Building Pointerly in public

As downloads and user feedback stayed flat for a few months (the feature request that came just after I added the feedback board happened to be the only one until now), I decided it was time to refresh the App Store page. In April, I updated the screenshots and now I’ve added a preview video.

I also implemented a rating prompt to increase the number of reviews and see if that would help with visibility: the app is now prompting every user who has activated a tool at least 3 times and at least in 3 different days, as I figured that would show some usage consistency and appreciation of the product. Out of about 330 users that used the app in the last month, 36 users were eligible for the prompt and while I can’t confirm they were all a direct result of it, I’ve seen 7 new reviews since implementation, most 5 stars.

Let’s see now if the new page drives more downloads and, hopefully, if more usage will result in more reviews and a better ranking.

In March I got one more institutional purchase, this time 10k units from Germany, the biggest organisation until now. I also received three user emails in the same week: compliments, feature requests, even an offer to contribute to the project. The fact that people were reaching out, and the recurring institutional purchases, made me take the project more seriously: on April 2 I launched a public feedback board and added a feedback button in the app. First feature request came in on April 16, I’m now monitoring and responding to these.

Pointerly launched with no-analytics (Yeah, I know). I assumed I could revise that later and possibly leverage “full-privacy” as a selling point in the meantime. After a year, I got institutional purchase spikes, a few reviews, and even some emails from users showing adoption, but I had no idea how people were actually using the app. So, I introduced TelemetryDeck, a privacy-respecting analytics tool, and started tracking tool activations and feature choices. Privacy is still there — no personal data, no tracking — but now I can see how people use the app and make decisions based on real data.

After the first bulk purchase, the AppStore shows a second one, this time 750 units from Australia. Downloads picked up slightly afterwards, suggesting the App Store algorithm noticed it and accounted for it. More importantly it confirmed the first spike wasn’t a fluke — there’s some kind of B2B interest, likely education, that I haven’t done anything to attract. App Store doesn’t give me enough data to identify who or follow up. Keeping an eye on it.

4 months in, the AppStore shows a single-day spike of 500 downloads from an institutional purchase in France, maybe a school or some kind of organisation. My first instinct was excitement, my second was frustration: the App Store gives you no way to know who bought, why, or whether they’ll come back. Filed it as a signal worth watching, not worth acting on yet.

One week in and I already have the first review from a stranger… It’s a one star 🤦‍♂️. User claims the app might have charged them when a ‘brief message flashed on screen’ and they ‘don’t think it’s worth the risk’. Of course it is nonsense, I can’t charge anybody without having their payment details, plus this is on the AppStore and everything would have to go through Apple. I politely replied and proceeded to ignore it, but yeah, this was my first experience with a Pointerly user, not the best start.

Built and launched Pointerly as a personal project to explore new things during a period of many doubts. I wanted to go through the whole process of building an app, from idea to launch to evolution, and be in charge of every decision. Being an exercise, I wanted something small to build, self-contained, but possibly useful to people; the actual idea came from browsing r/macapps and noticing a recurring topic.