Two apps live on Google Play (and my first hackathon)

On 4 May, SniffCheck was granted production access by Google on the Play Console — the last hurdle before releasing to the Play Store; Toolwise followed on 7 May. Both apps live — I was a published developer twice over. And here are the real numbers: zero users. Not "slow growth". Not "early traction". Zero.

Launch day is nothing like the videos. You press publish, the listing goes live, and… nothing happens. No confetti, no downloads, no reviews. The store doesn't announce you. The apps just sit there, correct and invisible, like shops on a street nobody walks down. I'm posting this because everyone posts launches and almost nobody posts the silence afterwards — an app with no marketing gets exactly the audience it was marketed to.

Then, with SniffCheck live on the store, I spotted a massive visual bug. It traced back to how the app was built — a webapp made on Google AI Studio, wrapped with Claude — so I made the hard call: pull it and rebuild native, keeping the same design. I'm pleased I found it, and it was a lesson learned.

On 27 May I entered my first hackathon: Vibe Coding Games, World Cup Edition. My build was AliSafe — an allergy checker with a barcode and label scanner, in multiple languages. I personally thought it was good. Two apps shipped on my own schedule is one thing — building against a deadline, to a brief, knowing judges would score it, was entirely another.

Between hackathon sessions I carried on improving Salon and Spotters UK — both still prototypes, both quietly getting better.

The month ended mid-build, results still weeks away. For once the cliffhanger isn't a writing device — that's just where May stopped.