What the man behind Face Swap told me about getting Recall noticed

Jason Laan has built some of the most downloaded apps in App Store history. I asked him to take an honest look at how I'm marketing Recall — and tell me what I should be doing differently.

Jason is co-founder of Laan Labs, a boutique app studio with nearly twenty years in the game. You've almost certainly used one of their apps. Face Swap Live was the original live face-swapping app — a global phenomenon, a genuine #1 hit. Tap DJ brought professional mixing to iPhone with their signature GyroScratch™ technology. Brothers Christopher and Jason built what most indie founders only dream about: a small team that consistently makes apps people actually want, at scale.

Jason has also been part of building Recall from the start — so he knows the app, the idea, and the problem it solves. That makes his take here different from generic App Store marketing advice. He's not guessing at what Recall is or who it's for. He knows.

What I wanted from this conversation was the unvarnished version. Not a pep talk. The honest answer to: what am I not doing? Where are the gaps? What would someone with two or three App Store number ones do differently?

Six minutes in, and I had a list. Some of it confirmed what I already suspected. Some of it I hadn't thought about at all. That's the value of sitting down with someone who's actually done it — not the theory, the real thing.

One of the things that came through clearly: getting a good app discovered is a completely separate skill from building one. The product being good isn't enough. It never was. The App Store is crowded in a way that rewards clarity, consistency, and showing up in the right places — not just quality alone.

Jason's advice is grounded in nearly twenty years of watching what works and what doesn't. He's not selling a course. He's someone who's been in the game long enough to have seen every trend come and go — and knows which fundamentals actually hold.

Watch the full conversation above. Whether you're an indie dev trying to figure out App Store marketing, a founder wondering how apps actually get discovered, or just curious what goes on behind the scenes — there's a lot here worth your six minutes.

Jason doesn't deal in vague advice. Neither do I.