CASE STUDY
Pouch Count Nicotine Tracker Mobile App
After launching Pouch Count on October 1, 2024, I saw organic traction from users who wanted to track their nicotine pouch habits. But as usage data came in, it became clear: people needed more reasons to return. This case study covers the 2.0 update, a full product refactor focused on social motivation, advanced tracking, and personalization. The result: stronger engagement, accountability, and retention.
- Updated: April 12, 2025
The Problem
The MVP did one thing well: basic pouch tracking. But it lacked depth.
- Users tracked for a day or two, then disappeared
- No features for social motivation or goal-setting
- Stats were underused and underwhelming
- UI felt sterile and uninviting
- Reviews said “useful, but needs more”
Despite over 100 installs in the first 14 days, retention fell off quickly without any community or streak-based incentive.
The Goal
Turn Pouch Count into a daily habit-forming experience through:
- Push notifications for different scenarios (server side)
- Social features that create peer accountability
- More meaningful stats and visual data
- Personalization (theme, icons, multi-pouch support)
- Better UI flow and mobile UX polish (and performance as a byproduct)
My Work/Roles
- UI Design
- UX Strategy
- Product Strategy
- Flutter Frontend Development
- Pocketbase Backend Development
- App Store Strategy & SEO
Time to complete:
- ~6-8 weeks
The Results
User signups/installs
from ~80/month to ~200/month
Sessions per day
Up from 1.87 average
Increase in active weekly users
from 12/week to 50+ per week
What I Changed
Pouch Groups (Social Layer)
A key unlock for retention: small group dynamics drive accountability and/or competition
- Invite-only or public groups
- Real-time stats: “Last pouch,” “Total today,” “Longest streak”
- Group leaderboard to show top performers
- Users can belong to multiple groups (e.g. friends, subreddit)
- Group bios + profile links
The result was more reopens, more invites, and sticky behavior. over 60 pouch groups were created within the first week of launching the feature.
Multi Pouch Mode
Not all users consume one pouch at a time, many do two or more simultaneously. This feature was built specifically for those users.
- Enables tracking of multiple pouches at once in a single session
- Each pouch is still logged individually for accurate mg totals
- Behind the scenes: uses a batch group ID system
- All pouches in a batch start and end at the same time
- UI adapts to show pouch count per log + combined impact
This was a major infrastructure challenge. It required decoupling pouch sessions from being strictly 1:1 and introduced logic to sync grouped entries while preserving analytics integrity.
Improve Stats Dashboard
Previously, the stats were 1 dimensional, just simple cards on a page route. Switching between time scales was also a UX nightmare before. I brought them forward by creating:
- New dashboard with streaks, averages, graphs
- "Longest time without a pouch" and “Longest pouch session"
- Daily log view + visual insights (bar charts, time gaps)
- Simplified data points in a dropdown instead of cards. 1 chart area
- Unified page view instead of a modal bottom sheet
This drove better self-awareness and a clear feeling of progress for users. The change was appreciated by the data lovers as well.
Old
New
Theme & UI Customization (Pro)
To make the app feel more personal & hop on the growing trend of consumers yearning for customizable interfaces:
- Pro users can pick a theme color + layout style
- App icon customization
- Future-proofed for seasonal/limited-time themes
Nearly all pro users have opted to change the theme of their Pouch Count installation!
User Profiles & Country Metadata
Every user has a shareable profile, along with "Follow" feature so users can be more engaged with each other or their peers.
- View recent tracked usage stats, streaks, current can, etc.
- Country/state location metadata for leaderboard context
- PRO "verified" badges that play off of premium social networks
These simple changes enabled more visibility in social/group experiences.
Bug Fixes & Infra Improvements
There was no shortage of bugs, as I was eager to get the MVP out ASAP. I knew I overlooked some things, but being solo and striking the iron while it's hot is more important.
- Fixed time zone bugs on streak resets
- Reduced failed pouch logs from 1.4% to <0.1%
- Refactored storage for faster load on large user logs
- Added fallback logic for offline use + sync queues
- Added smart loading & skeleton animations for more visual feedback
Creating an app that's used in nearly 100 countries is a huge undertaking.
What I Learned
- Social dynamics are the best retention strategy
- Push Notifications are an engagement multiplier.
- Visual progress > raw data when it comes to habit apps
- Speeding up log entry directly correlates with engagement
- Community > features. People keep people coming back
- Theme customization is an underrated engagement lever
- Some users just want to visualize data & not quit their habits, which is a whole different user type.
Final Notes
This wasn’t just a feature update, it was a shift in purpose. Pouch Count went from a solo tracker to a tool for community, discipline, and personal insight. Every feature in 2.0 was tied to engagement, retention, motivation and self-accountability. I think the numbers speak for themselves.