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Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
11–20 of 84 posts
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#12I'm currently using Flutter for a project. Considering I've been lead author or co-author on a few Android programming books, using a cross platform SDK was new for me. Dart is easy to learn, and Flutter makes attractive UI easy. I love to work on a big ambitious projects that really need platform specific implementations, but for the vast majority of cases a good cross platform SDK works well, and is a cost-efficien…
Makes sense. Flutter has a good reputation - I've heard mostly positive things.
For me, I had bad experiences with React Native in the past and already built another iOS app in Swift. Knew the ecosystem, liked SwiftUI, so sticking with native felt right. Less context switching, and I can use Apple frameworks directly – MusicKit for Apple Music integration and native offline playback would've been painful to wrap.
Cross-platform definitely makes sense for many projects – just wasn't the right fit for me this time.
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#13Can you explain a bit more on how this is better than just using Spotify? Is the catalogue restricted somehow?
Good question. Same catalog - Muky uses your Apple Music or Spotify subscription underneath. The difference: Muky separates the audio player from the admin area. Kids get a locked-down player showing only playlists you created – big artwork, tap to play, nothing else. Parents manage everything in a separate admin area – create playlists, add content, adjust settings. Spotify means infinite browsing, algorithm recomme…
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Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#14I like this idea, but I really don’t get it (maybe I haven’t read enough of your webpage) but how do you integrate with Spotify? Is this native or something they can block/ban. And is it possible to upload content (I have mp3s I let kids listen to on a dumb mp3 player)
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#15[flagged]
Thanks!
Exactly. The mental model thing is brutal. You know every corner of the app, so everything feels obvious. Then you watch someone use it for the first time and they're completely lost. Need to do that more often, perfect way to learn.
And yes - QR sharing was about bringing back that "here, just take it" moment. Sending library export as JSON, explaining how to import... too much friction. Scan and done feels right.
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#16Mind sharing cashflow details? Is the business growing? Do you get a new user for every user that leaves? How do you handle converting free users into paid ones?
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#17I like this idea, but I really don’t get it (maybe I haven’t read enough of your webpage) but how do you integrate with Spotify? Is this native or something they can block/ban. And is it possible to upload content (I have mp3s I let kids listen to on a dumb mp3 player)
Spotify integration is all official - iOS SDK for playback, Web API for fetching playlists and tracks. Users connect their own Spotify account. Nothing hacky, so no ban risk. Same for Apple Music via MusicKit.
MP3s aren't supported right now – Muky only works with streaming content. But you're not the first to ask. Adding local files to the roadmap, maybe in the future.
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#18Mind sharing cashflow details? Is the business growing? Do you get a new user for every user that leaves? How do you handle converting free users into paid ones?
Don't have precise churn numbers yet – changed the subscription model in December so it's still early.
Old model: freemium with 1 playlist, max 10 tracks. Paid unlocks more. Felt limiting.
New model: everything free to explore. Build your playlists, add all content. Subscription only kicks in when you open the audio player to hand it to your kid – 1 month free trial included.
Since then daily signups are solid, users worldwide. Feels more honest – people see the full value before paying. Still indie scale, but growing steadily.
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#19Similar story here , but started mine when first Android phones were released. Had great success. And still have. Now with AI I have 2 max accounts with Claude and I don't touch any code anymore. I went full high risk cowboy style. All code. Server management, databases, security, upgrades, root access. Access to all my accounts, keys, hashes all goes into my prompts. Everything with ai. I don't even go to the Playstore site to publish. The only thing I touch is my terminal with Claude instances and opencode, Gemini or codex as backups.
Re: Tell HN: 2 years building a kids audio app as a solo dev – lessons learned
#20Similar story here , but started mine when first Android phones were released. Had great success. And still have. Now with AI I have 2 max accounts with Claude and I don't touch any code anymore. I went full high risk cowboy style. All code. Server management, databases, security, upgrades, root access. Access to all my accounts, keys, hashes all goes into my prompts. Everything with ai. I don't even go to the Playst…
That's bold! Full AI-driven, including deploys and server access – respect for going all in.
Curious how you handle when AI makes mistakes on production systems?