The way we found out was actually pretty funny
A few days after Wind Call was officially published, we searched Google to see whether the app had started appearing in search results.
The official Wind Call website was nowhere to be seen* — while the second result was a link to a third-party APK/XAPK mirror listing offering an unofficial copy of our own app, with the Wind Call icon, screenshots, and text taken from public store materials.
While the official release on Google Play still showed 10+ downloads, the mirror page was already at 1K+ and counting.
We have to say, their speed and efficiency amazed us. Later, after we published official updates on Google Play, mirror listings followed within 48 hours at most. Impressively fast.
*Note: We do know why the official website does not yet appear prominently for every query, but we are not interested in wasting time on SEO tricks. Instead, we would rather focus on making Wind Call useful enough to earn attention through real field use, recommendations, and word of mouth.
Search results and a few screenshots for the record
Use the official app stores
If you want to install Wind Call, use Google Play for Android or the App Store for iPhone. These are the only download channels we support as the developer for installation, updates, purchases, and restoring access. We have not authorized any other download source.
To the guys who upload unauthorized copies
Although we are grateful for the free advertising and admire your obvious skill, in our humble opinion, this is wasted effort.
Wind Call is a specialized tool that can be of real value only to a small niche of experienced long-range shooters, hunters, highly trained professionals, or people training seriously to reach that level, while it is useless to anyone else.
These are people who shoot rounds that cost anywhere between $2 and $20 each, depending on the caliber used, and who know very well why they spend that amount of money. The app can be downloaded from official channels and offers a full one-week free trial, so anyone can try it and decide for themselves whether it is worth the price.
We do not believe this audience will take that gamble by installing an unauthorized copy from the internet — but surprises keep happening.