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The Resurrection. How I Got 2.3 Million App Downloads

What we cover:

• The backstory
• The offer
• The decision
• The decline
• The state of the app
• Bringing the app back to life
• The release
• The fallout
• The early results
• Ratings prompt
• What's next?
• Thanks
• What happened next?

The backstory

Back in 2015 I published a blog post on how an app I made overnight reached 2.3m downloads in 18 months and was acquired.

The response to the blog post was overwhelming.

467,000 people have read the post.

I've been asked to speak at conferences all over the world.

People have reached out about how it inspired them.

And we have turned the feedback driven growth approach into my dream company, Appbot. I have the best co-founder in the world, Claire, and the most amazing team.

The offer

A few weeks back I received an email from Chip, the CEO of Wahoo Fitness (who acquired the 7 Minute Workout app).

We have since completely neglected the app for years, doing just enough to keep it working with each update to iOS. The question of what to do with it came up last week and I thought I'd reach out to you and see if you might be interested in taking it back and having a shot at another chapter in the blog post…

Wahoo have been so successful with their core business that the app never became a priority for them. Everyone I have dealt with at Wahoo has been fantastic. I think it reflects a great culture at the company that they would consider sending the app back to me rather than seeing it die.

The decision

So what does a CEO of a startup to run with no free time say to that? This one said HECK YES.

I have such great memories of the experiment and it seemed to be useful to so many people that I couldn't resist the opportunity to continue the story.

I'm also recently back from the very excellent Product Led Growth Summit in San Francisco which gave me the inspiration to give this a go.

So buckle up, hold onto your direwolf, the experiment is back on.

The decline

So Chip did mention a decline, but really, how bad could it be?

Turns out it's pretty bad.

The downloads have been in rapid decline.

And the revenue followed the same trend.

Interestingly the active users has held up better than the downloads.

Maybe people have just lost interest in the 7 Minute Workout? Maybe the people of today need more, 8 minutes? Maybe they need less, 4 minutes?

Turns out the interest has dropped a bit, but nothing like the drop in the app.

The state of the app

The app hadn't been updated for over 2 years. It was 2 iOS versions behind and didn't support the full resolution of iPhone X and newer.

It was over 110Mb thanks to a number of analytics packages and the Wahoo hardware was pushed really hard.

Bringing the app back to life

So I pondered for a while.

And started planning out a minor upgrade.

• First off I wanted to make sure it supported iPhone X, XS, etc. Pretty easy, just a rebuild.
• I removed all third party analytics packages (reducing the bundle from 100Mb to 20Mb, before I added the videos).
• I never loved the navigation on the main screen, so I kept it really simple and turned it into the standard table view.

• I put the duration options up front when you start the workout rather than buried in the settings.

• I added video demos to the workout screen (thanks to my son Lachie for editing the videos).

• I improved the conversion screen after a bit of feedback from Apple "IAP screen looks a bit uninspiring". Ouch, but they were right.

• I slightly updated the keywords based on the words used most often in their app reviews.

• I updated the screenshots to reflect the new look.

The release

So keeping the tradition going, I quietly released 4.0.0 on Nov 10th 2019. No Twitter announcements, no fan-fair just release and watch.

The fallout

So some people loved the updates.

Some people are upset it no longer supported the Wahoo TICKR X in the app reviews.

I forgot a feature that was available on the previous version, voice prompt to swap sides half way through one exercise, 27 people emailed me 😱 So I fixed it in a quick update.

And some people were really upset (republished with their permission).

7 minute exercise new version terrible

Hi,

I'm afraid you've made some terrible choices in your revision of "7 minute exercise."

The choice to include a video of each exercise is a bad one. Beyond the first few times nobody needs to keep seeing the exercise. Even though it's the biggest item on the page, it's hard to even see it to correct yourself if you're doing it wrong.

What we do need to see is the seconds ticking off and that is so small that from 20 feet away you can hardly see it. You have your priorities wrong. Did anyone try using this before you sent it out? They are probably couch potatoes!

Lastly, in the last exercise, the side plank, you neglect to announce a 15 second interval after which you should switch sides. Barring this reminder, you either have to countdown during the exercise or remember to switch sides the next time.

So I am looking for another version of the 7 minute exercise, but hope these suggestions bear fruit with your company coders.

Respectfully yours,

The early results

On the revenue side it looks promising. Sales have gone from averaging around $35/day to $150/day. It's up over 400%! Looks like the new In App Purchase screen is doing its job.

But unfortunately the downloads are still looking a bit sad.

Ratings prompt

I've blogged before about how effective the SKStoreReviewController ratings prompt is. Given there were a few upset people with the update about some removed functionality the ratings took a bit of a hit.

Remember you can only prompt three times in a 365 day period. So I went for the 2nd completed workout and every subsequent 50 completed workouts. I suspect there will be an early bump and then tail off. But I'll let you know in a future blog post.

What's next?

I'm sure it's probably pretty obvious what to go for next. More downloads. Short of some miracle love from Apple, that's going to take some work.

I'm still a huge believer in Feedback Driven Growth so user feedback is going to be the main driver. I look forward to see what users (and you) send me and leave in the app reviews.

Wahoo also added an Apple TV app which I'm keen to have a go at updating. I'd love to re-introduce Apple Watch support as well.

I'll give it an hour a week and see how it goes :)

Thanks

Thanks to Chip at Wahoo for making this possible. Thanks to the Appbot team (especially Claire) for the proof reading, Corey for the GoT images and my son Lachie for editing the videos. And thanks to my amazing wife Jo for understanding I'll be losing even more of my free time.

What happened next?

This post was originally published in December 2019, and the experiment kept going. Here's where to continue the story.

What happened during COVID-19?

The next chapter arrived at an extraordinary time for a home workout app.

In Isolation, COVID-19 and the App Store, I document further experiments with the app, including Product Hunt, pricing, Apple Watch support and App Store ratings.

Then COVID-19 changed the market almost overnight as millions of people found themselves looking for ways to exercise at home.

Read the next chapter → Isolation, COVID-19 and the App Store

Are App Store subscriptions better than one-off purchases?

The final published chapter turns to one of the biggest questions facing app developers. How should you monetise an app?

After years of relying on one-off purchases, I moved 7 Minute Workout towards a subscription model.

In Switching to App Store Subscriptions, I share what happened when I introduced monthly and yearly subscriptions, including the impact on recurring revenue and overall app revenue.

Read the next chapter → Switching to App Store Subscriptions

And the experiment isn't over: in 2026 I began rebooting the experiment and testing App Store screenshots on my blog.

About The Author

Stuart is Co-founder & Co-CEO of Appbot. Stuart has been involved in mobile as a developer, blogger and entrepreneur since the early days of the App Store. He built the 7 Minute Workout app in one night and blogged the story of growing the app to 2.3 million downloads before exiting to a large fitness device company. Previously he was the co-founder of the Discovr series of applications which achieved over 4 million downloads. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

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