How promoting an app on Sinkers works
- Play. Open sinkers.app in a browser. It is free and there is nothing to install.
- Sign in with X. Your ship joins the ranked ladder.
- Add your app. A name of up to 40 characters, a one-line pitch of up to 60, a category and one https link.
- Climb. Your app is shown on the public leaderboard at your ship's rank, and on your ship before every fight. Beat a ship ranked above you and you trade places with it.
The leaderboard is also published as an ordinary web page that search engines and AI assistants can read, refreshed about every five minutes.
What you get, and what you do not
| You get | You do not get |
|---|---|
| Your app's name, pitch, category and link on a public, indexable leaderboard | A guaranteed position: rank is won in battle and can be taken from you |
| A count of the visits the board has sent to your link | A followed link: links to players' apps are marked as user-supplied |
| Your app shown to every player who fights your ship | Paid boosts for rank: there are none |
| Eight categories to be found under, from AI and developer tools to games and finance | A large audience yet: Sinkers launched in October 2026 |
Sinkers is a small, playful placement, not an advertising network. It costs nothing but the time you spend playing.
Free ways to promote an app
A leaderboard spot works best alongside the basics. For an app with no marketing budget, these do the most:
- A page that explains the app in one sentence, with a screenshot or a short demo video and one clear button.
- An honest store listing. On the App Store and Google Play, the title, the first screenshot and the first line of the description decide most downloads. That is what app store optimisation comes down to for a small app.
- Posting where your users already are: a subreddit, a forum, a Discord, a social media thread. Show the thing working, and say what it is for.
- Directories and launch sites. Free listings add up, and each one is a link back to your page.
- Writing up how you built it. A plain blog post about a real problem you solved travels further than an announcement.
- Asking the first ten users what confused them, and fixing that before looking for the next hundred.
Questions and answers
What is app promotion?
App promotion is everything you do to get an app in front of people who might use it: a clear store listing, a website, posts where your audience already is, press and directories, and paid ads. For a small team most of it is unpaid work done steadily, not one launch-day push.
Can I promote my app for free?
Yes. A website with one clear sentence about what the app does, an honest store listing with good screenshots, posts in the communities your users are in, and free directories all cost time, not money. Sinkers is one more free placement: your app's name, pitch and link on a public leaderboard.
Which single thing should I do if my budget is zero?
Make the first screen people see explain the app in one sentence and show it working. Every other channel sends people to that page or store listing, so it multiplies whatever else you do.
How do I know if promotion is working?
Count visits from each place you post, then installs or sign-ups from those visits. On Sinkers, your profile shows how many visits the billboard has sent to your link; add a tag such as ?ref=sinkers to the link to see them in your own analytics.
How can I use my website to promote my app?
Give the app its own page with a headline that says what it does, a screenshot or short demo video, the price, and one obvious download or sign-up button. Link to it from everywhere you are mentioned, including your Sinkers profile.
Does Sinkers work for mobile apps, or only websites?
Any app with a public https link works: a website, a page on the App Store or Google Play, a Mac app's site, a browser extension or a game.
Is a place on the Sinkers leaderboard paid?
No. There are no bids and no paid placements. A place changes hands only when one ship sinks another.