After a 19-year-old TikToker made a sign language app go viral, a subscription factory followed it three weeks later: 9k installs, rating 2.7
What it is An Android app for learning American Sign Language: a video for each sign, plus quizzes, a dictionary and a mascot, sold as weekly, 3-month or annual subscriptions.
Why it took off A TikToker from a Deaf family with a million followers first made Anna and then their own Ziggy go viral. Ziggy was estimated at $200k in monthly revenue and was widely dissected. This app launched right in that window under the generic name "ASL Lessons," picking up New Releases exposure, and it most likely also bought some paid traffic.
DHow you could follow Don't copy American Sign Language as-is. If you really want to build this, pick a sign language nobody is doing yet (Japanese, Korean, German, etc.), have local Deaf people record the lessons, make the first few lessons free, and partner with a local Deaf family creator or sign language teacher to bring in traffic first.
- Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-10-15 · 11-04 installs 7,579
Android · Total installs worldwide Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-04 (7 days, 7 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.Android · Ratings count (cumulative) Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-04 (7 days, 7 observations)
ASL Lessons is an Android app that teaches American Sign Language. It launched Oct 15, got about 9k installs in three weeks, and charted in the US store's free Education list. It has no story of its own. The demand came from TikTok creators behind sign language apps like Anna and Ziggy, and the app rides the overflow with a generic name and a subscription paywall copied from elsewhere. Users in the reviews now say the same thing: they're asked to pay before they've learned anything. This piece covers how it came about, why it can't hold on, and what's left in this space.
A one-star review, and a reply that doesn't address it
In Nov 4, a user named Kelli Deffenbaugh gave ASL Lessons one star on Google Play with one line:
"it wante me to buy just to learn goodbye". It wanted me to pay just to learn 'goodbye'.
The developer replied:
"ASL learning app is powered by advanced, resource-intensive technology, and generation costs are high." The app runs on advanced, resource-heavy tech, so generation costs are high.
The problem is that a sign language app doesn't generate anything. The store listing makes that clear: each sign is a pre-recorded video, plus quizzes and a dictionary. The line about "generation costs" reads like it was carried over from another product by the same developer. Fableso's biggest app is Yuna, an AI music video generator.
The same week, three more reviews said much the same (Google Play, 10-30 to 11-04): "I just want to learn sign language, but I have to buy a membership first" and "You only let me do 1 lessons, at least let us learn a bit more." A two-star reviewer said they wanted to become a sign language teacher, "can't afford it, but I really love this app."
Who made it
The developer is Fableso, website fableso.com. On Google Play it has Yuna (AI music videos, launched March 2026, about 610k installs; third-party estimates of about $150k monthly revenue), Wubo (TV casting and themes, launched Oct 16), and ASL Lessons, launched Oct 15. On iOS it also has small utilities like a color-grading dictionary and dual-camera recording. ASL Lessons and Wubo launched a day apart, so they look like part of the same batch of test products.
This is a subscription factory that chases whatever is hot. What it brought to sign language is a paywall, weekly plans, a 3-day free trial, and price tiers from $7.99 to $119.99 (from the Play listing). Nothing sign-language specific: no Deaf teachers, no gesture recognition. It's currently Android only, with no iOS version (App Store lookup, 11-06).
How it grew
| Date | Total installs |
|---|---|
| 10-15 | Launched |
| 10-22 | 1,660 (third-party estimate) |
| 10-27 | 3,275 (third-party estimate) |
| 10-31 | 5,047 |
| 11-03 | 7,579 |
| 11-06 | 8,951 |
Last 7 days +4,298 (Google Play installs, 11-03). The curve moves in steps: late October it was about 300 a day. Between October 27 and 29, third-party estimates show only 6 more over two days. After the Oct 30 release with 1.0.3, it jumped to 800 to 900 a day. Organic traffic rarely drops to zero for two days and then triples the next, so this looks more like a paid acquisition budget switched on, off, and on again (inference; I did not find its ads).
US Education free category chart: it ranked 81, 85, 71, 58, 55, 41, and 79 from 10-29 to 11-04. A third-party chart site also shows it reached #1 on the US Education new-release free chart (not verified).
The rating is the number to watch. In Oct 29 it had 4.8 stars and 6 ratings. In Nov 6 it had 2.7 stars and 8 ratings, and every new rating was one or two stars. About 9k installs produced only 8 ratings, roughly one in a thousand. The comparable app Ziggy has about 100k installs on Play and over 7k ratings, about 7%. Most people arrive not because someone recommended it but because they came across it, installed it, and left at the paywall (inference).
Who drove the demand
This wave of sign language apps traces back to one person: Jared Huseby, a 19-year-old TikToker with deaf parents (a CODA, a hearing child of Deaf parents) and a million followers. His videos are mostly about teaching his girlfriend sign language and daily bits about his Deaf parents. Aug 21: a video teaching his girlfriend sign, captioned "this might be a mistake 😭", 5.72M views. Nov 4: a sketch about "Deaf parents" with 460k views (TikTok, 11-06).
- Anna (French team, launched February 2026): in its early days it was promoted in the outro of creator videos. According to onbo-hub's breakdown, it had 50k downloads in 30 days, and 250k cumulative by May. Today on Play it has about 300k installs and a 4.6 rating.
- Ziggy (2026, iOS in July and Android in September): built by Jared himself. Sensor Tower estimates over $200k in September revenue. Around Oct 20, onbo-hub, Medium, and a Japanese newsletter ran breakdowns with headlines like "19-year-old turns his Deaf parents' language into a $200k-a-month app." At the same time, a batch of *.learns.asl and asl.with.* alt accounts on TikTok posted "this app is really good."
ASL Lessons launched Oct 15, one week before Ziggy's revenue went public. Searching TikTok for "ASL Lessons app", "learn ASL app", and "fableso" returns Ziggy, Lingvano, ASL Bloom, and Otty in the top 20 results. None of them mention it (TikHub, 11-06). On X, nobody mentioned Fableso in nearly 60 days.
What it gets is store search and new-release exposure. The name is literally "ASL Lessons", and the description repeats learn ASL, sign language app, and ASL dictionary. The results are limited, though. In Nov 6, searching "learn ASL" and "sign language app" on the US Play store didn't show it in the top 10. It only ranked #2 for "ASL lessons".
Who it's competing with
| Product | Launched | Scale | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lingvano | 2021 | Play 2.84M installs, 4.8 rating; claims 5M learners | Deaf teachers record lessons, gesture recognition corrects in real time, category leader |
| Hand Talk | 2013 | Play 6.96M installs | Makes translations (3D characters signing), not courses |
| Sign Language ASL Pocket Sign | 2020 | Play 2.34M installs | Long-running dictionary plus courses |
| ASL Bloom(SignLab) | 2022 | 940k Play installs, +7k in the last 13 days | A structured course of 20 modules; the same company also makes British, Australian, Brazilian, and Pakistani sign languages |
| Anna | 2026-02 | About 300k installs on Play | Creator-driven growth, features nearly identical to this app |
| Ziggy | 2026-07 | Play about 100k installs, estimated September $200k+ | The founder is a creator himself, plus a matrix of alt accounts |
| ASL Otty | 2025-10 | iOS 5k+ ratings | Also runs creator content on TikTok |
(Google Play installs and search results, 10-29 to 11-06)
ASL Lessons' feature list (video lessons, quizzes, dictionary, mascot, learning paths generated by goal) maps almost one-to-one onto Anna and Ziggy. This space isn't short of products or of publicized success stories. The few that actually broke out all have a person behind them: a Deaf teacher, or a young Deaf-family creator with a million followers.
If it were you
D: Look into it, but don't copy it. The demand for this category is real, but it was driven by a person a copycat can't match. The revenue has been made public and broken down several times, and copycats are already moving in. This app itself, with 9k installs in three weeks and a rating that fell to 2.7, also shows that changing the name and adding a paywall doesn't hold up.
Who it suits: you or a partner are Deaf, a CODA, or a sign language teacher, or you already have content and trust within a particular country's sign language community. This space rewards only that kind of person.
Who it doesn't suit: template-based factories and indie developers with no sign language background, who rely on a paywall and a product template, and anyone who wants to compete head-on with Lingvano, Ziggy, or Anna for American Sign Language.
How to do it: if you really want to build this, change the country. Japanese Sign Language, Korean Sign Language, German Sign Language, and Spanish-speaking sign languages are each separate languages, so not one lesson of ASL can be reused. Courses should be recorded by local Deaf people. Make the first lessons free and charge once learners see progress. Don't put up a paywall at lesson one like ASL Lessons did.
How to get users: find people first, then build the app. Partner with a local Deaf-family creator or sign language teacher on a revenue split, and let them bring users through their own videos. That's the only route Anna and Ziggy have proven. Store search and paid acquisition can only be supplements.
When to move: no rush. The American Sign Language window has already been taken by this wave. For other languages, the window depends on when a local "Jared" appears, not on when you launch.
What would show this read is wrong: (1) ASL Lessons reaches 50k cumulative installs before December and its rating climbs back above 4, which would mean the "generic name + paid acquisition + subscription paywall" model works in this category too. (2) Fableso brings it to iOS, or uses the same template to ship British or Australian sign language versions, which would mean its numbers add up. (3) A sign language app with no creator backing, relying only on the store and ads, charts in the US Education top grossing list, which would mean demand is big enough that it no longer needs a person.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Lingvano iOS 2021 Play 2.84M installs, iOS 121k ratings; claims 5M learners Deaf teachers record lessons, gesture recognition corrects mistakes; category leader. ASL Lessons has neither ASL Bloom(SignLab) Android 2022-06 Play 940k installs, iOS 38k ratings A structured system of 20 modules plus a multi-country sign language catalog Anna : Sign Language(Lioruby) iOS 2026-02-12 Play 296k installs, 8.7k ratings; 250k cumulative downloads by May Grew from Jared Huseby's TikTok creator videos; features nearly identical Ziggy: Learn ASL iOS 2026-07-21(Android 2026-09-03) Play 98k installs, iOS 7,121 rating; Sensor Tower estimates $200K+ in September The founder is the million-follower CODA TikToker, plus an alt-account matrix. ASL Lessons has neither content nor a person behind it Hand Talk Android 2013 Play 6.96M installs Makes translations (3D characters signing), not courses ASL Otty iOS 2025-10 iOS 5,056 ratings Also runs creator content on TikTok Sign Language ASL Pocket Sign Android 2020 Play 2.34M installs Long-running dictionary / courses - Where users come from
- Verified Riding category demand + store search (ASO): launched 10-15, right when Ziggy and Anna were being pushed by TikTok and Ziggy's revenue was being broken down publicly (10-19 to 23). The name uses the generic phrase ASL Lessons, and the description repeats learn ASL and ASL dictionary.
- Verified Store new-release chart / category chart: US Education free category rank 41–85 (googleplay library, 10-29 to 11-04). The recall card cites AppBrain: Top New Free Education #1.
- Inference Paid acquisition (likely Google App Campaigns): installs come in steps: about 300/day → 10-28/29 two days +6 → about 850/day after the 10-30 release. Rating rate is about 0.1%, and new ratings are mostly 1–2 stars. The ad library doesn't cover it.
- Inference TikTok / creators: TikHub search for related terms returns Ziggy, Lingvano, Bloom, and Otty in the top 20 results. This app doesn't appear. 0 posts on X.
ASL Lessons: Learn & Practice(Fableso,Google Play com.asl.learning)
In one sentence: the product factory Fableso listed an American Sign Language (ASL) learning app on Google Play on 2026-10-15 (video lessons, dictionary, practice, mascot, weekly/3-month/annual subscriptions, 3-day trial). It has no story of its own. It's riding a sign language app gold rush that has already been publicly reported: Anna (2026-02), then Ziggy (2026-07, founded by a million-follower TikTok CODA teen, with Sensor Tower estimating over $200K in September revenue), then a wave of copycats, of which ASL Lessons is one. In three weeks it reached about 9k installs with no visible creators and no visible content. Its install curve moves in on-off-on steps, which looks more like small paid budgets plus new-release chart exposure. It hasn't broken out.
1. Data (our library, googleplay)
| Date | Total installs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 10-15 | — | Store launch (app.released) |
| 10-22 | 1,660 | Tracking started per AppstoreSpy estimates |
| 10-26 / 10-27 | 3,015 / 3,275 | About 260–300/day |
| 10-27 → 10-29 | 3,275 → 3,281 | Only +6 in two days (AppstoreSpy estimates ipd≈3) |
| 10-30 | — | Shipped version 1.0.3 (app_snap.updated_at 10-30) |
| 10-31 | 5,047 | Picking up again, about 850/day |
| 11-03 | 7,579 | installs_gain_7d = 4,298 |
| 11-05 | 8,951 | AppstoreSpy estimate, about 690/day |
- Charts: we only see it on the US store's Education Free category chart, ranking #81 → #85 → #71 → #58 → #55 → #41 → #79 (10-29 to 11-04, chart_rank). The recall card also says AppBrain shows it at #1 on the US store's Top New Free Education chart, and Applyra at #70 on US Education Free (the AppBrain page is behind a captcha, not re-checked).
- Ratings: 10-29 is 4.8 (6 ratings), and 11-04 has dropped to 3.29 (8 ratings, histogram [2,1,0,1,3]; the new ones are all 1–2 stars). About 7.5k installs yield only 8 ratings, a rating rate of about 0.1%, versus Ziggy's 7,273 ratings on 98k installs (about 7%). Most users aren't high-intent referrals; they hit the paywall and leave.
- Monetization: in-app purchases of $7.99–$119.99, with the store listing showing weekly / 3-month / annual subscriptions, all with a 3-day free trial (Play listing). No Top Grossing ranking.
- Android only: Fableso's iOS developer page (id 1879747677) lists only Yuna, Sanzo color dictionary, Rec Me Duo, and Wubo, with no ASL app (iTunes lookup, 11-06).
2. Developer Fableso
- Website fableso.com, email [email protected]. On Play: Yuna (AI music video generator, listed 2026-03-18, 609,838 total installs, +7 in the last 39,503 days), Wubo: TV Booster & Themes (listed 10-16, 2,660), and ASL Lessons. AppBrain says 6 Android apps total, about 600k installs. ScreensDesign estimates Yuna's monthly revenue at about $150K (screensdesign.com/developers/fableso).
- In one line: a subscription app factory that chases whatever's trending (AI video, TV tools, color dictionary, dual-camera recorder, sign language). ASL Lessons and Wubo launched a day apart, part of the same batch of experiments. What it brings over is the paywall-plus-subscription playbook, not sign language expertise.
3. Competitors (who's doing the same thing)
| Product | Platform | Launched | Scale (our database / web) | How it differs from ASL Lessons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lingvano | iOS / Android / web | 2021 | Play 2.84M installs, 80k ratings 4.79; iOS 121k ratings; claims 5M learners | Deaf teachers record lessons, gesture recognition gives real-time correction, category leader |
| ASL Bloom(SignLab) | iOS / Android | 2022-06 | Play 940k installs, +12.8k in 7 days; iOS 38k ratings | A structured course of 20 modules plus a large dictionary; the same company also has BSL / Auslan / Brazilian Libras |
| Hand Talk | iOS / Android | 2013 | Play 6.96M installs | A translator (text to sign language with a 3D character), not a course |
| Sign Language ASL Pocket Sign | Android | 2020 | Play 2.34M installs | Long-running dictionary / courses |
| Anna : Sign Language (Lioruby, France) | iOS / Android | 2026-02-12 | Play 296k installs, 8.7k ratings 4.64, in-app purchases up to $149.99 | The first of this wave: it took off on Jared Huseby's TikToks, which end with him saying "recommend Anna". 30 days, 50k; 250k cumulative downloads by May (onbo-hub) |
| Ziggy(OneDegree Labs / Jared Huseby) | iOS 2026-07-21,Android 2026-09-03 | 2026-07 | Play 98k installs (from September to now about 1–1.5k a day), iOS 7,121 ratings; Sensor Tower estimates September revenue of $200K+ | The founder is a million-follower TikToker (CODA) with built-in reach; plus a batch of *.learns.asl / asl.with.* alt accounts posting "this app is great" |
| ASL Otty | iOS(2025-10) | 2025-10 | iOS 5,056 ratings | Also runs content on TikTok (otty.app, creator videos) |
| ASL Lingo, ASL Basics, etc. | iOS | 2015–2025 | Hundreds to a couple thousand ratings | Small tools |
| Spread the Sign | Android | 2011 | 1.08M installs | Multi-country sign language dictionary, free |
Bottom line: this niche isn't short on products, and it isn't short on public success stories. Functionally, ASL Lessons (video lessons, practice quizzes, dictionary, mascot, learning paths generated from goals) is nearly identical to Anna and Ziggy. It has no Deaf teachers, no gesture recognition, and no creators.
4. Growth tactics (evidence)
- TikTok / creators: none found. A TikHub search for "ASL Lessons app", "learn ASL app", and "fableso" returned, in the top 20 results, only Ziggy (jaredhuseby1706 with single videos of 1.33M–2.61M views, plus alt-account networks like asl.with.mary, gia.learns.asl, karli.learns.asl, learn.asl2), Lingvano, ASL Bloom, and Otty. Not one mentions ASL Lessons. X (x-radar, 60 days) returned 0 results for "fableso".
- Paid acquisition: suspected, not confirmed. The install curve goes from 10-22 to 10-27 at about 300,10-28/29 a day, nearly zero (+6 over two days), then jumps to about 850 a day after the 10-30 release and holds there. Organic traffic for one app wouldn't drop to zero within two days and triple the next day. It looks more like a Google App Campaign (UAC) budget switched on, off, and on again. The very low rating rate (about 0.1%) and new ratings concentrated at 1–2 stars also fit bought broad traffic hitting a paywall. Our Meta / TikTok (Europe) / Google ad libraries have no Fableso or this package name, but those libraries only track products on our list, so not finding it there doesn't mean it wasn't advertised.
- Store new-release exposure: some. Top New Free Education #1 (the recall card cites AppBrain), plus #41–#85 on the US Education Free category chart (our database). New-release charts give browse exposure, and the organic volume they bring is limited. Naming it plainly "ASL Lessons" and repeatedly stuffing the description with learn ASL / sign language app / ASL dictionary is store search optimization (ASO).
- Riding the trend: evidence exists. It launched 10-15. Ziggy's revenue was already visible on Sensor Tower in September, and from 10-19 to 10-23 a batch of breakdown articles came out (onbo-hub's English and Japanese newsletters, the Medium piece "The 19-year-old who turned his deaf parents' language into a $200K a month app", hide10.com's analysis of Ziggy's 1,449 TikToks). The whole category's search interest was pulled up by Ziggy's and Anna's TikToks, and Fableso's play is to capture that search traffic on Android with a generic keyword.
5. Why it surfaced
- Demand pulled up by creators: Jared Huseby's TikToks (millions of followers, single videos with millions of views) took Anna and then Ziggy viral, and many young Americans searched the store for "ASL app". ASL Lessons uses a generic name to catch the long tail of that search.
- New-release charts plus small paid buys: Education category #41–#85, new-release chart #1, plus a stepped install curve that looks like paid acquisition.
- The factory template: the paywall, weekly subscription, 3-day trial, and high-priced annual plan ($119.99) are all copied from Yuna.
6. Differentiation
Almost none. Its feature list nearly matches Anna's and Ziggy's one for one (video lessons, quizzes, dictionary, mascot, goal-based paths). The only real "difference" is being Android-only and capturing search with a generic name. Competitors' growth comes from real creators and trust in the Deaf community (Lingvano hires Deaf teachers, Ziggy's founder is CODA). Fableso has neither. So the differentiation isn't why it surfaced; category heat is. Its ratings have already dropped from 4.8 to 3.3, and whether it can keep users or get them to pay is unclear.
7. Visibility
- Niche: revenue is public and widely discussed. Ziggy's $200K/month (Sensor Tower estimate) was broken down in late October by several English and Japanese newsletters, Medium, and SGE (8-18, "The Creator Turning ASL Into a Growth Engine"), and copycats are already piling in.
- ASL Lessons itself: few people know about it. No media coverage, no mentions on TikTok or X, and only listing sites like AppBrain and Applyra have indexed it.
8. What to borrow
- "A creator lifts the category, a factory captures the search" is a low-cost follow-the-leader play: spot a niche skill app (sign language) that a TikTok creator has lifted, with public revenue, then use a generic keyword name and a small new-release paid budget on its weakest platform (Android) to take the spillover search.
- But note: without content or trust backing it, ratings get dragged down fast by the paywall, and store conversion suffers. The ones that actually worked in this wave (Anna, Ziggy) were backed by people.
9. Uncertain
- There's no direct evidence on whether it buys ads, on which channels, or how much (ad libraries don't cover it).
- "Top New Free Education #1" comes from the recall card and was not verified.
- Paid conversion and retention are unknown. No Top Grossing ranking, so revenue is probably small.
- Who is behind Fableso and which country it's in are unknown (ScreensDesign lists "Entertainment TR", possibly a Turkish team, unverified).
Sources
- Our database: googleplay (app / app_snap / app_day_ext / chart_rank / app_profile, 2026-10-29 to 11-06); appstore (app_profile, US store).
- Play listing play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asl.learning
- Fableso: screensdesign.com/developers/fableso/, www.appbrain.com/dev/Fableso/, iTunes lookup id=1879747677
- Ziggy / Anna:onbo-hub.com/newsletter/-how-a-19-year-old-grew-his-own-app-… (2026-10-20);medium.com/@yumaueno/the-19-year-old-who-turned-his-deaf-par… ;hide10.com/post/ziggy-tiktok-app-distribution/ (2026-10-23);www.socialgrowthengineers.com/the-creator-turning-asl-into-a… (2026-08-18)
- TikTok (TikHub search, 2026-11-06): jaredhuseby1706, asl.with.mary, gia.learns.asl, karli.learns.asl, learn.asl2, otty.app