This week felt like a reset.

After almost two months of just thinking about shipping an update, I finally sat down and pushed a new version of Naam Jap Counter. Not gonna lie, getting back into that “shipping mode” after a gap always feels a bit heavy at first… but once I got into it, things started flowing.

Here’s what went into this release:

• New themes and background images
• Meditation timer (something I personally wanted for a while)
• Calm music on the home screen
• A new pastel pink theme (simple, but feels really soothing)
• Backup for favorite stories and meditation sessions
• Cleaner navigation + small UI improvements across the app
• Fixed the streak tracking issue (this was important)

On paper, it looks like a normal update. But internally, this was one of the fastest feature pushes I’ve done.

I tried something different this time — full-on vibe coding.

Just building, prompting, iterating… not overthinking every decision. I also used Antigravity, and honestly, it made things much smoother. Within 3 days, almost everything was done.

And then… I messed up.

There was a small issue. Instead of fixing it properly, I went lazy mode. Asked AI to undo some changes.

And just like that — 3 days of work gone.

No dramatic story here. Just silence and regret for a few minutes 😅

That moment really made one thing clear:
Vibe coding works, but only if you’re still thinking.

You can’t blindly trust AI. Prompts matter. Intent matters. And you still need to understand what’s happening in your code.

So I slowed things down after that. Rebuilt features properly. And before releasing, I did one thing that actually helped a lot:

I summarized all the features I had built and then asked AI to review the code.

That step alone saved me from a bunch of small issues that could’ve easily slipped into production.

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Also sharing some current stats, because they tell a different side of the story:

• ~17.8K first-time downloads (down ~36%)
• ~178K impressions (down ~25%)
• Conversion rate around 19.3% (slightly down)
• Redownloads up by ~23%

So yeah, new users are down a bit right now, but existing users are coming back more. That’s actually a good sign.

On iOS, the app is sitting at 4.5 rating with 6.4K+ reviews.
On Android, it’s around 4.7 with 100K+ downloads.

That balance feels nice — growth might fluctuate, but retention and user love still look solid.

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End result?

Shipped more features in a week than I usually would… learned a hard lesson about over-trusting AI… and still came out with a solid update.

So yeah, takeaway for me:
Use AI as a tool, not as a brain replacement.

Anyway, the new version is live now.

If you want to check it out:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/naam-jap-counter-mantra-chant/id6748852392
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hindustories.hindustories

Back to building 🚀