GoodApp - The Self Improvement Suite

COVID-19 was a life-changing time for all of us. With everything locked down and everyone stuck at home, life took on a form we had never imagined. I found myself in Amsterdam with two close friends who had just bought a new home. All we could do was work on fixing up the house or spend time reflecting on ourselves.

During this period, I asked myself: ‘What can I offer to help people in these hard times?’ The idea was simple: people use countless utilities every day to improve themselves—whether it’s to-do lists, breathing exercises, journaling, brain games, knowledge quizzes, or affirmations.

The problem I noticed was that there were infinite apps on the mobile stores, each excelling in just one area, but they were often expensive. Why not follow the Pareto principle and offer the best 20% of everything in one app—a comprehensive suite of self-improvement tools? And that’s how GoodApp came to life.

Launch Story

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to building a startup. I was working on the concept alone, and instead of aiming for perfection, I focused on just making it happen. I could’ve spent time doing extensive research before launching, or I could make use of the free time during COVID to train my brain and get started. I chose the latter.

I conceptualized, designed, and developed the first version of GoodApp on my own. It looked rough and only worked okay, but I knew it needed a more polished look. Fortunately, a freelancer saw the potential in GoodApp and offered to redesign it at a very minimal cost.

Within four months, I launched the app on the Play Store and shared it with people I knew. They gave me some feedback, which helped refine the product further. I decided to gather more real-world feedback by launching app-install campaigns on the Play Store and Meta platforms. Within 2-3 days, the app gained a few hundred downloads. It was a love-hate relationship—while users found GoodApp incredibly useful, its complexity, with around 30 apps in one, made it challenging to navigate.

Early Users adoption - stable launch v1

There were two groups of people—those who loved GoodApp and those who didn’t quite understand it. The ones who loved it left positive reviews, shared feedback, and tested every new release I pushed out. At one point, I was releasing updates every three days. I suspect people were bored at home during COVID, and they were looking for something meaningful to do with their time. After nine months of constant iterations, the product became stable, and GoodApp reached 50,000 downloads during the pandemic. It was a freemium app with in-app-purchase option.

Note: The app was built only for Android OS because of a few tightly coupled offerings under Digital Detox, like blocking apps, which iOS did not allow at that time.

One of the most rewarding moments was when a girl messaged me, saying GoodApp had saved her life by relieving her anxiety. I was truly proud.

Highlights

• Conceived the idea and turned it into reality during the tough times of COVID, which kept me sane.
• Helped hundreds of thousands of users worldwide navigate their own challenges during the pandemic.
• Successfully launched the product within the timeframe of COVID.
• Personally involved in every aspect, from design and development to marketing and customer service.
• Utilised A/B testing, feature flag, and built with users.

Learnings

• Have a clear understanding of the concept and remain flexible.
• It’s okay to listen to your gut feelings—not every hypothesis can be proven with research. Find your MVP and pursue it wholeheartedly.
• People want to be heard—respond to your customers like a human being, not a machine.
• Signals are a goldmine. I should have iterated more after COVID times.
• UX is more important than I can stress—GoodApp didn’t do justice to its complexity, and I needed professionals.
• Don’t shy away from sacrificing a few things for the greater good. I should have sacrificed Digital Detox and launched the app on iOS as well.

Outcome

• As of 2024, the app has over 150,000 downloads, maintains a 4.4 rating, and is 90% organic.
• Built specifically for COVID times, I did not iterate after, but it remains a positive impact project that reflects my skills.
• GoodApp might need a revival one day, either by me or someone else. It needs to become BetterApp.

Press Release: An All in one Wellness App, All-Rounder Approach for Wellbeing & Self-Improvement

Now it’s easy and convenient to keep a tap on the health and wellness with GoodApp that promises to cater all health needs in one assemble. A perfect assemblage of more than 36 self-improvement apps launched to keep users intact with their health and wellness goals even in this unprecedented time.

With plenty of wellness apps available digitally, but touching only one aspect of the complete wellness phenomenon has led people to install multiple health apps on their phones. Some are offering better food plan or another one is accountable to reach the desire fitness goal but no one takes care of the complete wellbeing and Phone users’ struggle juggling with different apps for tracking what they are looking on to. Here GoodApp is going to make this scuffle sorted with offering the best physical and mental wellness platforms. In the present time, when going outside is a challenge, and keeping oneself productive, proactive, and vigorous is a task in itself. GoodApp is an all in one wellness app that presents a bouquet of digital and mental wellness, brain games, fitness, Growth tools, Knowledge, and Information to improve the quality of life.

The digital detox is a must when the phone has taken an integral part of life but the reliance is surging to impact health and mind negatively. The GoodApp optimizes the use of mobile with App Privacy Lock, Zen Mode, Screen time Reminder, Phone Usage. Word Wizard, Connect the Dots games are the fun brain games that GoodApp offers while the Relaxation Music, Deep Breathing, Positive Affirmations, and Morning Booster keeps the mental health on a check.

Integrated with Pomodoro Timer, Todo Checklist, Habit Builder, Interesting facts, Motivation Quotes & Status The GoodApp is meant to streamline, encourage accessibility and organization. Additionally, the unique feature like App blocker to channelize the idle time into the productive one, that supports parental lock as well and Notification Assistant to organize a messed up day makes the app a simple proven way to boost the health and life.

❤︎ Stay Happy, Healthy and Productive ❤︎