I built an Android reminder widget that works like a traffic light — being transparent about the numbers
Hey IH! 👋
Indie Android dev from Italy here. I just launched "All My Buttons" a home screen widget that works like a traffic light for recurring tasks.
🔴 RED = time to do it → One tap → 🟢 GREEN = done
Auto-resets after your chosen interval.
Push notification even with app fully closed.
The problem I wanted to solve: people around me were struggling to stay consistent with medication, water intake, daily habits — without being overwhelmed by notification spam. Every reminder app works the same way: send a notification, user dismisses it, forgets anyway.
I wanted something always visible, zero friction. Being fully transparent about where I am:
- Built solo over several months
- ~10 active installs currently
- Rewrote all 38 Play Store language listings last week
- Zero marketing budget
I know the numbers are tiny. Sharing here because this community understands what it means to build something from scratch and try to make it work. Any feedback welcome, on the concept, the positioning, or the growth strategy.
Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trop.allmybuttons
Update ⚠️
Product Hunt launch results, full transparency:
• Launch points: 2
• Community comments: 0 (beyond my own)
That's the whole story. No spike, no traffic wave.
Honest takeaway: launching on PH with zero pre-warmed audience caps you hard. Upvotes are hidden for the first 4 hours (randomization period), and if nobody already knows you're live, the day just passes quietly.
What I keep: a permanent listing, a backlink, and a clear lesson, build the audience BEFORE the launch, not during it.
Next:
• Launching my second app (All My Seconds, countdown widget where seconds keep ticking even with screen off) on PH next Tuesday
• Testing micro-creator outreach on Instagram this week
Will keep sharing real numbers, good or bad.
Interesting approach the always-visible widget is actually the strongest part of this.
My main question is around behavior change: most habit/reminder apps fail not because of notifications, but because users don’t build a consistent trigger-response loop in the first place.
What have you seen so far in terms of users actually forming habits with this vs just trying it once or twice and dropping off?
I feel like the real value here depends on whether the “traffic light” becomes part of their daily visual environment or just another widget they ignore.
That's the right question and honestly the one I don't have enough data on yet with ~20 installs. My hypothesis is that the widget works precisely because it doesn't require forming a new habit :It hijacks an existing one: unlocking your phone.
You already do it 50-100 times a day. The red/green is just there when you do.But I've also built in several layers to fight widget blindness specifically:
1. The button always resets to RED — or shows a clear ✅ or ✗ icon on white that creates contrast and demands a second glance even passively.
2. There's an incremental daily counter integrated on the same button, so even if the color fades into the background, the number changing keeps it alive visually.
3. Full tap history when doubt creeps in ("did I already take that pill?") the user has a concrete reason to open the app and re-engage with the widget.
4. For users who watch rewarded ads to support the project, a small casual game unlocks another touchpoint that brings them back into the app ecosystem.
Whether all this is enough to beat long-term widget blindness, I genuinely don't know yet. That's what I'm trying to find out.
Will share real data as the user base grows.
That’s a solid hypothesis especially the idea of hijacking an existing behavior like phone unlock instead of creating a new habit loop.
I think the real validation will come from whether users start associating that moment with decision-making over time, not just noticing the widget visually.
With ~20 installs, are you already seeing any pattern in repeat interaction vs first-time curiosity? Even small signals there usually tell more than the feature set itself.
Curious how you’re planning to track that as usage grows.
Honest answer: I haven't analyzed retention patterns yet and intentionally so.I just finished rewriting all the store listings across 30+ languages last week. Until that settles and organic traffic starts coming in on its own, any pattern I'd see now would be potentially skewed by early testers or people who found it through direct links rather than search.
I want to wait at least another week before drawing any conclusions so the data reflects real users with a real problem, not noise.
Will share what I find when I have something meaningful to report.
That sounds like the right approach.
Early data is often misleading because you’re measuring distribution channels as much as the product itself.
I also think waiting for users who discover it organically is important here, since the behavior you’re testing isn’t “will people install it?” but “does it become part of their daily routine after installation?”
I’ll be interested to see whether retention ends up correlating more with the reminder use cases (medication, bills, etc.) or with the broader daily tracking features you mentioned earlier.
That distinction is exactly right and it's the one I keep coming back to. My instinct is that the high-retention users will be the ones with a non-negotiable recurring need. Medication is the clearest example: you can't afford to forget, the consequence is real, and the widget becomes load-bearing in your daily routine almost immediately.
The broader tracking use cases ( water, posture, habits) are valuable but softer. The cost of forgetting is low, so the widget has to earn its place on the home screen through consistency of use, not urgency.
That's actually why I built both modes that can work also together: the traffic light for the non-negotiable stuff, the counter for the softer tracking. Whether users actually use them differently that's the hypothesis I'm most curious to test.
And genuinely, thank you for this exchange. These are exactly the questions I should be asking myself but am too close to the product to see clearly. This kind of outside perspective is more useful than any analytics dashboard at this stage.
Will report back when I have real numbers.
The traffic light metaphor is what stands out to me. It communicates the state instantly without another notification demanding attention. Sometimes reducing decisions is more valuable than adding more reminders.
Exactly, that's the core insight behind it. Notifications demand attention and get dismissed. A visual status you see passively every time you unlock your phone works differently. No decision required, just awareness.
Thanks for getting it so clearly!
That's exactly why I wanted to continue the conversation.
Reading your reply, I think there's one strategic business decision sitting underneath that insight that becomes much more significant as the product evolves, but I don't think I can do the reasoning behind it justice in a thread.
Happy to explain what I mean if it's useful. What's the best email to reach you?
Happy to connect, reach me at troppeasy@gmail dot com. Looking forward to hearing what you have in mind.
Just sent it over by email.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts once you've had a chance to read it.
Hey, just wanted to say — your product looks really impressive. It feels useful, clean, and like something that can actually help people solve a real problem.
I’m building Everyday Tiny Tools — a marketplace for small useful web tools, mini apps, calculators, generators, AI tools, productivity helpers, and simple utilities.
The idea is to give independent creators a real place to showcase their tools, get discovered, and maybe even earn from them.
If you’ve built something small and useful, I’d love to invite you to list it here: EverydayTinyTools.com
Tools can be listed as free, or as a simple one-time purchase through the platform.
And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out anytime: nuchem@lightboltlab.com
Really like what you’re building — wishing you a lot of success with it.
This is a clever concept. I will test the app.
Quick ask, only if you feel like it: an honest review on the Play Store would genuinely help the app's visibility at this stage.
Either way, thanks again for testing it! 🫶🏻
Posted an honest review for you. I really like this app.
You can check out my product as well, but only if you're curious.
Really appreciate that, would love to hear what you think after trying it. Any feedback on the concept or the UX is genuinely useful at this stage.
🙏
It's a good app, and works great. An option for smaller buttons might be useful for some people. Maybe they already have many widgets, or need more buttons without them being hidden on the next screen.
The notification option is very handy as well.
Good point and actually the widget already supports resizing.. You can go from 2x1 to 3x1 directly on your home screen.
That said, as you probably know, it depends on your launcher and the grid you have set up. That's exactly why we support both sizes, to adapt to different home screen configurations.
If you need even more buttons visible at once, resizing to 3x1 should help without having to scroll to another screen.
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