# Two Frenchmen, one wiggly brush, 120k installs with zero ads: how Doodraw caught the WigglyPaint crowd

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/play_com.ecrindigital.doodraw.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> WigglyPaint popularized wiggle art on TikTok, but the original was only a web page, and the store was full of knockoffs. It was the first legitimate app that worked free on every platform. Its co-founder posted template videos daily like "procreate + wiggly paint = Doodraw," and brought in users with zero ads.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · Android + iOS · written 11-6

Doodraw: Animated Drawing · Écrin Digital©

# Two Frenchmen, one wiggly brush, 120k installs with zero ads: how Doodraw caught the WigglyPaint crowd

**What it is** A drawing app where the art moves the moment you draw it: each brush has built-in wiggle animation, no timeline, and finished work exports as GIF, transparent APNG or MP4 for emotes and short videos.

**Why it took off** WigglyPaint sparked wiggle art on TikTok, but the original was web-only and the store was full of clones; Doodraw is the first proper app that's free on every platform. Its cofounder posts template videos like "procreate + wiggly paint = Doodraw" every day, pulling in users with zero ads.

**C** **How you could follow** Don't build another wiggle canvas; copy the play. Find a creative tool that only exists as a web or toy version but went viral on TikTok, make it a proper app on every platform, and have someone on the team appear on camera daily and name the original in titles. If you enter the same lane, use "doesn't lag, doesn't lose your work" as the hook.

Grade C: the lane already has the original, many clones, and a Doodraw that holds the spot and posts daily; revenue is unproven and the trend may be a fad. What made it work is the founder's own content ability, which followers can't take; what you can learn is the play. Chatter in small circles

Data (updated daily) · launch 2026-08-17 · 11-07 installs 115,388 · launched 2026-08-05 · US store rating 111 · charted in 11-08 80 stores

Android · Total installs worldwide

Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 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 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)

iOS · best category chart rank · by store

US store Korea Canada

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 painting app started in May 2026, with over 120k installs across both platforms by October 19, and zero ad spend. The idea isn't new; a similar app from two years earlier never took off. It took off thanks to an existing trend, a cofounder who posts videos every day, and a title that directly rides on someone else's name. Below: what it is, where the users came from, where the money comes from, and whether there's still room for you.

### A video that says "procreate + wiggly paint"

In 2026 Sep 22, TikTok account @doodrawapp posted a video with a one-line title: "procreate + wiggly paint = Doodraw". The account's videos all look the same: a pen draws a few strokes on screen, and when the pen lifts, the lines start wiggling on their own, like the "boiling lines" in hand-drawn cartoons. That video had about 770k views by Nov 6; the next day's "I'm obsessed… if you like Procreate and wiggly paint" video got 460k.

The artist is Elodie Mayade, an illustrator and co-founder and CMO of Doodraw. Writing the code is her partner Alexis Chân Gridel, who runs a small studio in France building websites and apps. The two started in May, launched on iOS in August, Google Play on August 17, officially launched in September, and shipped a Windows version at the end of September.

On October 24, Alexis wrote a guest post on the official Expo blog with three numbers: as of October 19, over 120k first-open events across both platforms; zero paid ads; and in the past 90 days, 14M views of video across three platforms, the best one a YouTube Short at 4.7M. He was blunt: nearly every install came from the Shorts, Reels and TikToks Elodie made.

### What it is

A painting app where the art moves once you draw it. Over thirty brushes, each with built-in wobble and shake animation, no timeline, no keyframes; one stroke becomes a looping animation. Finished work exports as GIF, transparent-background APNG and MP4, for TikTok videos, Discord emotes and PNGtuber (a still character avatar that moves in place of a live streamer) assets.

The store page's first line is "Wiggle art that moves the instant you draw it", and the second paragraph says: "Made by two French artists. No AI, no generated art." Underneath is a 30k-line Rust GPU engine that keeps a screen full of wobbling lines running smoothly, which is what Alexis mainly talks about in his blog post.

### Why now: a trend that only existed as a web version

The wiggle art look was launched by WigglyPaint. It was a browser toy from indie author Internet Janitor, posted on itch.io at the end of 2023: pixel style, a tiny canvas, few tools. It suddenly blew up in TikTok's art circles in 2025. The catch: the author never shipped a native app.

So the app stores filled up with copycats riding the name. On Google Play there's "WigglyPaint - Cute Pixel Paint", listed in June 2026, with 128k installs. There are also knockoff sites like wigglypaint.com. The original author even posted a "don't get scammed" notice on itch. Anyone who wants to make real wiggle art on a phone or iPad has no trustworthy place to go.

That's when Doodraw showed up. Its hit titles name both big keywords: Procreate (what people draw with) and WigglyPaint (the effect people want). The message is "both things you want, in one place." "Two French artists, No AI" draws a line between it and the copycats with AI backgrounds, which works well in an art scene that was very anti-AI in 2025–26.

### Where the people come from: one template, posted daily

Scrolling through @doodrawapp's posts from the last month, the captions are nearly the same line rephrased:

| Date | Views | Caption opener |
|---|---|---|
| 10-29 | 188k | omg… it's free to try!! on iOS & Android, made by 2 french artists |
| 11-02 | 124k | omg… it's free on iOS and Android, App : Doodraw !! |
| 11-05 | 110k | omg… it's free on iOS and Android, The update is out on iOS!!!! |
| 10-21 | 11k | wait… it's on android + ios !! no complicated keyframes |
| 11-01 | 4,235 | wait… it's on android + ios and it's freeee |

(TikTok, captured 11-06.)

Three hooks: free, works on both platforms, no keyframes. Nearly one post a day with the same script. Most get a few thousand to ten thousand views; one every few days hits hundreds of thousands. The account itself has only 6,900 followers and 355k total likes. It's not followers doing the work; the algorithm is pushing each post.

The second source is user-made work. Free exports carry a "doodraw.com" watermark, so every user piece is an ad. On TikTok, @kay__056, with 630k followers, posted "Never heard of this app till today" in September, which got 138k views. On Instagram and YouTube you can find plenty of "Doodraw easy animation drawing" trial videos. On Facebook someone wrote in Cantonese: "試用繪圖app doodraw,線條會不停移動,幾得意" ("tried the drawing app Doodraw, the lines keep moving, pretty fun").

The third source is search. The website blog runs a string of traffic-capturing articles: "WigglyPaint alternative", "Doodraw vs MoveBrush", "Amberdraw alternatives", "Doodraw for PC". The press release claims it ranked #1 for "wiggle art" searches in 8 country App Stores. In late October it also got picked up by French regional media like France 3 and Ouest-France, more endorsement than acquisition.

Google Play installs (10-29 to 11-06) grew from 93,951 to over 115,388,9 days later, adding 21k, roughly two or three thousand a day. In Nov 5 it climbed to #9 on Taiwan's Play free chart for Art & Design. On iOS it ranked #11 in Taiwan's category chart. The same day, a TikTok video announcing "iOS update live, new brushes" got 110k views. Which content drove the Taiwan spike wasn't found. My guess is it was the new version plus a repost by an Asian creator.

### Where the money comes from: hard to see

Free to download, no ads. The paid Pro tier has three options: $3.99 a month, $22.99 a year (7-day trial), and $44.99 one-time purchase. Buying it removes the watermark and adds 10 premium brushes, onion skin, and per-layer animation controls.

It has never charted in Top Grossing on either platform, and revenue isn't public. From reviews and videos the users skew young (inferred), and willingness to pay was low to begin with. One Spanish-language one-star App Store review reads "only accepts subscriptions." Revenue is probably not high. My read: this is a business that got users first and hasn't worked out the money yet.

### What users are complaining about

Recent US App Store reviews: nearly every positive one has a "but," and it's the same "but": lag.

- "I've been looking for this kind of app for a long time... but after a few minutes it starts lagging, and the lines leave ink dots." (September, US store, 4 stars)

- "Fine at first, then it got really laggy. I close the app and my phone stops lagging. I'm on an iPhone XR." (10-12, US store, 4 stars)

- "Latest iPad Air. First 10 minutes are okay, then it starts throwing all kinds of bugs." (9-07, UK store, 1 stars)

- "Exit the canvas, come back, the drawing is gone." (September, UK store, 3 stars; a US review also says there's no saved gallery)

Other requested features cluster around a few things: brush opacity, separate size sliders for eraser and brush, merging and grouping layers, and transforming selections. The first item in the next-steps list in Alexis's blog is "improve performance on more Android devices."

### Who it's competing with

| Product | Where | Scale | How Doodraw differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| WigglyPaint (original) | Web / itch.io | Source of the trend | Browser pixel-style toy, no native app |
| WigglyPaint - Cute Pixel Paint and other copycats | Android / web | 128K installs on Play, +7K in 6.9 days | Rides the original's name, called out by the original author |
| JigglyPaint | iOS,$6.99 | US store rating 561, best paid category rank #3 | A WigglyPaint offshoot, paid, pixel style |
| AmberDraw | iOS | US store rating 325,2024-11 at launch | Nearly the same idea, two years earlier, no content push, never gained traction |
| MoveBrush | iPad only | US store rating 2 | iPadOS 18.2+ only |
| Wiggle Together | iOS | Rated 25,2026-10 at launch | Multiplayer collaborative doodling |
| FlipaClip | iOS / Android | Play 82.8M installs | Traditional frame-by-frame animation, needs learning |

(App Store and Google Play data, as of 11-06.)

The one to watch is AmberDraw: the same "moving brush" idea, nearly two years earlier, iOS only, no one posted videos, and it's still rated 325. Doodraw's features are the reason it can catch traffic, but Elodie is what brings the traffic.

### If it were you

**C: Worth learning from, but building a wiggle art app yourself isn't a good deal.** In this lane you have a famous original, a pile of copycats, and Doodraw, which has claimed the "real native app" slot and posts videos daily, with revenue still unproven. What's worth taking is its playbook.

**Who it fits** : a team with someone who can draw and is willing to show up on camera for short videos every day, plus a developer who can handle a graphics engine. Ideally with content ability in a language Doodraw hasn't seriously worked, like the Japanese, Korean, or Traditional Chinese creator communities.

**Who it doesn't fit** : pure coders who won't make content (AmberDraw is the cautionary tale), and anyone counting on drawing-tool subscriptions to pay back fast (the users skew young, and Doodraw itself hasn't charted in Top Grossing).

**How to do it** : two paths. One: copy the playbook on a different subject. Find a creative tool that already went viral on TikTok but only exists as a web or toy version, and build a full-platform, free-to-use real app. Title it straight: "original + a tool people already know = you." Two: fix what Doodraw does badly. No lag on older devices or Android, and no lost work. Lag is the top complaint in reviews, which makes it a usable hook ("the wiggle canvas that finally doesn't lag").

**How to get users** : short video, no paid acquisition. Post a fixed hook set (free, both platforms, no keyframes) every day and bet that one in ten goes viral. Free exports carry a watermark so user work spreads for you. The website publishes "X alternative" and "X vs Y" comparison posts to win search.

**What timing counts as early** : wiggle art looks more like a gust of wind than a category (inferred). If you want to build in the wiggle space, you need to launch before Q1 2027. Once this wave passes, fewer people search "wiggle" on TikTok, and even the right playbook won't have traffic.

**What would prove you wrong** : (1) Doodraw charts in Top Grossing in any store, or discloses revenue, meaning this kind of tool can take money, and the rating should go up. (2) Procreate or FlipaClip adds a "wiggle brush," which mostly closes this small gap. (3) Conversely, if Doodraw's daily Play installs fall to a few hundred in December, the wave is over and the playbook can't save it.

[Android store page ↗](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ecrindigital.doodraw) [iOS store page ↗](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6758965666)

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

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WigglyPaint (Internet Janitor original) | Web | 2023-12 | Went viral on TikTok in 2025; source of the wiggle art wave, with no official native app | The original is a browser pixel-style toy; Doodraw is a native app with pressure sensitivity, layers, and high-res transparent export |
| WigglyPaint - Cute Pixel Paint (Mimos AI) and copycat sites like wigglypaint.com | Android | 2026-06-02 | 128k Play installs, +7k in 6.9 days (googleplay library) | Rides the original's name, has an AI background, called a scam by the original author; Doodraw positions as original, No AI |
| JigglyPaint(WigglyPaint fork) | iOS | 2025-08-30 | US store rating 561, $6.99 paid, best paid category rank #3 | Paid, pixel style; Doodraw is free and cross-platform |
| AmberDraw | iOS | 2024-11-11 | US store rating 325, best Top Grossing category rank #68 | Nearly the same concept, two years earlier, but iOS only, no content push, never gained traction |
| MoveBrush(Easyberry) | iOS | 2025-11-21 | US store rating 2 | iPad only (iPadOS 18.2+); Doodraw covers iPhone, Android, and Windows |
| Wiggle Together | iOS | 2026-10-08 | Rated 25, best Top Free category rank #20 | Multiplayer social doodling |
| FlipaClip | Android | 2012 | Play 82.8M installs, +199k in 7 days | Traditional frame-by-frame animation, with a learning curve; Doodraw needs no timeline |
| Procreate Dreams | iOS | 2023-11-22 | Big-company professional tools | iPad only, pro, paid; Doodraw is lightweight, and it animates the moment you finish drawing |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Own accounts, short-form video (TikTok/Reels/Shorts)** : The Expo blog founder's words: nearly all installs come from Elodie's Shorts/Reels/TikTok, with zero ads. The TikTok @doodrawapp post "procreate + wiggly paint = Doodraw" got 770k views, and several others got 100k–460k views (TikHub 2026-11-06).

- **Verified** **User UGC + export watermark** : #doodraw is full of user artwork. @kay__056, with 630k followers, posted one video with 138k views. Free exports carry a doodraw.com watermark.

- **Verified** **SEO / comparison posts + store search** : The official site has articles like WigglyPaint alternative, vs MoveBrush, Amberdraw alternatives, and for PC. The press release claims it ranks #1 for "wiggle art" App Store searches in 8 countries.

- **Verified** **Media / PR** : From 2026-10-19 to 10-26 it was covered by France 3, Ouest-France, L'Est Éclair, Maddyness, and the Expo blog (it also applied for the Expo App Award).

- Inferred **Regional spread in Taiwan / South Korea** : 11-05 On the same day, its iOS and Play entries both jumped into the top 12 of the Taiwan Arts & Design free charts. The source wasn't found.

- Inferred **Paid acquisition** : The founders say publicly that they run zero paid ads. The ad libraries don't track this product, and no counter-evidence turned up.

## Doodraw: Animated Drawing (com.ecrindigital.doodraw): why it took off

In one line: a drawing app by two young French creators (developer Alexis Chân Gridel and illustrator/content creator Elodie Mayade) where brush strokes wiggle on their own. It rides the "wiggle art / boiling line" aesthetic that WigglyPaint popularized. The official claim is **zero ads** . It hit 120k installs in about two and a half months, almost entirely from Elodie posting on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.

### 1. Data (from our database)

- Google Play (googleplay library, 2026-10-29→11-06): installs 93,951 → 115,388,9, up +21.4k in 2.4 days, roughly 3k per day. Rating 353 → 418. Play Store launch date 2026-08-17.

- Play 榜单:各区的艺术设计免费榜。美区一直在 56–90 名之间,法国 53–86,韩国 76–137;**台湾 11-05 突然冲进来,拿到第 12 / 第 9 名** 。当天一共上了 23 个区。

- App Store (appstore library): id 6758965666, seller Alexis Gridel, released 2026-08-05. US ratings went from 81 (10-28) to 101 (11-06), and the global total is about 158. Its best result was the Arts & Design free chart in 39 stores, with Taiwan at #11-05 11. It never charted in Top Grossing. iOS ratings are few, which fits the official line that iOS downloads are about 2/3 on iPad. Rating counts are low overall, so treat them as reference only.

- Monetization: free to download, exports carry a watermark. Pro has three tiers: $3.99/month, $22.99/year (7-day trial), and $44.99 one-time purchase. Buying Pro removes the watermark and adds 10 premium brushes, frame-by-frame onion skin, per-layer animation control, and progressive-drawing export ([FAQ](https://doodraw.com/faq/)). No Top Grossing rank, and revenue isn't disclosed.

### 2. Competitors

| Product | Where | Launched | Scale | How Doodraw differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WigglyPaint (the original, by Internet Janitor / John Earnest) | Web / itch.io (Decker) | 2023-12 | It went viral on TikTok 2025 years ago and started this wiggle art wave. The author never released a native app. | A browser toy with a pixel look, a small canvas, and few tools. Doodraw is a native app with stylus pressure, layers, and transparent GIF/APNG/MP4 export. Doodraw's top video title is literally "procreate + wiggly paint = Doodraw". |
| WigglyPaint knockoff sites and apps (wigglypaint.com, Mimos AI's "WigglyPaint - Cute Pixel Paint", etc.) | Web / Android / iOS | 2025–2026-06 | On Play, "WigglyPaint - Cute Pixel Paint" (Mimos AI, 2026-06-02) has 128k installs, up +6.9k in 7 days (googleplay library). The original author posted an [anti-scam notice](https://internet-janitor.itch.io/wigglypaint/devlog/1449946/please-dont-fall-for-scams) on itch. | They ride the name, have a bad reputation in art circles, and have AI ties. Doodraw pitches itself as original, No AI, and made by two French artists. |
| JigglyPaint (a fork of WigglyPaint, by Kunliang Wu) | iOS paid | 2025-08-30 | US rating 561, $6.99. It once reached #3 on the Paid category chart (appstore library). | One-time paid purchase, pixel look. Doodraw is free and cross-platform. |
| MoveBrush(Easyberry) | iPad only | 2025-11-21 | US rating 2, basically didn't take off. | Only iPad and iPadOS 18.2+. Doodraw covers iPhone, Android, and Windows. |
| AmberDraw(Mykyta Gaidukov) | iOS | 2024-11-11 | US rating 325. It reached #68 on a Top Grossing category chart. | Nearly the same concept, launched almost two years earlier, but it never gained traction. This suggests the wiggle brush idea isn't a moat by itself. Distribution is. |
| Wiggle Together(Xiangyu Ren) | iOS | 2026-10-08 | Rated 25, best Top Free category rank #20 | A multiplayer social doodling angle, just launched. |
| FlipaClip | iOS / Android | 2012 / 2017 | Play: 82.8M installs, +199k in 7 days. | Traditional frame-by-frame animation with a learning curve. Doodraw says: animate the moment you draw, no timeline. |
| Procreate Dreams / Procreate | iPad | 2023-11 | Big-company tier | Pro-level and paid. Doodraw is lightweight: scribble and it moves. |

Bottom line: the "brush that moves" idea isn't new. AmberDraw and MoveBrush came first, but neither took off. Doodraw is the first to make it a **cross-platform, free, real native app** that is also **built for short-form video** .

### 3. Growth tactics

1. **Own accounts doing short-form video (confirmed, main channel)** . From the founder's guest post on the official Expo blog. Elodie "runs all our content on Shorts, Reels and TikTok, which is where nearly all our installs come from"; "120,000+ installs … with zero paid ads." The best Short got 4.7M views, and the three platforms combined got 14M views over the last 90 days ([Expo blog 2026-10-24](https://expo.dev/blog/doodraw-rust-gpu-engine-expo-config-plugin-100k-installs)).
    - TikTok @doodrawapp (TikHub, scraped 2026-11-06): 6,897 followers, 103 posts, 355k total likes. Hits include "procreate + wiggly paint = Doodraw" (09-22.8M views), "I'm obsessed… if you like Procreate and wiggly paint" (09-23.5M), and "wait… it's on android + ios AND it's FREEEE" (09-23 240k, 10-14 230k), plus 10-29 187k, 11-02 123k, and 11-05 92k.
    - The approach: post almost every day. The captions follow a fixed template: "omg… it's free on iOS and Android / made by 2 French artists / no keyframes." The same hooks get repeated, betting that a few will hit. They directly **name WigglyPaint and Procreate to borrow their traffic** .

2. **Organic user UGC (confirmed)** . Searching "doodraw" on TikTok turns up lots of ordinary users' work and the #doodraw tag. @kay__056, with 630k followers (09-6.14M views), posted "Never heard of this app till today"; 11-05 videos carry Korean tags (@p442B views). Free exports carry a "doodraw.com" watermark, so every user artwork is an ad.

3. **SEO / comparison posts (confirmed)** . The official blog has posts aimed at capturing searches, like "WigglyPaint alternative," "Doodraw vs MoveBrush," "Amberdraw alternatives," "Doodraw for PC," and "boiling lines animation." The press release claims it ranks #1 for "wiggle art" in the App Store across 8 countries ([press](https://doodraw.com/press/)). In a Facebook Q&A about wiggle drawing apps, it's already recommended alongside WobblyPaint.

4. **Media / PR (confirmed, later stage)** . Between 2026-10-19 and 10-26 it was covered by France 3, Ouest-France, L'Est Éclair / Libération Champagne, and Maddyness, plus the official Expo blog (it applied for the Expo App Award at the same time). These are French regional outlets and developer circles, so their pull on downloads is limited. Mostly they provide credibility.

5. **App store search (partly confirmed)** . It occupies search terms like "wiggle art" and "animated drawing." The Play store links carry utm tags, which suggests they track traffic from the official site.

6. **Sudden Taiwan 11-05 spike (unverified)** . Taiwan's Arts & Design free charts on both iOS and Play jumped into the top 12 on the same day. It was probably lifted by a video or Threads post from a Taiwanese or Korean creator, but no specific source was found.

7. **Paid acquisition** : the founders publicly say zero ads. Not checked in the ad libraries (it isn't on the tracking list), and no counter-evidence was found.

### 4. Why it took off

- **The demand already exists** : WigglyPaint made "wiggle art" a popular TikTok art aesthetic 2025 years ago, but the original is web-only. The app stores are full of copycats and AI sites that borrow the name, and the original author posted an anti-scam notice. For anyone who wants to make wiggle art properly on a phone or iPad, there was no trustworthy destination. Doodraw's top caption, "procreate + wiggly paint," speaks directly to that crowd.

- **The product is built to spread** : "draw a stroke and it moves" is clear in three seconds, and the demo video is itself the artwork. Exported GIFs and transparent APNGs flow naturally to TikTok, Discord emoji, and PNGtuber assets, and the watermark brings the traffic back.

- **A content creator on the team** : the co-founder and CMO is an illustrator who appears on camera, draws on camera, and posts every day. A template is tested over and over, which is how zero ads still produces 2–3k installs a day.

- **Identity story** : "two French artists, No AI, a 30k-line Rust engine" hits the anti-AI sentiment in art communities over the past 2025–26 years, and it separates the app from the AI-linked WigglyPaint knockoffs. The about page says it outright: comments under the Shorts kept saying "made by two French artists, no AI."

- **Cross-platform and free** : iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows all launched together. Rivals are iPad-only (MoveBrush), iOS-only (AmberDraw), or web-only (WigglyPaint). Many TikTok teens use Android. Play installs reached 115k, well above the iOS rating count.

### 5. Differentiation

- The animation is built into the brush (no timeline), with switching across more than thirty brushes. A custom Rust + wgpu GPU engine keeps a full screen of wiggling lines running at 60fps. Transparent APNG and GIF export is free.

- Versus WigglyPaint: native app, high resolution, pressure sensitivity, layers, not pixel art. Versus FlipaClip / Procreate Dreams: zero learning curve. Versus AmberDraw / MoveBrush: cross-platform and more of the core is free, and people are making content for it.

- **The main reason it took off isn't the feature set:** AmberDraw had the same concept two years earlier and never got going. Differentiation (every platform, quality, and the "No AI, original" identity) is what let it **catch** WigglyPaint's traffic, but the users actually **came in** through short videos the founder made himself.

### 6. Visibility

It's been circulating in small circles. French local media and an Expo blog covered it, and the founder publicly shared install numbers (120k) and "zero ads", but **never disclosed revenue** . Almost nobody discusses it on X (x-radar: 60 days, 0 posts). The official TikTok account has only 6.9k followers. Copycats: the wiggle niche is already packed with WigglyPaint knockoffs, and October released Wiggle Together, but I haven't seen anyone specifically copying Doodraw yet.

### 7. Takeaways

- Find a creation tool that already went viral on TikTok but only exists as a web or toy version in its original form, then build a proper native app across all platforms, and name the original directly in video captions ("X + Y = us").

- Put a creator who's willing to be on camera on the team, post a fixed hook template every day, rather than buying ads.

- Build a viral loop with free export plus watermark, and offer both subscription and one-time purchase.

- Position yourself as "No AI / hand-drawn original" in aesthetic communities, and use comparison posts to capture long-tail search terms.

### 8. Still unclear

- Revenue and paid conversion rate (no Top Grossing ranking, so I estimate it's not high).

- The "120k installs" figure: Expo's article says it's the combined first opens on both platforms through 10-19, but Play alone already shows 11-06 at 115k, so the two numbers don't line up.

- The specific source of the sudden spike in Taiwan 11-05.

- Retention: no review sample, recent_reviews is empty in the database.

- The publish date metadata on the blog post is off (vs MoveBrush showing 2026-02-20, earlier than when the app started development), so the metadata is likely wrong.

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