GScholar is an Android app for people who read research papers on their phone. It is my most-used piece of software: 100,000+ downloads on Google Play with a 4.4 star rating (October 2026). I designed, built and monetised it, and I still maintain it.
What it does
- Search and read: a fast WebView client for scholarly search, with an in-app PDF viewer, downloads and bookmarks.
- Chat with a paper: ask questions about the paper you are reading, including plain-language ("explain like I'm five") explanations.
- Compare papers: put several papers side by side and get a structured comparison of their methods and findings.
- Citations and notes: a citation generator and per-paper notes.
- Habits: reading streaks and a dashboard of what you have read.
Engineering
- Flutter and Dart, shipped and updated through the Play Console.
- LLM summaries are cached per paper, so each one is generated once rather than on every visit.
- Revenue from AdMob (native, interstitial, app-open and rewarded formats behind one shared cooldown, so ads never stack) plus a Pro subscription with a free trial.
What it shows
It shows the full product loop: building the app, getting it through Play review, growing it to six figures of installs, and earning from it without driving users away.
Get it on Google Play: GScholar App