Show HN: I build an AI Language Speaking that make 3k a month
fluentpal.appIn 2023, I tried my luck with four different educational apps, but none of them really made any money. Then, while working on an English learning website, I added a simple feature where users could chat with AI. Surprisingly, this became super popular!
This got me thinking: why not create an app that lets people practice speaking English with AI characters? I put together a basic version of the app in a month and shared it on voz.vn, a well-known forum in Vietnam. The app got 500 downloads on the first day alone, though I didn't earn any money from it initially.
In the next 3 months, I only made around $50. But I think the app had potential, so I kept working on it. I improved the design, fixed some bugs, and added more languages like Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, Japanese, and German to attract more users.
The game-changer was in December, 2023 when I got a popular Youtuber to promote FluentPal. That move really paid off, and the app took off.
Now, FluentPal earns $3,000 a month, with half coming from subscriptions and the other half from lifetime package purchases. A lot of B2C users prefer buying the lifetime package because they only want to pay once.
That's the story of my app. Congrats! 3k a month is a already a nice side hustle. Are you personally using the app a lot? I'm asking because I've also had the idea of a language learning chatbot, put together a quick POC but found it super boring super fast. Also, I've found it difficult to learn new words, because when you are speaking, you are only using the words you already know. At the end, I've abandoned the chatbot project idea and just switched fully to basically AI powered anki - https://vokabeln.io Your site is very frustrating to navigate. At least on iOS your example videos keep popping up no matter how many times you dismiss them. I couldn’t stay longer than a few seconds. See video attached https://imgur.com/a/uqQ1RSz Thanks a lot for the reply! I did not know safari has some bizarre features like that. Will fix asap. Yes, this app still in active development so I am using it daily. I also faced the issue of run out of things to say, so I made a suggestion features, it will analyze the chat messages and give a list of suggestion to speak. Great story, it shows how many false starts are
required for most. And also how different countries can have different pressing problems / priorities where it may have been hard to kick this off on an English forum. Just tried it out, great product. The app feels smooth but not native, was flutter used? It is React Native Do you have versions of the languages like en-uk vs en-us? It's en-gb not en-uk (uk is Ukrainian!) Are you afraid that you’re going to get hit with legal action because of using Thanos, Messi, Elon Musk, and possibly others? I don’t think they even need the celebs. Generic characters would be better. I’d rather talk to “An Italian cheery tour guide” if learning Italian than some Italian Elon. I think they won't pursue legal action for such language learning app. But still posible. That's why I only show the names of AI characters.