The Good News App

Hey IH,

I’m a solo dev building a "Sanctuary" for news. I’m at a crossroads and could use some brutal honesty from fellow builders.

The Good: My current users are highly engaged. I’m seeing an average session duration of 10 minutes and 24 seconds. People who find the app seem to genuinely use it as a mental hygiene tool to escape the doomscroll.

The Bad: Four days ago, I rebranded from "The Good News App" to "Good News Uplifting Sanctuary." Since that name change, my downloads have hit zero. Literally 0.

I’ve spent months obsessing over a "Modern-Futuristic" minimalist UI (built in FlutterFlow & Figma) to make the experience feel peaceful and high-integrity. But now I’m worried:

1. Is the name "Sanctuary" too niche for a tech audience?

2. Does the "Sanctuary" vibe actually come across, or does it just look like another news app?

I’m launching on Product Hunt tomorrow (April 28th), and I’m honestly a bit nervous about going live with these numbers.

I would love a brutal UI roast or some branding feedback. If you’ve ever survived a "rebranding dip" or managed to scale a wellness app without annoying push notifications, I’d love to hear how you did it.

Helping a fellow dev out? I’ll be in the comments all day.

Like many of you, I hit a wall with traditional media. I realized that my morning scroll wasn't informing me—it was draining me. The conflict-heavy headlines felt designed to keep me in a state of high cortisol, not high awareness.

I decided to build what I couldn’t find: a minimalist space dedicated to human progress and quiet breakthroughs. I call it The Good News App.

Instead of chasing clicks, I’m focused on Grounded Optimism. We filter the noise to deliver 3-minute summaries of global innovation, environmental wins, and acts of mercy.

I’m built this using FlutterFlow and Supabase. One of my favorite small wins was setting up a custom database function to automatically optimize image URLs from Unsplash and Pixabay—ensuring the app stays lightning-fast and visually "merciful" even on slower connections.

I’ve reached that classic indie stall where the product is live, but growth is slow. I’m currently experimenting with Pinterest and directory backlinks to find my tribe.

I’d love your feedback on two things:

1. The UX: Does the dark-themed, high-contrast UI actually feel "calm" to you?

2. The Concept: Is "Positive and Constrctive News" something you’d actually pay attention to, or are we too addicted to the chaos?

Check it out here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.febsnewcreationsolutions.thegoodnewsapp