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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

#41

Post by Ensorceled »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #17
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…

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…

It seem suboptimal to sabotage the sales and marketing of apps you use on a regular basis by leaving 1 star reviews.

This is what I meant by keep the developer eating.... and providing updates.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#42

Post by Ensorceled »

radley wrote: post #33
taspeotis wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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

Right. But I want to help developers I like (especially small developer shops).

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#43

Post by dirtae »

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...

What's your plan when you release the next major version of OmniGraffle? You will create a whole new App Store listing for it? Or you'll somehow have a single listing for OmniGraffle on the App Store, and people who have purchased v7 but not v8 will be able to unlock v7 but not v8 within the app?

The latter sounds like an unholy mess, the former is very annoying as a developer, since you lose all of your reviews and history, and customers generally don't really understand how to download apps they've purchased which are no longer listed on the App Store, and presumably you'd pull OmniGraffle v7 from the App Store.

Also, right now in the U.S. Mac App Store, you have 3 reviews on the current version of OmniGraffle, and 2 out of 3 are 1 star reviews complaining about the way your free trial is presented.

The Mac App Store is a broken mess.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#44

Post by gonehome »

ubernostrum wrote: post #29
brianwillis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like that's exactly what they've done. There's a screenshot of the setting buried in here: https://9to5mac.com/2017/01/24/ios-10-3-beta-1/

Now I just want an option to forbid apps repeatedly asking me to turn on notifications, and repeatedly asking me to get on a wifi network.

They already can only ask once, but apps use a trick to get around that. When they ask you if you want notifications turned on they'll first show you a fake pop up that asks if you want them on - you need to click yes to this one in order to get the real Apple one which you can then deny.

If you do that the only way to turn them back on is to go into system settings.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#45

Post by kcase »

nodamage wrote: post #32
kcase wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The app itself cannot expire, but functionality unlocked within the app can expire so long as the app remains useful--or the app is based on subscriptions, in which case you can make the expired app do nothing at all.

In the case of OmniGraffle 7 the free functionality that it retains after the trial expires is that the app can continue to be used as a free viewer for OmniGraffle documents (in much the same way as people use free PDF viewer apps).

When we first shipped OmniGraffle 7, some people thought that perhaps we'd just managed to slip its free trials past some Apple's reviewer's radar. But we were very careful and intentional about designing the app to follow their guidelines, and we've shipped several updates that have passed review since then--and at the end of the year Apple awarded the app a "Best of 2016" App Store award.

So now that we know for certain that Apple is OK with this approach, we're in the process of bringing this model to the rest of our apps on both Mac and iOS.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#46

Post by nodamage »

kcase wrote: post #45
nodamage wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The app itself cannot expire, but functionality unlocked within the app can expire so long as the app remains useful--or the app is based on subscriptions, in which case you can make the expired app do nothing at all. In the case of OmniGraffle 7 the free functionality that it retains after the trial expires is that the app can continue to be used as a free viewer for OmniGraffle documents (in much the same way as pe…

Ah, that's very interesting. I did not realize that reverting the expired trial version to "view-only" mode was considered within the guidelines. Thanks for the clarification, I may have to consider this model for my own apps.

I assume Apple did not have a problem with your use of the "Free Trial" wording in the app? After the trial period expires, does the app display a launch screen directing you to purchase the full version?

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#47

Post by st3v3r »

mikeash wrote: post #24
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…

I really dislike that last technique in your list. Attempting to select only the people who like the app is an obvious thing to do as a developer, but as a user it seriously hurts the usefulness of reviews.

I agree it can be kinda icky, but at the same time, there's no real good way to get people who like the app to leave a good review. And the way things are in the stores, you have to have those good reviews.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#48

Post by kcase »

dirtae wrote: post #43
kcase wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

What's your plan when you release the next major version of OmniGraffle? You will create a whole new App Store listing for it? Or you'll somehow have a single listing for OmniGraffle on the App Store, and people who have purchased v7 but not v8 will be able to unlock v7 but not v8 within the app? The latter sounds like an unholy mess, the former is very annoying as a developer, since you lose all of your reviews and…

Yes, we'll create a whole new App Store listing for it, just as OmniGraffle 5, 6, and 7 have each had their own listing.

I agree that it's sad to lose all our previous reviews, especially as our earlier apps had very high average ratings. But the bigger issue is combating confusion, which leads to bad ratings when people miss a feature that the app actually has, or are confused when a "free" app actually costs money. I'm hopeful that being able to reply to confused customers will help to clear some of that up!

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#50

Post by pbarnes_1 »

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…

The people responding to you don't understand that without asking for reviews, your app will just die.

Apple needs to stop nuking reviews/stars on every release (give us the option!), then we'd stop asking for reviews.

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