AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story • Hacker News Board

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#211

Post by MWil » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 8:44 PM UTC

recursive wrote: post #13

MWil wrote: post #9

Is being listed in the App Store a contract? Does it matter that my app was good to go at one point but could be pulled at any time if they introduce a new guideline? How do they justify unilaterally affecting what has to be a billion dollar industry that relies (or what could amount to legal reliance for equitable reasons) on them?

Who do they need to justify it to? It's apple's app store.

Again, you have to justify unilateral changes to a multi-billion dollar industry. period. it doesn't matter if it's private as opposed to public.

I'm talking of course in a moral, good for business good will sense and not legal.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#212

Post by potatolicious » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 10:55 PM UTC

Termana wrote: post #175

zevyoura wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this work? My understanding is that apps cannot see what other apps are installed on iOS unless the device has been jailbroken.

I'm not sure if this is how the specific ones being talked about might be working, but a simplified way of doing it would be that when APP A is installed it connects to a server and tells it that it has been installed with UNIQUE DEVICE ID, that way APP B can connect to the server and see if APP A has been installed on UNIQUE DEVICE ID. You can imagine ways to do the same with viewing ads etc.

This won't work - Apple no longer allows access to the unique device ID. You can generate your own random ID and register it with a server, of course, but this ID will not persist between apps.

More commonly this is done by IP tracking.

- Device taps on button/ad in app A to download app B.

- URL is specially encoded to identify app A.

- Server registers some unique information about the device.

- Server redirects to app B's app store page.

- User downloads app B.

- User launches app B, which reports back to Server. Server recognizes device and is able to associate this install event with the original tap from app A. App A's servers are contacted to this effect.

The trick here is that the uniqueness of the device here is pretty limited and temporary. If the user downloads app B, then does not launch it, their IP address will soon change (cellular networks and the such). It's not a foolproof system.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#213

Post by EGreg » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 6:08 PM UTC

MartinMoi wrote: post #189

EGreg wrote: post #76

Although I do agree that this is nerve wracking, I think the situation will resolve itself. The one question I have is ... why did they use push notifications to send a daily message, when they could have just scheduled them locally? Clearly Apple notices anomalous traffic for non-transactional notifications, such as one that's sent once a day to everyone, and that's probably what alerted some unrelated guys in the a…

It's not stated that they used "remote" push notifications, maybe they're talking about local push notifications. Also, I guess Apple only tried to reach the CEO because when you summit an iOS app, you have to give them the information a person to contact in case they need to. I guess they gave them the CEO information.

I can say it's a good probability that they did ... and that triggered this problem.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#214

Post by pdpi » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 8:40 PM UTC

physcab wrote: post #54

potatolicious wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't quite the same thing. Facebook is letting people advertise apps on news feeds, they're not forcing downloads via a game mechanism. What GP is talking about is the much sketchier model of blocking (or greatly slowing down) access to an app unless the user goes and downloads an affiliated app. This is artificial download inflation by bending the user over a barrel, not advertising.

I don't think Apple will approve an app that blocks a user or slows them down unless they install a 3rd party app. What usually happens is an advert pops up during normal app usage, the user has to exit or let the ad go away, then they can continue using. It's a normal advertisement. Its not unlike when the NYTimes does a full site takeover for some Buick commercial and you have to minimize the ad before you can cont…

Not exactly slowing you down if you don't get a 3rd party app but e.g. Draw Something will give you extra coins to watch ads for other apps.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#215

Post by icolorama » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 9:45 PM UTC

kevingibbon wrote: post #38

I hate the idea of AppGratis and I'm glad its been removed. Who really benefits? The cheap user who will not normally pay for a high quality app? The app developer who spends $$ to get featured in AppGratis to then artificially climb the app store ranking? Dls are one of the worst vanity metrics out there. Devs should focus on building high quality products, monetize, then acquire quality users in a sustainable manne…

My app is a 5 starts app, it never moves in the stupid rank (always around 300) cause I refuse to pay 5K-10K to scammers that put a tiny icon in their f* ads network. I advertised with AppGratis for free in 3 occasions, got almost a million downloads total and many more 5 starts reviews..first overall place in many countries, fourth in my category in USA..that saved my app, three months after last time still feeling the effect (but also as now back to the invisible part of the rank)

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#216

Post by icolorama » Thu, Apr 11, 2013, 10:02 PM UTC

sanjkris wrote: post #30

AppGratis is a pay-to-play platform. About $20k per app. If you watch the performance of one such AppGratis recommended app, Recorder Pro. The $20k couldnt even keep them in the top-50 in the biz category for a month. Seems a waste of dev mkting $$$ imo. Simon should stop whining and just shift to Android. God knows it needs curation. The amount of filth in goog play is unbelievable.

They advertised me for free, 3 occasions, almost 1000 000 downloads..my app is alive because of it.