How to get initial active installs before app store submission
App marketplaces often require multiple active installs from unaffiliated accounts before they will publish a new listing. Because the app isn't listed publicly yet, developers have no natural discovery channel, leaving them stuck with no way to get those initial downloads required for submission.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Asking people directly for beta testers and active installs
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I finally shipped my first mobile game, but i have no idea how to get people to play it”source ↗
“There's just one problem: almost nobody is downloading it. 😅”source ↗
“Getting people to discover it feels like a completely different skill.”source ↗
“Have you ever finished something you were proud of, put it on the stores, and then realized you had absolutely no idea how to promote it?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 6Why am I getting no sales on my new online store?
- 3How to safely test new apps without risking live catalog data
- 3How to market paid software without a free version
- 5What to do before launching a product when you are scared
- 7How to launch a physical product with zero audience
- 3Why does software installation fail on secure systems?