iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#71

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:04 AM UTC

jackvalentine wrote: post #62

scosman wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one said nag. People seem to be be assuming the worst possible behaviour. Asking once with a "Don't ask again" and "Later" option is pretty standard. The original post said a popup is annoying enough to deserve a 1-star review. I strongly disagree and if you enjoy free apps, it's one of the few ways to really thank the developer.

> No one said nag. People seem to be be assuming the worst possible behaviour. Asking once with a "Don't ask again" and "Later" option is pretty standard. It is pretty standard, and it turns out that I have more than a hundred apps installed that all do it. I too routinely give one-star ratings to try and de-incentivise this kind of thing. I'm sorry that you don't seem to have an alternate way of going about getting…

[deleted]

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#72

Post by Ensorceled » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:09 AM UTC

austinl wrote: post #22

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…

There's an unfortunate cause of excessive app rating prompts — what's shown in search results/top charts/other areas is the average of the latest version, not the overall aggregate. If you're at a company that does scheduled releases (e.g. once every three weeks), you'll need to continually ask people to review the app to keep that rating high. Otherwise you only get ratings from new users and users that are disconte…

It also doesn't make sense to suspect that you would need to.

I don't need to redo Yelp reviews for my favourite neighbourhood restaurant whenever they update their menu, for instance.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#73

Post by dcw303 » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:12 AM UTC

It's a start but it doesn't fix the underlying problem. It's not specific to the App Store, but a major problem with Internet based communities in general is that a small vocal group of discontents has a disproportionately loud voice.

5 one star reviews out of 100,000 known installs is very different to 5 out of 10.

I wish that the app review had stats for 1/2/3/4/5 star ratings as percentages of the known user base.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#74

Post by xuki » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:12 AM UTC

richardwhiuk wrote: post #65

radley wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Trivially avoidable by having an App based prompt instead of directly calling into the AppStore UX.

With this new API in place, I guess they will forbid your from asking for reviews elsewhere.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#75

Post by kcase » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:13 AM UTC

richardwhiuk wrote: post #66

kcase wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

The problem with this approach is that it's impossible to provide discounts to users who had the previous version, which is a long standarding practice (and a valuable one).

I agree that's a valuable, long-standing practice, but that problem has been solved: by offering discounted in-app purchases, we've been offering upgrade discounts to upgrading Mac App Store customers since we shipped OmniGraffle 6 in 2013.

If you read my latest blog post on the subject (linked in my first comment in this thread), you can see full details on how we're offering upgrade discounts to all existing customers, free upgrades for recent purchases, and free trials so new customers can check out the app before they pay—all in the App Store.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#76

Post by kcase » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:49 AM UTC

nodamage wrote: post #46

kcase wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fu…

No, Apple didn't have a problem with that term: we just had to make sure the description was clear about the functionality which was retained after the trial ended.

After the trial period expires, all documents are read-only with a small badge in the title bar that you can click on to bring up the in-app purchase choices.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#77

Post by jader201 » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:51 AM UTC

austinl wrote: post #22

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…

There's an unfortunate cause of excessive app rating prompts — what's shown in search results/top charts/other areas is the average of the latest version, not the overall aggregate. If you're at a company that does scheduled releases (e.g. once every three weeks), you'll need to continually ask people to review the app to keep that rating high. Otherwise you only get ratings from new users and users that are disconte…

What's almost worse, is that it disincentivizes developers from updating their apps. If they want to keep their apps bug free, they have to weigh the severity of the bugs against wiping the slate clean on their reviews.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#78

Post by jlarocco » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:58 AM UTC

austinl wrote: post #22

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…

There's an unfortunate cause of excessive app rating prompts — what's shown in search results/top charts/other areas is the average of the latest version, not the overall aggregate. If you're at a company that does scheduled releases (e.g. once every three weeks), you'll need to continually ask people to review the app to keep that rating high. Otherwise you only get ratings from new users and users that are disconte…

FYI, some people rate apps down when the apps beg for for reviews like that.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#79

Post by scosman » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 3:59 AM UTC

jackvalentine wrote: post #62

scosman wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one said nag. People seem to be be assuming the worst possible behaviour. Asking once with a "Don't ask again" and "Later" option is pretty standard. The original post said a popup is annoying enough to deserve a 1-star review. I strongly disagree and if you enjoy free apps, it's one of the few ways to really thank the developer.

> No one said nag. People seem to be be assuming the worst possible behaviour. Asking once with a "Don't ask again" and "Later" option is pretty standard. It is pretty standard, and it turns out that I have more than a hundred apps installed that all do it. I too routinely give one-star ratings to try and de-incentivise this kind of thing. I'm sorry that you don't seem to have an alternate way of going about getting…

No one dismissed your complaint. I presented the developer point of view.

If you honestly think that a single popup makes an app deserve of a 1 star rating regardless of anything else, I disagree. It's like being a single issue voter. It's also more damaging than you know to the app developers who's work you are using (in most cases for free) and I'd encourage you to reconsider. Apple could fix this issue. A few vigilantes can't

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#80

Post by mratzloff » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 4:13 AM UTC

ClassyJacket wrote: post #55

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…

Tinder asks you to review it almost every day, even if you already have. I really don't like this, it feels like bullying, or like they're annoying you into leaving a positive review.

I use that as a helpful cue to immediately close the app and do something else.