The AppSmash Story

Hi, I'm Brian.

Less than a year ago I built an Android and iOS app for a cappella singers. It's a community I'm involved in, and it was great to see my first ever app do pretty well in both app stores.

A few weeks after launch, users started asking me "which app should I download?" That confused me, until I searched both stores and found an app listed with the exact same name as mine. It had similar functionality, similar content, and even the description looked like a rework of my own. From the screenshots, it appeared hastily thrown together and sloppy.

How did this happen? Why would the app stores allow a submission with the exact same name and similar functionality? I had a rude awakening: neither Google nor Apple spend any real effort weeding out cheap copycat apps that co-opt your brand, confuse your users, and at worst harvest their data for who-knows-what.

I spent a lot of time submitting complaints to both Google and Apple, and eventually got my copycat renamed. But wow, what a hassle.

Along the way I also discovered how bad the built-in reports and analytics are on both platforms. They remind me of something built in Lotus Notes in 1996.

So an idea was born. AppSmash pulls your Google Play and Apple App Store reports into one clean dashboard. It also keeps watch for copycats by monitoring your app's name, sneaky variants of it, and even your logo. When it finds one, a toolbox specialised for each store walks you through getting the offending app renamed or removed. It's the tool I wish I'd had.

AppSmash is in beta right now, and I'd love your help shaping it. If you have any problems, questions, or ideas, drop me a line or jump into the forum.

Thanks and cheers,

Brian