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

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#211

Post by Rex206 » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 6:17 AM UTC

st3v3r wrote: post #47

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.

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.

I could list 200 problems with no good solutions. Can I have your # to call and discuss them with you? How about a single text every month or two? Have you shown any concern for our problems? Any concern at all?

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#212

Post by Rex206 » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 6:51 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #54

justinclift wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. :/

As mentioned further up, it's brutally difficult without anything like this. The App Store shows ratings for only the current version by default so after you slave over each upgrade, you lose all the great reviews you've carefully collected. Those ratings are critical to your success in an already difficult marketplace. Almost no one goes out of their way to review your app, so the majority of reviews you'll get are…

App stores are relatively recent things and devs made butt loads of $$$ before the first App Store opened. You are being uncreative depending on nags to get publicity. If you have to annoy users to make a go of it, you just might be in the wrong business. It's not my fault. Not Apple's fault either. Blaming others for failure is Psych 101. Yeah, we get why you do it. Humans are extremely reticent to blame themselves for anything. Furthermore, we owe you for "using" your app and getting pelted with your ads. Except that right there is beyond simple selfishness, and crosses the threads hold into soft psychopathy.

You aren't selfless enough to make it in software. You can't think about the customer, only yourself. That's not how business usually works.

So, life is hard. Awwwwwwwwww. There's your sympathy. Now, succeed without bugging your customer or admit defeat and get out.

Or keep complaining that you're getting 1 star reviews.

Up to you.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#213

Post by corin_ » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 7:58 AM UTC

wadkar wrote: post #204

gondo wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also you cant sign in into AppStore with touch id. you have to enter your password. this is ridiculous considering i can pay only with my finger, but i can't rate.

are you sure? Because I just installed an app using my Touch ID. Perhaps you want to dig through the settings?

Nope, Apple has weird permissions for it - I haven't reviewed an app for a while but remember needing my password to log in to do so, even though my fingerprint lets me buy apps.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#214

Post by yoz-y » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 9:10 AM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #187

yoz-y wrote: post #125

I really hope that it would be finally possible to use touch id to identify myself when leaving reviews. I do not understand why reviewing seems to be the most sensitive thing I can do on an iPhone, as it is the only feature that always requires the whole password.

To slow down review farms?

Dubious, you only have to enter your password once and then you can write reviews for 15 minutes or so (I did not check). This only bothers people who leave one review every now and then.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#215

Post by yoz-y » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 9:38 AM UTC

shortstuffsushi wrote: post #191

yoz-y wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are already allowing apps to do stuff which is against the rules. I am on a personal crusade on Twitter against apps that spam me with notifications to "come back".

I also hate this, but what rule does that violate? Perhaps 4.5.4? > 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information. It's a should and not a must... I'm not sure if they enforce all "shoulds." Also, from a review perspective, how could you tell? These sort o…

I do not think that Apple has the means to test this in the review, but maybe there should be a way to mark spam notifications somehow.

What I do now is that I complain to the developer/company twitter accounts. Most of the time I receive very hopeful and polite replies and ... nothing gets fixed.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#216

Post by huxley » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 2:35 PM UTC

hellofunk wrote: post #202

neiled wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10.3 is in beta and the first beta was released to developers yesterday. That link is to pre-release documentation.

According to the article, if you purchase a brand-new iOS device, it is running 10.3. That is different than existing devices cannot get upgraded yet to it. Or is the article unclear?

No, you've misunderstood the phrasing, it says "which runs on currently shipping iOS devices", in other words, it is compatible with.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#217

Post by shortstuffsushi » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 3:18 PM UTC

yoz-y wrote: post #215

shortstuffsushi wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also hate this, but what rule does that violate? Perhaps 4.5.4? > 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information. It's a should and not a must... I'm not sure if they enforce all "shoulds." Also, from a review perspective, how could you tell? These sort o…

I do not think that Apple has the means to test this in the review, but maybe there should be a way to mark spam notifications somehow. What I do now is that I complain to the developer/company twitter accounts. Most of the time I receive very hopeful and polite replies and ... nothing gets fixed.

I'm sorry you feel this way, but our market studies have shown that most of our users respond positively to being spammed daily, and almost all of them come back and spend money as a result!!!!111!

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#218

Post by prawn » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 8:51 PM UTC

Rex206 wrote: post #212

prawn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As mentioned further up, it's brutally difficult without anything like this. The App Store shows ratings for only the current version by default so after you slave over each upgrade, you lose all the great reviews you've carefully collected. Those ratings are critical to your success in an already difficult marketplace. Almost no one goes out of their way to review your app, so the majority of reviews you'll get are…

App stores are relatively recent things and devs made butt loads of $$$ before the first App Store opened. You are being uncreative depending on nags to get publicity. If you have to annoy users to make a go of it, you just might be in the wrong business. It's not my fault. Not Apple's fault either. Blaming others for failure is Psych 101. Yeah, we get why you do it. Humans are extremely reticent to blame themselves…

This is an app that won an Apple Design Award, was one of Time's apps of the year and has done just fine otherwise.

I am speaking of people who rate an otherwise 4-5* app with 1* because of one prompt screen (that also prompts for feedback) per major version.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#219

Post by eridius » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 10:03 PM UTC

Rex206 wrote: post #208

eridius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not gaming the system. If the user is unhappy, leaving a review won't make them happy. Providing support via some other mechanism to try and fix their issue, that's what makes them happy. If the user is already happy, they don't need support. But maybe they'd like to leave a review to tell other people that they're happy.

The ratings are not for you, or the customer leaving it. They are for other customers. The problem is, you think something is for you, that is not for you, and you are asking for everyone to behave like it is for you, and you are telling them that, if they don't treat it like it is for you, that you don't want them as a customer. Fair enough, if that's the way you feel, but if that's really what you want ... put it o…

Reviews are for the customers, yes. But if a customer has a problem, leaving a bad review does not help that customer. And if it's a problem that can be easily fixed, it doesn't help other customers either. Directing people with problems to internal support is unambiguously a good thing. If that customer's issue can be resolved, that's the best solution all around. And if it can't be resolved, well, the user can still go leave a bad review if they want to.

Re: iOS and MacOS Developers Can Now Respond to Reviews

#220

Post by eridius » Thu, Jan 26, 2017, 10:09 PM UTC

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?

According to Daring Fireball (http://daringfireball.net/2017/01/new_app_store_review_featu...), at some point Apple will change the rules so that this new API is the only way apps are allowed to ask for reviews, but right now there's no timeline for when this will happen.