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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

#171

Post by mikeash »

whostolemyhat wrote: post #138
mikeash wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But one-star reviews just because the app asked for a review doesn't hurt the usefulness of reviews?

Nope. It's an honest reaction, which is exactly what I want to see when looking at reviews.

Imagine I'm comparing two apps, A and B. If A has the higher rating because it steers unhappy people away from posting reviews, that's not useful to me. On the other hand, if B has the lower rating because it keeps bugging its users to post reviews, that's a good reason to choose A instead.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#172

Post by NTripleOne »

solarexplorer wrote: post #165
NTripleOne wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - however, the whole "do you like our app? yes/no" thing, where yes takes you to the store for review and no takes you to a feedback form (that probably doesn't even post)? Definitely a dark pattern.

The advantage of a feedback form is that the developer can come back to you with suggestions, ask you for details to reproduce a bug, etc. If you just go to the App Store and leave a (negative) review, there is no way for the developer to contact you. Hence the dialog/feedback form pattern. Allowing developers to respond to reviews on the App Store will help with this problem.

I'd wager it probably won't help at all. Developers have been able to reply to reviews on the play store since 2013 - yet applications are still rife with this kinda shit, and not just the older ones that haven't been updated since.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#173

Post by TylerE »

dcw303 wrote: post #73

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.

Please no. Then apps will only review nag even harder.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#174

Post by thecatspaw »

solarexplorer wrote: post #165
NTripleOne wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah - however, the whole "do you like our app? yes/no" thing, where yes takes you to the store for review and no takes you to a feedback form (that probably doesn't even post)? Definitely a dark pattern.

The advantage of a feedback form is that the developer can come back to you with suggestions, ask you for details to reproduce a bug, etc. If you just go to the App Store and leave a (negative) review, there is no way for the developer to contact you. Hence the dialog/feedback form pattern. Allowing developers to respond to reviews on the App Store will help with this problem.

but what if I dont want to give any feedback at all? When I am using an app, I only want to use the app, not rate it, and not giving feedback.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#175

Post by kamilszybalski »

anotherturn wrote: post #133
epaga wrote: post #102

As a small indie dev (dealing with hundreds or thousands, not hundreds of thousands of customers), the best way I've found to encourage reviews is to prominently display my email address for any questions or ideas. Then, when customers write (many of them do), I write back a nice response and then add: P.S. If you enjoy Mindscope, would you take a minute to write a short review? It would mean a lot and helps give Min…

I've done a similar thing, but getting people to review is like pulling teeth. We've tried plenty ways to make this happen: 1. append a footer in the email asking for a review Finding: People ignore it. 2. include custom copy in the emails asking for a review People say yes yes, and then most do nothing. 3. The annoying rate us with stars popup and redirect to appstore. People rate 5 stars inapp, and then close down…

I've been most successful in getting reviews and feedback only when triggering a cta at the appropriate time and to the appropriate user. For example, figure out what a valued user means to your b2c product, is it someone who has done x over a specific period of times or logins.

Once you determine that, try showing those users a modal that says something like, are you enjoying "my product", with yes and no answers. If no, ask if they would like to provide feedback so you can make their experience better. If yes, ask if they could rate your app.

I've found that by using this method you, a) show the cta to users that matter, b) get feedback from frustrated users, and c) get positive ratings from people who have expressed a positive intent.

GL

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#176

Post by kamilszybalski »

anotherturn wrote: post #133
epaga wrote: post #102

As a small indie dev (dealing with hundreds or thousands, not hundreds of thousands of customers), the best way I've found to encourage reviews is to prominently display my email address for any questions or ideas. Then, when customers write (many of them do), I write back a nice response and then add: P.S. If you enjoy Mindscope, would you take a minute to write a short review? It would mean a lot and helps give Min…

I've done a similar thing, but getting people to review is like pulling teeth. We've tried plenty ways to make this happen: 1. append a footer in the email asking for a review Finding: People ignore it. 2. include custom copy in the emails asking for a review People say yes yes, and then most do nothing. 3. The annoying rate us with stars popup and redirect to appstore. People rate 5 stars inapp, and then close down…

I've been most successful in getting reviews and feedback only when triggering a cta at the appropriate time and to the appropriate user. For example, figure out what a valued user means to your b2c product, is it someone who has done x over a specific period of times or logins.

Once you determine that, try showing those users modal that says something like, are you enjoying "my product", with yes and no answers. If no, ask if they would like to provide feedback so you can make their experience better. If yes, ask if they could rate your app.

I've found that by using this method you, a) show the cta to users that matter, b) get feedback from frustrated users, and c) get positive ratings from people who have expressed a positive intent.

GL

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#177

Post by arprocter »

philliphaydon wrote: post #116

Now if only I could write reviews... but there's a Long outstanding bug where if you download an app in (in my case Australia) move to singapore, change your store to singapore, redownload the app. The store assumes you don't own the app cos it originated in Australia but your account is now singapore with the singapore downloaded app. And you cannot write a review cos the store is confused. But if the app is downloa…

I had something similar happen on PSN. IIRC it wouldn't let me add Plus to a UK account using a US card.

I ended up just creating a new account, but it was surprising how difficult they made it to give them money.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#178

Post by mikeash »

fattire wrote: post #107
mikeash wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That you feel the need to "retaliate" over what you deem a minor inconvenience says it all.

What does it say, that I'm occasionally petty when people waste my time? I certainly can't argue with that.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#179

Post by anotherturn »

Ntrails wrote: post #164
anotherturn wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done a similar thing, but getting people to review is like pulling teeth. We've tried plenty ways to make this happen: 1. append a footer in the email asking for a review Finding: People ignore it. 2. include custom copy in the emails asking for a review People say yes yes, and then most do nothing. 3. The annoying rate us with stars popup and redirect to appstore. People rate 5 stars inapp, and then close down…

>3. The annoying rate us with stars popup and redirect to appstore. People rate 5 stars inapp, and then close down the AppStore before they apply a rating Every now and again I click through on that to leave a shitty review as a disincentive to a) annoy me with a dumb pop up every time I use the app and b) dark pattern it such that I only get sent to the app store if I give you a positive review. I get to the review…

I think you may be an outlier - people mostly just rate 5 stars and then don't follow through. It's contextual for us to a degree. Our (free) app in effect gives people money and at the end of that transaction if they've not yet rated we ask them to rate. None-the-less it's a terribly small inApp-AppStore rating conversion.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#180

Post by arprocter »

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.

I'd imagine it'd be similar to Yelp when a business leaves canned 'sorry' responses to all their bad reviews.

Are users able to remove bad ratings once they are left? Bribery potential...

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