Good morning,
Arundhati 👋
Current Streak
🔥 28 days
👟
8,240
Steps
🔥
420
Calories
😴
7.2h
Sleep
Today's Plan
Morning Run - 5km
Hydration - 8 glasses
Meditation - 10 min
Day-30 Retention
68% vs 5.7% avg
2.1M
Downloads
App Store Rating
Downloads in 6 Months
Day-30 Retention Rate
Avg. Session Drop → 6min+
FitLoop - a fitness and habit tracking app - had 340,000 downloads but very low usage. Average session time was just 22 seconds, and only 4.2% users stayed after 30 days.
The problem was simple - the app didn’t show progress, motivation, or a reason to come back daily. So we redesigned onboarding, added streak-based gamification, and made it work offline to fix these issues.
The new version was built using a single React Native codebase, reducing engineering cost by 50% while working smoothly on both iOS and Android.
Retention Curve - Achieved vs Industry Average
D1
D3
D7
D14
D30
FitLoop post-rebuild
Industry average
68%
Day-30 - Achieved
5.7%
Day-30 - Industry Avg
Four diagnosable reasons were found - each with a measurable cost in downloads lost, sessions abandoned, and users who never returned.
The original onboarding flow asked users to complete an 8-field registration form before showing any product value. 71% of new installs were abandoned at this stage - before the app was even used once.
The app required a live internet connection for every interaction. In a market where connectivity is inconsistent, any session interrupted by a network drop resulted in data loss and a force-close - the leading cause of 1-star reviews.
Average session duration was 22 seconds. Users were opening the app, finding nothing to act on, and closing it. There was no personalised feed, no progress indicator, and no reason to return the next day.
The previous app had been built with separate native codebases for iOS and Android - meaning every feature was built twice, every bug was fixed twice, and every update shipped two weeks apart. The engineering cost was unsustainable.
A 12-week programme - research and UX first, design system second, React Native build third, retention engine last. The order was not negotiable.
UX Research
Wk 1–2
Design System
180 components
App Launch
Wk 12
D-30 Retention
68%
Session recordings from the existing app were analysed - 4,200 sessions, 12 screens, 3 critical exit points identified. The onboarding screen was losing 71% of first-time users before they completed their profile.
A 180-component design system was built in Figma - with dark mode, accessibility compliance, and a gamification visual language. Every screen was wireframed before a single high-fidelity pixel was placed.
A single React Native codebase was used to ship simultaneously to iOS and Android - with platform-native interactions, haptic feedback, and an offline-first architecture using SQLite for local data persistence.
A push notification system, a streak gamification loop, and a personalised home feed were implemented in the final two weeks. Day-1 retention was 58% at launch - within 90 days it had reached 68%.
Four key screens were redesigned. Each was measured independently - before launch and 90 days after - using Mixpanel event tracking and Sentry session data.
Onboarding Screen
Before
71% drop-off
After
12% drop-off
Home Feed Screen
Before
22s avg session
After
6m 18s session
Core Feature Screen
Before
34% completion
After
81% completion
Push Opt-in Screen
Before
18% opt-in
After
62% opt-in
4.8★
App Store & Play Store rating
From 2.9★ baseline - 1,240 new 5-star reviews in 90 days
2.1M
Downloads in first 6 months
Organic discovery: 68% - featured in App Store 'New We Love'
68%
Day-30 retention rate
Industry average: 5.7% - streaks + personalisation drove the lift
6m 18s
Average session duration
From 22 seconds baseline - personalised feed drove 17× lift
71%→12%
Onboarding abandonment rate
Progressive onboarding - value shown before registration required
1 codebase
iOS + Android - 50% dev cost reduction
React Native - single codebase, simultaneous platform releases
Technology Stack Used
"Our app had 340,000 downloads and a 22-second average session. We thought we had a marketing problem. Caseyug told us in week one that we had a product problem - specifically, that the onboarding was asking for trust before delivering value. The rebuild addressed that in a single flow change. Day-30 retention went from 4.2% to 68%. That is not a marginal improvement. That is the difference between an app people use and an app people delete."
Arundhati Menon
Co-Founder & CPO, FitLoop
App Store Rating
4.8
from 2.9★ baseline
1,240
new 5-star reviews in 90 days
Your App, Ready to Retain
A free mobile app UX audit is available. Onboarding flow, session duration, retention curve, and drop-off points will all be reviewed - and a prioritised fix list will be delivered within 5 business days.
