Belly Beat - Baby Heartbeat · Maksym Sutkovenko

An iPhone trick turned into a $9.99-a-week subscription: Belly Beat and the crowded "listen to the baby's heartbeat with your phone" niche

What it is A paid app that uses the iPhone mic pressed against the belly and earbuds to let you hear the baby's heartbeat, then saves the recording by gestational week to share with family.

Why it took off "Hear the heartbeat with iPhone and AirPods" videos go viral on TikTok every year. Pregnant viewers who watch them search the App Store, and it turns that traffic into money through Meta ads, a rating prompt before paywall, and a hard paywall with no trial.

CHow you could follow Don't build the same thing; build what it does badly: let people hear it free once, sell the recording as a one-time keepsake with the week and name, or simply add it as a feature to an existing pregnancy app.

Grade C: the playbook is worth learning, but the niche already has 20+ near-identical apps (on both iOS and Android), plus free built-in features and $30 Doppler devices as substitutes. Its top-ranked scale is 80 times the followers' size, so following it is hard to monetize. Few people know about it yet

Data (updated daily) · launched 2026-07-10 · US store rating 87 · charted in 11-08 of 24 stores: iOS · best category chart rank · by store
US storeUKAustralia
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
iOS · rating count · US store
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

A pregnancy app from Ukrainian indie developer July that cracked the top three or so of the English-language "heartbeat listening" apps with 163 ratings. It invented nothing: the demand is what pregnant women have been filming on TikTok every year, and the feature is something the iPhone already has for free. Below, how it captures that traffic, how it makes money, and why following it now has little upside.

A video with 230k views

In 2026 Sep 3, TikTok user @strictlypipa posted a video captioned: "I'm 36 weeks pregnant and just found out you can hear the baby's heartbeat with an iPhone. It really works!" By November the video had 230k views. In Nov 1, another mom at 23 weeks, @lovesayann, posted something similar: "Every time I hear her tiny heartbeat I smile," with 310k views.

This isn't new. The trick: open iPhone's Live Listen (originally built for people with hearing loss), put in AirPods, and slowly move the phone's bottom mic over your belly. It goes viral on TikTok roughly once a year: 2023-11 one video with 960K views, 2025-01 @angelashanhu's tutorial with 2.9M, 2026-03 @mrs.misato with one at 3.86M (search TikTok, 11-06).

Some viewers who watch these videos go to the App Store and search "baby heartbeat." Belly Beat is waiting there: in the US store, searches for "baby heartbeat" and "hear baby heartbeat" both rank it in the top 15 (App Store search, 11-06).

What it is, and how it charges

Belly Beat does what the system feature does: uses the iPhone mic and earbuds to amplify sounds from inside the belly. What it adds is packaging: it guides you to find the right spot, shows a "signal clarity" indicator, saves recordings by week as files like "My Baby's Heartbeat – Week 24" for easy sharing with partners and family, and later added pregnancy progress, baby-size illustrations, daily tips, and a Lock Screen Live Activity. The store page repeatedly says "not a medical device, does not measure fetal heart rate," requires no account, and processes audio on the phone.

Its monetization is hard-edged: no trial, so you pay to subscribe before your first listen. The in-app purchases listed on the App Store page are "BellyBeat Weekly $9.99" and "6 months $59.99" (11-06). Nearly all the negative reviews are about this:

"You have to pay before your first recording… you don't even know what you're paying for… Let people try it first, don't make us rate it and pay monthly right off the bat. We're trying to get pregnant, and $10 a month can go to something more important. Ladies, if you want a Doppler, just buy one, it's about the same price." (US, 10-07)

Another (UK, 11-01) is one line: "Waste of money, no free trial at all."

The negative reviews also reveal its second move: asking you to rate it before you pay. The 13.0.0 update notes from Sep 30 say "you can now rate Belly Beat after completing the tutorial," meaning a rating prompt shows before the paywall. The US store's 86 ratings averaging 4.1 stars were probably built up this way.

Where users come from

Put together, the chain looks like this:

TikTok free demand warm-up. Pregnant women's own "hear the heartbeat with my phone" videos go viral every year, and the developer pays nothing for it.
Meta ads capture the English-speaking market. The developer opened a Facebook page "Belly Beat" with only 1 followers, listing "SUTKOVENKO MAKSYM, PRIVATE ENTREPRENEUR" as the responsible party. 11-01 posted a 11-second vertical video that got 6,100 views over 5 days, with standard ad copy: "✅ Closer to baby ✅ Peace of mind between checkups ✅ 100% safe, recommended by OB-GYNs," followed by a review styled "Hannah from Dallas, TX ★★★★★." A one-follower page reaching 6 thousand views is almost certainly paid (inference); how many ads ran and what they cost is unverified. Ratings are spread across the US 86, UK 32, Canada 23, Australia 12, and New Zealand 6, which also suggests a coordinated push across the five English-speaking markets.
A TikTok alt account was tried and didn't work. Account @natalie.mercer95 posted a picture post with #bellybeat almost daily from Aug 24 to Sep 5, such as "Moms, why aren't you using your phone to hear your baby's heartbeat???", each getting 200 to 1,200 views, then stopped after Sep 5. Likely the developer's own account.
4 months, 14 versions shipped. Each version made the "first listen" easier: voice guidance to find the spot (14.1.0), signal indicators, and pregnancy content. Not hearing anything is the top complaint in reviews of apps like this ("I can't even hear my own heartbeat", Canada, 10-19).

How big is it really?

Not big, and the charts make it look bigger than it is.

163 global ratings in total, 7 new in the past 21 days, roughly 1 to 4 a day (App Store, 10-29 to 11-06).
On the US Reference category Top Grossing chart, it spent 10-28 to 11-06 between #121 and #186, peaking at #121 on 11-03.
It charts most days in 27 to 32 countries' Reference grossing charts, #6 in Jamaica (10-30) and #17 to #23 in New Zealand. But its ratings there are 0 to 6 — Reference's category bar is low, and in small countries a few sales are enough to chart. That says nothing about scale.

At that rank, a few dozen US sales a day would be enough (inferred). It's a viable solo business, not a big opportunity.

Who it's competing with

People have been building in this space for 2016 years, and in the first half of 2026 it turned into a copycat wave:

Product	Launched	Scale (11-06)	Notes
My Baby Heart Sounds	2021-05	Global rating 13,788, #61 on the US Reference grossing chart	Category leader
Hear My Baby Heartbeat	2016-05	Rating 9,190, #116 US grossing	Its own TikTok account has a single video at 18M views (2024-03); the Android app of the same name has 1.76M installs
Pulsey	2025-12	Ranked in 301,60 countries	The lead of this new wave, with TikTok creative in the style of "I didn't believe it… then I could really hear it"
Pulsi	2026-04	Ranked in 93,47 countries	Spanish and French versions already out ("Escucha Latido Bebé", "Écoute Battement Bébé")
Lulla, Badum, TinyBeat, Wombi, Bubbi, Bump Echo, Bellie and a dozen more	2026-04 to 10	Ratings 0 to 78, most not charting	Bellie (10-14) even copies Belly Beat's name
Live Listen on iPhone + AirPods	Built into the system	Free	The biggest competitor; TikTok tutorials teach people how to use it for free
Home fetal Doppler	—	$20–50 one-time purchase	Negative reviews openly tell people to just buy this instead

Android is the same: on Google Play, at least 2026 "Baby Heartbeat Monitor" apps were added between 4 and October 10. Cudly has 110k installs, Bumpi 70k, Thumpi 70k (Google Play installs, 11-06). Spanish, Portuguese and French localized versions have also appeared.

So Belly Beat itself hasn't drawn much attention: no press, no one posting revenue, nobody mentioning it on X in nearly 90 days. But the space it sits in is already crowded. It's the best of the followers, not the first mover.

What to learn from it

What's actually worth taking from this case is a way to find demand, not the category itself:

Spot tricks that go viral on TikTok but need a hidden system feature to pull off, then build a single-purpose app. Someone else warms up the demand for free; you just catch it in store search.
Emotional and anxiety-driven use cases have high willingness to pay and low price sensitivity. A hard paywall gets each ad dollar back fastest; the cost is bad reviews.
Ask for a rating before the paywall. In low-bar categories across many countries, a few sales are enough to chart, and the chart adds a bit of organic traffic.

The risk is here too: an ad that says "recommended by obstetricians" can get an app that explicitly calls itself "not a medical device" taken down by Apple or Meta review at any time.

If it were you

C. Learn the playbook, but don't enter this category. 20 near-identical clones, a free system feature, and a $30 Doppler are all competing for the same pregnant users. The leader has been at it for five years and is 80 times the size of this one.

Who it suits: people who already run pregnancy or parenting apps with an existing user base, who can add "listen + weekly recordings" as a feature to drive subscriptions. Or people who want to practice the TikTok demand + Meta ads + hard paywall playbook and can accept small money as a learning exercise.

Who it doesn't suit: anyone hoping to make real money from this single product; anyone who expects to rely on paid ads or organic store traffic (the TikTok traffic goes to the system feature, not to you); anyone sensitive to bad reviews and refunds.

How to do it: if you do build it, don't make the 21th identical copy. Fix what the others got wrong: let people hear it for free once before asking for money. Nearly all the negative reviews are about paying without a trial. Then turn the recordings into something people want to share with family (a short video with weeks and name, a "first sound" keepsake for the baby), and sell one-time keepsakes instead of $9.99 a week.

How to get users: use the creative format this category has already proven: a vertical video of the pregnant person with a hand on her belly, going from doubt to delight. Target languages outside English that Pulsi and Mommi don't yet cover.

When to move: these tricks tend to go viral roughly every 6 to 12 months. Claim your store search position before the next wave. This is an inference; there's no fixed schedule.

What would prove you wrong: ① Belly Beat's or Pulsey's ratings accelerate noticeably over the next 30 days (more than 10 a day), meaning demand is still growing and not saturated. ② Someone publicly posts that apps like this earn tens of thousands of dollars a month, meaning there's more money than it looks. ③ The reverse: Apple or Meta start removing or rejecting apps that claim "fetal heartbeat", and the whole category shuts down.

iOS store page ↗

Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report

Competitors

Name	Where	Launched	Scale	How it differs from this one
My Baby Heart Sounds	iOS	2021-05	Rated in 13,788,104 storefronts, #61 on the US Reference grossing chart	The leader, and by far the biggest. Belly Beat has the same features, with a newer "quiet, private" look, and archives by week of pregnancy.
Hear My Baby Heartbeat (HMB 2.0)	iOS	2016-05	Rating 9,190, #116 US grossing; its official TikTok account has a single video at 18M views	Long-established, using organic traffic from its official TikTok account, and has added AI chat. Belly Beat has no content-account momentum and relies on paid ads.
Pulsey	iOS	2025-12	Charted in 301,60 storefronts, best category rank #2	The lead of the 2026 wave, with TikTok creator-style creative. Features are basically the same as Belly Beat's.
Pulsi	iOS	2026-04	Rated in 93,47 storefronts, best #4	Same-type reskin, uses a TikTok account to post tutorials
A dozen-plus 2026 reskins (Lulla, Badum, TinyBeat, Bebito, Wombi, Bubbi, Bellie and more)	iOS	2026-04 to 10	Ratings 0–78, most not charting	Belly Beat ships more often (4 versions in 14 months), has onboarding and pregnancy content, and is actually running paid acquisition
Live Listen on iPhone + AirPods	Big-company features	System feature	Free; single TikTok tutorials at 2.9M to 3.86M views	Free but clunky, can't save or share recordings. Belly Beat sells the ritual and keepsake that the built-in feature lacks.
Home fetal Doppler	Other	—	$20–$50 one-time purchase	Real hardware, reliable results. Negative reviews openly tell people to just buy this instead.

Where users come from

Verified TikTok organic content warms up demand, then sends people to store search: "iPhone + AirPods heartbeat" tutorials went viral several times (@angelashanhu 2.9M, @mrs.misato 3.86M, @lovesayann 11-01 310k views). Belly Beat ranks near the top of US store search for terms like "baby heartbeat" 15.
Inferred Meta paid ads: a newly created Facebook app page for "Belly Beat" (1 followers, run by SUTKOVENKO MAKSYM, PRIVATE ENTREPRENEUR). A 11-01 ad video has 5K views over 6.1 days, with copy saying "OB recommended" and fake user reviews. Number of live ads not verified.
Verified TikTok persona alt account: @natalie.mercer95 posted one #bellybeat engagement-bait post a day from 08-24 to 09-05, each getting 200–1,200 views, then stopped posting.
Verified Rating prompts before payment: the 13.0.0 (09-30) update notes say "rate Belly Beat after completing the tutorial", and negative reviews say users were asked to rate before seeing the paywall.
Verified Wide rollout plus low-bar categories: it charts in 27–32 storefronts a day on the Reference charts, and in small storefronts even with zero ratings it can enter the top 50 grossing.

Why Belly Beat - Baby Heartbeat (iOS id6780873558) is getting traction

Data date 2026-11-06. Sources = agent-im servers' appstore / metaads databases; web pages read via Jina. Inferences are marked "inferred".

One line

A "pregnancy emotional" app that uses the iPhone mic against the belly, listens to the heartbeat through AirPods, and saves recordings by week of pregnancy. The developer is an independent developer from Ukraine (the Facebook page says "SUTKOVENKO MAKSYM, PRIVATE ENTREPRENEUR", phone +380). Launched 2026-07-10 with a hard paywall, about $10/month. It isn't the category pioneer; it's a late entrant to a niche that's already been validated. The demand comes from the "Live Listen on iPhone + AirPods heartbeat" trick that keeps going viral on TikTok. Through Meta ads, store search, prompted ratings and frequent updates, it has climbed to about third place on the English-language Reference grossing chart in this space.

1. Current data

Rating count: 163 total across all storefronts (2026-11-06, appstore database app_day). Of that, US 86 (4.07 stars, iTunes lookup), UK 32, Canada 23, Australia 12, New Zealand 6. Across all storefronts, 7 new ratings in the last 21 days, about 1–4 a day (database, 10-29 to 11-06).
Charts (appstore database chart_rank, genre 6006 Reference):
- On the US Reference grossing chart it ranged from #121 to #186 between 10-28 and 11-06 (best 11-03, #121). On the US Reference free chart it first charted on 11-02, ranging from #164 to #203.
- Small stores rank high but have low bars: Jamaica Top Grossing #6 (10-30), Azerbaijan Top Grossing #7 (10-29), New Zealand #17–#23, Australia #23 (11-04), Iceland #21. These stores have 0–6 ratings, which means a handful of purchases can chart in the Reference Top Grossing list in small stores. Between 27 and 32 stores chart on any given day.
Versions: 4 releases over 14.2.1 months (App Store version history), a little more than one per week on average.
10-30 global rating count dropped from 152 to 147. Most likely Apple's per-store aggregation fluctuations or cleanup; not enough evidence to call it review manipulation.

2. Competitors (find the same category first)

iTunes search plus the appstore library (app / app_profile) searched by name turned up at least 20 apps doing the same thing:

Product	Launched	Scale (library, 2026-11-06)	Notes
My Baby Heart Sounds(AESTHETIC WIDGETS LTD)	2021-05	Rated in 13,788,104 storefronts, #61 on the US Reference grossing chart	Category leader
Hear My Baby Heartbeat(Fat Cigar)	2016-05	9,190,93 store ratings; US Top Grossing #116; TikTok official account @hearmybabyapp has a single video with 18M views (2024-03)	Veteran; launched an AI chat called "HMB 2.0"
Pulsey(John Hetfield)	2025-12	301,60 store ratings; best category rank #2	The head of this wave of 2026 newcomers: TikTok @pulseyapp has creator-style "I was skeptical… but it works" videos.
Pulsi(Kadir Kad)	2026-04-28	93,47 store ratings; best #4; TikTok @pulsi.app4 single video with 66k views
BabyDoppler	2021	1,175 ratings (only in 1 stores)	Sells companion hardware
Baby Heart Beat: Fetal Doppler / Lulla / Badum / TinyBeat / Bebito / Wombi / LittleBeats / HeyBaby / Bubbi / Tiny Pulse / Bump Echo / Bellie, among others	2026-04 to 10	0–78 ratings; most never charted	A copycat wave from 2026 years ago
Apple's built-in Live Listen + AirPods	System feature	Free	The biggest substitute: on TikTok, @angelashanhu's tutorial has 2.9M views and @mrs.misato 3.86M; it's also spreading on Reddit r/pregnant and WhatToExpect forums
Physical fetal Doppler	—	$20–$50	A one-star review says outright: "this price is less than buying a Doppler"

Takeaway: this category has already been validated. Paid products existed 2016 and 2021 years ago; after Pulsey took off in the first half of 2026, a wave of clones appeared. Belly Beat is one of those followers, and the best-performing one in its tier.

3. Growth tactics (where users come from)

Demand is pre-warmed by organic TikTok content (confirmed): the "listen to the heartbeat with iPhone + AirPods" trick goes viral on TikTok every year (TikHub search: 2023-11 @mealinmar 960k views, 2025-01 @angelashanhu 2.9M, 2026-03 @mrs.misato 3.86M, 2026-09 @strictlypipa 230k, 2026-11-01 @lovesayann 310k). Pregnant users who watch these go to the App Store and search "baby heartbeat", landing in this type of app. Belly Beat ranks in the top 15 for "baby heartbeat" and "hear baby heartbeat" in the US store (iTunes search API).
Meta paid ads (highly likely): the developer opened a Facebook app page named "Belly Beat" (page 61594416595713, only 1 followers, listed as run by SUTKOVENKO MAKSYM, PRIVATE ENTREPRENEUR). 11-01 posted a 11-second vertical video that got 5 views in 6,100 days, with standard ad copy: "✅ Feel closer to your baby ✅ Feel comfort between scans ✅ 100% safe and OB recommended", plus fake reviews like "Hannah from Dallas, TX ★★★★★". A page with one follower getting 6 thousand views is most likely driven by ads (inference). Our metaads library doesn't track this Page, and the ad library page did not render, so the ad count is unverified. Spreading across English-speaking markets (US / UK / CA / AU / NZ) also fits Meta's English-market targeting.
TikTok persona account test (confirmed, mediocre results): @natalie.mercer95 posted one a day from 2026-08-24 to 09-05, all tagged #bellybeat, using bait-for-comments captions like "MOMS, why you don't popularize listening to baby's heartbeat using phone???"; each post got 200–1,200 views, and the posting stopped after 9-05. Inference: the developer tried organic traffic from a personal account, it didn't work, and they switched to Meta ads.
In-store rating prompt (confirmed): 13.0.0 (09-30)'s update notes say "You can now rate Belly Beat after completing the tutorial." A one-star review (US, 10-07) complains "asking me to rate before paying," meaning the rating prompt shows up before the paywall. That's how a US 4.1-star rating across 86 ratings was built.
High-frequency ASO / onboarding iteration (confirmed): 14 major versions added pregnancy week, baby-size illustrations, daily quotes, pregnancy Insights, a lock-screen Live Activity, and voice guidance for finding the spot (14.1.0). All aim to raise the success rate of the "first time you hear it" moment and build anticipation before the paywall.
Not found: X discussion (90 posts in 0 days per x-radar), press coverage, TrustMRR / founder revenue posts, Product Hunt.

4. Why it took off

The demand is ready-made and continually supplied from outside: "hear the heartbeat with a phone" tutorials go viral on TikTok every year. The system feature can do it but it's clumsy (you have to turn on Live Listen yourself, find the spot, can't record, can't share). Paid apps sell "packaging the free trick with ceremony + keepsakes".
Emotional spending, high willingness to pay: pregnancy anxiety ("Feel comfort between scans") plus keepsakes (recordings saved by pregnancy week, shared with family). Users are price-insensitive and subscribe impulsively.
Hard paywall + rating before use: $10/month with no trial. Three one-star reviews all complain about this (library review table: gb 11-01, ca 10-19, ca 08-21), but this kind of wall gets each ad dollar paid back fastest. At the US Reference Top Grossing #121–#186 bar, a few dozen purchases a day is enough (inference).
Small countries + low-bar category: in the Reference category, a handful of purchases can reach the top 50 in small stores, so "charting in 27–32 stores" reflects a low category bar more than large scale.

5. Differentiation

Compared with My Baby Heart Sounds, Hear My Baby, and Pulsey, the features are nearly identical: mic amplification, recording, sharing. Where Belly Beat differs is packaging and experience:

The brand is quieter, gentler, and more privacy-focused: no account, on-device processing, repeated "not a medical device" disclaimers, age rating 16+, and steadier compliance;
"Heartbeat Moments" archives by pregnancy week, auto-naming files "My Baby's Heartbeat – Week 24" for easy sharing;
A signal-clarity indicator and voice guidance for finding the spot, aimed at the biggest pain point: "I can't hear it";
Gradually expanding into a pregnancy companion (week, baby size, Insights cards) to give subscribers reasons to renew.

These differences are not the main reason it broke out. Its visibility on the charts comes from the existing TikTok demand, Meta ads, the hard paywall, and the rating prompt: the distribution and monetization playbook. Differentiation at most lets it convert a bit better than the many clones (inference).

6. How many people see it, and whether anyone is copying it

Visibility: few people know about it yet. No public revenue, no press, no X discussion, only automated aggregator pages like appbrain / similarweb / foxdata.
But the category itself is already crowded: 2026 saw a dozen-plus same-name clones launch between 4 and October. Launched after it: Bubbi (07-14), Tiny Pulse (07-16), Baby Heart Beat Monitor + (09-02), Hear Baby Heart Beat: Doppler (09-11), Bump Echo (09-23), and Bellie: Hear My Baby Heartbeat (10-14, whose name clearly follows Belly). Bubbi also posts the same "Just your iPhone, no extra equipment" videos on TikTok (10-16, 10-19).

7. What to borrow

Find a trick that repeatedly goes viral on TikTok but requires a hidden system feature to do, and package it as a single-purpose paid app: others are warming up demand for free, and you just catch the store search.
Pair emotional, anxiety-driven use cases with a hard paywall, and ask users to rate before paying; in a low-bar category (Reference), spreading across many countries can reach Top Grossing.
Use a new Facebook app page with UGC-style review videos to run ads in English markets; a TikTok persona account is a cheap test, stop if it doesn't work.
Risks: medical claims in ads ("OB recommended") may get flagged by Apple or Meta review; no trial means many negative reviews; heavy homogeneity.

8. Still unclear

Ad count, spend, and how long they ran on Meta (this Page isn't tracked in the library);
Actual subscription price and whether there's an annual plan (only $10/month seen in reviews);
Whether the developer is the LinkedIn Senior AI Engineer Maxim Sutkovenko of Readdle (same name, not verified); the developer also lists other apps like Better Hair in some stores (mentioned on the ml-store developer page), while only Nail Diva appears in the US store;
Why 10-30 ratings count dropped.

Sources

App Store: apps.apple.com/us/app/belly-beat-baby-heartbeat/id6780873558 (version history, negative reviews); iTunes lookup / search API (2026-11-06)
Website: bellybeat.app/
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/people/Belly-Beat/61594416595713/; video: www.facebook.com/61594416595713/videos/listen-for-your-babys…
TikTok (TikHub search for "belly beat app" and "hear baby heartbeat iphone"; user natalie.mercer95 post list)
Reddit:www.reddit.com/r/pregnant/comments/1ljydgb/i_used_my_iphonea…
appstore library (app_profile / app_day / chart_rank / review / app, 2026-10-28 through 11-06); metaads library (does not track this Page)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.