How I Built a Chrome Extension to Analyze Viral Social Content (Statly)

I, a developer, recognized the need for insight into what drives engagement on social platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and X. This insight usually comes from hours of manual research or through costly analytics tools. To address this issue, I developed Statly, a Chrome extension that transforms any Instagram, TikTok, or X account into a ranked report highlighting what is truly effective.

The motivation behind building Statly stemmed from the realization that most social analytics tools provide only high-level metrics. These tools fail to dissect content performance on a detailed level. My objective was to create a lightweight tool that enables easy auditing of growth, study of competitors' viral formats, and seamless integration directly into the browser without requiring any sharing of credentials.

The technological foundation of Statly comprises Vanilla JS and the Chrome Extension API (version 3) for the frontend, and Node.js for the backend. The platform also supports payments through Lemon Squeezy.

For developers and creators aiming to build public projects or seeking to expand their social media presence, Statly is available at https://trystatly.com. The platform welcomes feedback and feature requests, which can be submitted through the comments section.