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iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

developer.apple.com

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Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#31

Post by flukus »

archildress wrote: post #9
flukus wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limited from a developer perspective but fantastic from a consumer one (except maybe the trial version stuff).

Do you think it's a fantastic experience because it's simple? I know that most people that post on HN are early adopters and trend toward power users, but they also use a lot more apps in total than my casual computer-using friends.

> Do you think it's a fantastic experience because it's simple?

I thinks it's fantastic because the don't allow nickle and dimeing customers.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#32

Post by nodamage »

kcase wrote: post #21
archildress wrote: post #2

Well, it's a start? I know I'm not the first to stay it, but I'm still so shocked how limited the Mac App Store is. No trial versions, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, etc. This has led to companies like Bohemian (makers of Sketch) [1] leaving the Mac App Store. I'm not being facetious when I ask people more knowledgeable than me: why does Apple put so little effort into the store? Is it just too small to warra…

The Mac App Store already supports both in-app purchases and subscriptions, and we currently leverage that to offer free trials of two of our apps (OmniGraffle and OmniPlan) and will soon extend that to the rest of our product line (OmniFocus and OmniOutliner). I shared more details about this on our blog a few months ago: https://www.omnigroup.com/blog/providing-the-best-possible-a...

I thought time-limited trials were not permitted in the Mac App Store? How did this get through the review process?

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#33

Post by radley »

taspeotis wrote: post #18
Ensorceled wrote: post #12

What I was really hoping for is a solution to the problem of every app begging me for a review after upgrading. I get a "please review" popup pretty much every day. When I got back from Christmas vacation and synced a bunch of apps, my iPhone was painful to use for about three days and every app begged for my help. I actually review apps I use and like, I just wish I didn't have to do it every update to help keep the…

"Using the SKStoreReviewController API, you can ask users to rate or review your app while they're using it" It sounds like this is the first step to a solution - route applications through this class and then Apple can add a preference to "take no action if nagged for reviews."

According to Gruber / Apple it's a max of three prompts per year, regardless of version.

https://twitter.com/gruber/status/824022727870861316

[UPDATE] There's also an App Store setting so you can disable requests:

https://youtu.be/_qA5p9dQGas?t=2m40s

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#34

Post by flukus »

scosman wrote: post #26
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I review every app that annoys me with a review popup, and voice my opinion about my most recent memory of the app (the annoying popup, 1 star). Seems like enough people have started doing it that app developers no longger do this that much, at least on Android. There was even an article how to properly beg for reviews. Boils down to: * Do it after you have delighted the user, not during startup. * Do it respectfully…

Please don't give an app a 1 star review just because they ask for a review. Apple and Android have made ratings incredibly important, and the vast majority of happy users never take the time to review. You get some happy users rating, and a disproportionate number of unhappy users. Asking people (at an appropriate time) is the only way to level the field. We've had a few 5.0 releases of our iOS app, but usually a fe…

It sounds like you think the rating system is there for developers, it isn't. Those one star reviews because you're nagging your clients is good for me as a user because it's an indication I don't want to use your app.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#35

Post by mikeash »

scosman wrote: post #26
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I review every app that annoys me with a review popup, and voice my opinion about my most recent memory of the app (the annoying popup, 1 star). Seems like enough people have started doing it that app developers no longger do this that much, at least on Android. There was even an article how to properly beg for reviews. Boils down to: * Do it after you have delighted the user, not during startup. * Do it respectfully…

Please don't give an app a 1 star review just because they ask for a review. Apple and Android have made ratings incredibly important, and the vast majority of happy users never take the time to review. You get some happy users rating, and a disproportionate number of unhappy users. Asking people (at an appropriate time) is the only way to level the field. We've had a few 5.0 releases of our iOS app, but usually a fe…

When an app nags me for a review, it really gets in the way and hinders my usage of it. A bad review is a totally legitimate response to that.

If this is your only solution to biased reviews, then you have no solution, you just have a way to move the problem around some. If you don't want silly one-star reviews complaining about the prompt, don't interrupt people when they're trying to get something done.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#36

Post by justinclift »

scosman wrote: post #26
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I review every app that annoys me with a review popup, and voice my opinion about my most recent memory of the app (the annoying popup, 1 star). Seems like enough people have started doing it that app developers no longger do this that much, at least on Android. There was even an article how to properly beg for reviews. Boils down to: * Do it after you have delighted the user, not during startup. * Do it respectfully…

Please don't give an app a 1 star review just because they ask for a review. Apple and Android have made ratings incredibly important, and the vast majority of happy users never take the time to review. You get some happy users rating, and a disproportionate number of unhappy users. Asking people (at an appropriate time) is the only way to level the field. We've had a few 5.0 releases of our iOS app, but usually a fe…

> Please don't give an app a 1 star review just because they ask for a review.

Perhaps don't pop up things begging for reviews?

There doesn't seem to be any way of turning it off ("Disable app review requests") for people, thus these kind of user responses. :/

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#37

Post by mikeash »

mhmiles wrote: post #14
arjie wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't they have a review process? Surely they'd just check all the places you use the new API.

Yeah I’m pretty sure you’d have to use private APIs to be able to fake reviews using the new controller. They’d probably ban your developer account if you tried this. Don’t think it would be worth it.

They have the ability to run views entirely out of process. I can't guarantee they're doing it here, but I don't think it would be hard for them to make it completely immune even to private API abuse.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#38

Post by fattire »

mikeash wrote: post #35
scosman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't give an app a 1 star review just because they ask for a review. Apple and Android have made ratings incredibly important, and the vast majority of happy users never take the time to review. You get some happy users rating, and a disproportionate number of unhappy users. Asking people (at an appropriate time) is the only way to level the field. We've had a few 5.0 releases of our iOS app, but usually a fe…

When an app nags me for a review, it really gets in the way and hinders my usage of it. A bad review is a totally legitimate response to that. If this is your only solution to biased reviews, then you have no solution, you just have a way to move the problem around some. If you don't want silly one-star reviews complaining about the prompt, don't interrupt people when they're trying to get something done.

Wow, you sound like a very busy person doing important things.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#39

Post by mikeash »

fattire wrote: post #38
mikeash wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When an app nags me for a review, it really gets in the way and hinders my usage of it. A bad review is a totally legitimate response to that. If this is your only solution to biased reviews, then you have no solution, you just have a way to move the problem around some. If you don't want silly one-star reviews complaining about the prompt, don't interrupt people when they're trying to get something done.

Wow, you sound like a very busy person doing important things.

It's a minor inconvenience, and my retaliation is in proportion to that.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#40

Post by [deleted] »

flukus wrote: post #4
archildress wrote: post #2

Well, it's a start? I know I'm not the first to stay it, but I'm still so shocked how limited the Mac App Store is. No trial versions, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, etc. This has led to companies like Bohemian (makers of Sketch) [1] leaving the Mac App Store. I'm not being facetious when I ask people more knowledgeable than me: why does Apple put so little effort into the store? Is it just too small to warra…

Limited from a developer perspective but fantastic from a consumer one (except maybe the trial version stuff).

[deleted]
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