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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

#91

Post by cynix »

pbarnes_1 wrote: post #50
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…

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.

Apps that beg for reviews deserve to die.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#92

Post by cynix »

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…

If an app doesn't provide a "Don't ask me again" button, or even worse, continue to ask for reviews even after I've tapped "Don't ask me again", you can bet I'll leave a 1-star review. If you don't want 1-star reviews, don't beg for reviews. Ask once and leave it be.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#93

Post by jackvalentine »

scosman wrote: post #79
jackvalentine wrote: post #62

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. 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 vigi…

> I'd encourage you to reconsider. Apple could fix this issue. A few vigilantes can't

Apple aren't going to fix the issue without it being a problem for them. I'm making it a problem by poisoning the review well in my own little way. I think this is a considered response - it's literally the only push-back that users have against the practice.

My preferred outcome would be a complete ban on asking for reviews.

Edit: my initial post was a bit abrasive, edited. But I'd like to end with a question:

What's your preferred user response to the practice of seemingly every single app begging for reviews? An actual, actionable response.

Two-star reviews? Three?

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#94

Post by titanix2 »

pbarnes_1 wrote: post #50
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…

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.

There is two tabs in the app store, one for "Current Version" the other for "All Versions" so it is not true that Apple erase previous ratings.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#96

Post by [deleted] »

eridius wrote: post #90
richardwhiuk wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you use your own prompt in order to try and show it to users who have chosen not to see the built-in one, then you're just asking for bad reviews. People who don't want to see your prompt don't want to see it . Why would they give you a good review if you're bugging them to do something they explicitly chose not to do?

[deleted]

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#97

Post by Veen »

scosman wrote: post #79
jackvalentine wrote: post #62

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. 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 vigi…

I'm sympathetic to your argument, but the more you harp on about "free" the less sympathetic I get. Most apps aren't free: they ask me to pay with money or data, which I do, or attention, which I prefer not to. Ad supported apps are not literally free — there's an exchange of value from the user to the developer in all cases.

I suspect what lies at the heart of this whole issue is that some developers think that attention is not a cost to the user.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#98

Post by qzervaas »

anon363764 wrote: post #95

So now reviews will tend to self-censor and be glowing, happy-clappy rubbish. Maybe Apple apps need an app dev user support mechanisms for private feedback, FAQ and bug tracker to funnel bitching productively.

No, it'll still be self-selecting:

Good developers who actively respond to reviews will improve their apps. Somebody who left a low review due to a misunderstanding now has a chance to increase their review because of a diligent developer.

A developer who doesn't care and/or doesn't monitor their reviews will not turn that user around.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#99

Post by SomeCallMeTim »

jackvalentine wrote: post #93
scosman wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vigi…

> I'd encourage you to reconsider. Apple could fix this issue. A few vigilantes can't Apple aren't going to fix the issue without it being a problem for them. I'm making it a problem by poisoning the review well in my own little way. I think this is a considered response - it's literally the only push-back that users have against the practice. My preferred outcome would be a complete ban on asking for reviews. Edit:…

>What's your preferred user response to the practice of seemingly every single app begging for reviews? An actual, actionable response.

Complain to Apple for having a broken system, but don't hurt the developers of the very apps you're F-ing using.

As OP said above, Apple could fix this issue. Maybe weight recent reviews more, but don't just wipe the history for every upgrade.

The profound sense of entitlement that users express is really frustrating to app developers.

We can either never ask for reviews and watch as 1 in 100 people EVER review our app (and THOSE reviews are skewed to the people who have a complaint, so the review average is typically crap), meaning that we barely get any downloads and can't actually make a living selling apps, or we can ask for reviews and have people complain with 1-star reviews because the app they continue using for free annoyed them once.

And entirely because of Apple it needs to annoy them more than once in order to stay relevant.

Here's what I'd love to do: Make it so that, if you rate an app 1-star, or even 2-stars, you can't use it any more. If you rate it that low and you still use it, you're lying to other users and harming the creator of the app that you're using for free. Give me a developer API to know what users rated the app how, and I'd implement that in a minute.

People could still rate it 1-star if it sucked. Because if it sucked they wouldn't want to use it.

Drop the review to 4 stars if you're annoyed by it, but know that the developers really, really have no choice. You're basically telling them to commit economic suicide for your minor convenience.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#100

Post by SomeCallMeTim »

flukus wrote: post #87
enraged_camel wrote: post #82

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. Sure, so subtract one star from your regular review. A one-star review is a grossly disproportionate and unfair response. I mean I hate being nagged as much as the next guy but let's face it: the only reason these apps are begging for reviews is because Apple store discovera…

> A one-star review is a grossly disproportionate and unfair response. If it was an isolated incident sure. If someone cold calls me then I'm going to say "sorry, I'm not interested", but if you're getting 10 calls a day then the response changes. It's a constant problem and I'm willing to lash out at anyone I see making it worse. As much as we blame it on the app store, we see similar behavior with subscriptions on…

If you're getting 10 calls because all the apps updated at once, it's hardly one app's fault.

Also see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13479086

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