% of installs. But 75% of those come back, so the product works once people actually train. **US installs only move when I post.** Organic traffic is almost entirely non-US, which matters because that's where people actually pay. Next: an AI coach you can talk to during the workout (the real differentiator, since tracking apps are a red ocean). Questions for you: - If you localized, which languages paid off and which were wasted? - Anyone found an organic channel for US users that beats Reddit? The app is free, no ads, no account. Link in the comments if anyone wants to see the onboarding or the listing screenshots.   submitted by   /u/AthleteWhoCodes [link]   [comments]