The Unexpected Lessons Behind My First App Launch
And the challenges no one had warned me about.
And the challenges no one had warned me about.
Published: January 10, 2025 URL: https://buildtolaunch.ai/p/first-app-launch-lessons-story Engagement: 22 likes, 18 comments, 3 restacks Word count: 1145
Have you ever received promotions for quirky apps and wondered how they came to life?
With the rise of AI, you might think creating and launching an app has become a breeze. That's exactly what I thought before diving headfirst into my first product — a simple image finding app.
The ideas started from my very article carrying out AI learning processes; and with zero experience, I decided to take the plunge.
From Concept to MVP: The Smooth Beginning
Creating the app's core feature was fast, fun, and immensely rewarding. My goal was simple: build a tool to help me quickly search for images in my folders. I worked on a couple of articles to set up the baseline and, before I knew it, I had a working MVP (minimum viable product).
Soon after sharing it, people started asking, "Is it available for me to try it out?" That's when it hit me — why not make this app available for everyone?
Little did I know, the real work was just beginning.
Beyond Building: The Realities of Launch Prep
Once I committed to launching, I realized there was more to consider than I had imagined:
- User Registration: Should I allow Google sign-ins or stick to email?
- Monetization: How do I manage subscriptions?
- User Communication: Keeping an open line for feedback.
I explored tools like Shipfast and boilerplate templates to speed things up. But I ultimately decided to build my setup from scratch for three key reasons:
- Hands-On Learning: Pre-built templates felt like shortcuts. I wanted to understand the fundamentals.
- Dependency Conflicts: Many templates had unresolved issues.
- Framework Mismatch: The templates didn't align with my app's framework.
Every feature turned into a crash course in user experience: handling forgotten passwords, enabling subscriptions, managing logouts, and even adding gifting options.
The Unexpected Time Sinks
If you break the product process into three steps — building the MVP, adding the extras, and hosting it online — you might assume the MVP would take the most time.
Soon I realized, my assumptions were not even close. In reality, the time distribution is almost the exact opposite.
Hosting Woes
Initially, I thought cheap hosting services like Namecheap or GoDaddy would suffice. Boy, was I wrong!
After multiple crashes and hours of debugging, I discovered these services couldn't handle the app's heavy dependencies, like Torch and Transformer. I went through a maddening cycle: activating domains, transferring domains, updating hosting specs, setting up email services, and configuring environments — across platforms like Namecheap, GoDaddy, Oracle Cloud, GCP, and AWS.
Eventually, I decided to split the app into two parts:
- A webpage for user registration, subscriptions, and downloads.
- A desktop application for the actual image search.
Re-package: The Never-Ending Fixes
Bundling the desktop app revealed one issue after another:
- Path Inconsistencies: What worked in development didn't translate to the standalone app.
- App-Website Communication: Maintaining a local database carrying user information proved easier than relying on APIs.
- Bundling Challenges: Port conflicts, system permission errors, Apple developer certificates and code signing processes became my nightly battles.
Even AI, my helpful assistant, occasionally threw curveballs with hallucinated solutions that led me astray. Imagine a mischievous 3-year-old with 100 years of wisdom guiding your every move.
The Final Product
Despite the hurdles, I finally have a functional app that runs smoothly on my macOS computer.
The app is available at findinfolder.online.
Closing Thoughts
Building an app is only 10% of the work; the other 90% involves considerations and implementations outside of coding.
We often focus on writing code to create a seamless user experience, but that's only the starting point. When it comes to launching an application, you quickly realize the need to address user needs from every angle.
My app-building journey was a rollercoaster of frustration, learning, and growth. The harsh reality? Coding is merely the beginning. Bringing a product to life requires tackling the intricacies of user experience, ensuring system reliability, and committing to ongoing improvements.
If you're thinking about launching your own app, be prepared for challenges — but know that the rewards are worth it.
Have you faced similar struggles in your projects? Let's share and learn together!