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Ask Slashdot: What Makes You Uninstall Apps?
jones_supa writes "One of the most important measuring sticks for the success of any software is how long a user keeps it installed after first trying it. Intel has an article about some of the most common reasons users abandon software. Quoting: 'Apps that don’t offer anything helpful or unique tend to be the ones that are uninstalled the most frequently. People cycle through apps incredibly quickly to find the one that best fits their needs. ... A lot of apps have a naturally limited lifecycle; i.e., apps that are centered around a movie release or an app that tracks a pregnancy, or an app that celebrates a holiday. In addition, apps with limited functionality, for example, “lite” games that only go so far, are uninstalled once the user has mastered all the levels.' Some of the common factors they list include: lengthy forms, asking for ratings, collecting unnecessary data, user unfriendliness, unnecessary notifications and, of course, bugs. Additionally, if people have paid even a small price for the app, they are more committed to keep it installed. So, what makes you uninstall a piece of software?"
If there's one thing I can't abide, it's apps running in the background, poking their noses into my affairs.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Or if it doesn't work, then why keep it
Apart from notifications and ads I'd say impact on my battery would be a good reason to get rid of an app.
Many apps ask for far more permissions than needed.
I was once testing a 3270 emulator app to access a mainframe system over a vpn.
The emulator app refused to run unless you give it full access to your email.
When I called the vendor to ask why, they said it was so that users could automatically send support requests by email.
I can write my own email, thanks.
Uninstalled, and the vendor lost out on a multi-thousand dollar purchase.
#1 Zinga buys it.
#2 Freer software comes out that can fulfill the utility.
#3 ParanoidAndroid and AdAway are not capable of taming the program the way I'd like.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
I do wish it were easier to archive apps on iOS. On Android, I can use Titanium Backup, save a game off, and uninstall it. If I want to play it again, I can grab the APK from the TB archive, or if on a different device, install the game, restore the game save data.
On iOS, backups are all or nothing (although some games store their save game data in the Documents folder that one can back up in iTunes.) Next to a jailbreak and AppBackup, there isn't any real way to archive off a larger game like Chaos Rings when done with it.
Of course, the things that will cause me to toss a game:
1: If I see it trying to open up scads of behavioral tracking, analytic, and other spyware sites.
2: If it is worthless. Most games on iOS look good, but demand tons of "smurfberries" (or whatever currency you have to pay for) in order to advance. Want a decent plot in Zombie Farm, brains are a buck a piece. Want a good eatery in Zombie Cafe? Pony up for the toxins. Want decent armor in a MMO? Time to pay up. Want a better boomstick in Army of Darkness? Time for an IAP.
3: If it isn't maintained. Even an app that is fairly feature complete needs an update just to keep up with the latest OS looks.
4: If it is just a shell around a crappy, SEO-encumbered web page, like the Cracked app on Android.
5: If it requires activation or another account with them to work. For example, the Pixelmags apps on iOS. They need to just deal with Apple, not require one to have an account with them in order to read stuff.
Recently I've had a spate of 'updates' to android apps that are asking for me to approve additional privileges.
One instance was a button on the main page to turn wifi on and off (rather than digging into the settings menu). This was quite useful.
Then it got an update and wanted access to post on my behalf, the internet, my phone lists and a bunch of other things. So I uninstalled it.
This has happened several times. I'm guess it's a common attack vector.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I uninstall apps when they change permissions to grab my identity, contacts, camera, etc. There's only one reason for that and it ain't good.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
There's this class of app that tries to be everything. I hate it. Yes, maybe some apps have a limited scope, but this is a good thing: I usually download an app for a specific use case. If it tries to do other things without my input or obscures what I'm trying to do, that's the point where I get sick of it and get rid of it.
On a PC there's no pressing need since I have lots of disk space, and it's easy to keep apps from running in the background.
On Android is another story. Very limited space, and apps can run in the background very easily and are hard or impossible to kill in some cases. I recently uninstalled outlook.com app since I never used it (I installed it intending to, but never did) and it was sucking battery life. I also uninstall apps which provide duplicate functionality that I already have in an app I prefer. Large apps have to really be persuasive to stay as well.
when it crashes my machine — it is done.
Almost all pre-loaded software on a major PC brand (excluding Apple) is crippleware. In many cases the computer vendor has been paid to pre-install the software. So my answer to people about the first thing to do is to uninstall all that junk. It's just taking up CPU cycles, drive space, and making the computer take longer to boot.
The fastest way to get me to uninstall an app is in-game purchases (other than a one-time payment to purchase the full version straight up, with no further fees).
Give me a lite version to evaluate it, then let me buy it straight up. I loathe and detest in-game purchases for gold, gems, or anything else necessary to continue a game, or to speed it up.
I uninstall things that install "services" or "autoupdate" crapware (Java, iTunes, and Google's apps all do this)
I uninstall things that continue to run after I've closed them (Office suites, MMORPG launchers are guilty *glare NCSOFT*)
I uninstall things that I have given up on (more games)
I uninstall things that serve only a single purpose and that purpose has passed (data retrieval/recovery/formatting/rescue)
My "core apps" on Windows or MacOS X are:
VLC x64 or MPC x64 (I use both, latter more often because it doesn't nag for updating)
No web browser doesn't annoy and nag the user, MSIE actually is the least annoying for this, and it'x x64 mode is more secure than the 32bit browsers. Firefox, Chrome and Opera are very annoying about updating.
Steam (Games are installed or removed by Steam or GOG. Uplay and Origin are exceptionally annoying)
Adobe CS4 Suite.
Spybot S&D (It has an annoyance about not running a scan every so often though.)
Avast (It likewise is very annoying unless you run it in game mode all the time.)
Past that, I never install Flash or Java, and when something explicitly "needs" Java I have it as "click/prompt to run"
If apps want to stay on the system and be used more often, they have to be usable WITHOUT BEGING NAGGED TO DEATH AT LAUNCH. If there's an update, download the update silently and then install it when the app is next closed. Prompting to update at the beginning costs time. Most apps don't need to be updated at all at launch unless there is a critical problem that the user is in fact experiencing.
Working infosec for a dozen years or so, I tend to harden things by default. I view any app on my system as a potential vulnerability, so if I don't need it or aren't using it, off it goes.
An app that needs to update every week is not from a reliable developer. An app that wants attention every day is a pest. Freemium apps, apps that want me to install more apps or get "social" are lame. Also low value apps take precious space. Permissions creep is not OK.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Biggest one for me is when a formerly paid app switches to being advertising base. What I've found is that even if they offer a way to remove the ads by paying again, or grandfather the original purchases into an ad free mode that the apps tend to suffer redesigns that are motivated to support advertisers and that many of these redesigns impact the use of the apps even for paid users. I've already uninstalled a bunch of apps for this reason, such as Quickoffice Pro, OneTap, etc. and have been considering uninstalling apps like The Weather Channel.
You have not run into an ad supported app that pushes adds to your notifications bar yet
Bundling shite with them, like your sister site Sourceforge does.
Other than that, if it survives a day, it stays on my computer forever. I never worry about disk space, and if I've downloaded something that fulfilled a purpose once, I keep it around in case I need it again.
About the only apps I've "uninstalled" have been ones that lasted literally seconds after I realised that they bundled tons of unnecessary shit in their installers and/or weren't what I was after.
...I replace the entire phone instead.
For the most part I don't ever uninstall an app. I get a new phone every year and a half or so, so why bother? If I don't use it, I just won't reinstall it on the new phone.
Reasons why I uninstall apps.
1. Ads
2. Ads with sound
3. Ads with motion
4. Ads that burn up bandwidth.
I don't care how much I paid for them. Too many ads and you're GONE.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Another reason I uninstall apps is if they complain when I turn the phone or tablet on Airplane Mode, or demand to connect to the internet and keep bugging me about it.
I have the wifi and cell off for a reason.
If you can't cope with that - you're gone.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Anything that interferes with base system functions gets the banhammer immediately.
AOL was notorious for this years ago when the install process would replace most Windows DLLs with AOL-flavored ones. IT departments at work were pretty busy fixing computers.
Today you can't install anything on work computers unless you are an engineer involved in software development. As of WIN7 they have locked down the computers. You can't even save data to the c: drive, you have to use a thumbdrive.
I have a WinXP Netbook at home that I installed iTunes on. Over time the browsers stopped opening at all. IE, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, none of them worked. I traced it to some iPod apps running in the background even though iTunes wasn't open. After I removed iTunes it worked a lot better.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
* If I realize that it's been months and I've never actually used it
* If I thought it would do something useful, I tried it, and I realized it didn't
** Or if I got it thinking it would even work at all, tried it, and it didn't. That's totally a thing.
** Or if I got it and it didn't crash all the time then, but it does now.
** Or if when I got it, it didn't constantly bug me, but after an update, now it does.
* If I downloaded several apps to do something, then picked the best one and this wasn't it
* If at the time it *was* the best app to do something, but then later someone made a better one
* If, as mentioned, I got it for a particular trip, and that trip has now passed. Or I got it for a particular event, and the event is over.
Here's a link to our paper at KDD 2013 looking at why people hate your app. We crawled user comments on Google Play for about 100k apps, and then did some clustering and linear regressions to probe what people say when they give you low star ratings.
It turns out that a lot of low ratings often come right after an update, when people find out that their app doesn't work anymore due to incompatibilities. We also found some odd anomalies, like people saying they love your app but gave you a 1 star rating. If you want the very short summary, jump to Table 6. We divided up the comments by app type. For example, for games, people tended to complain about (1) attractiveness, (2) stability, and (3) cost. For other categories, the complaints were less consistent.
so many apps have ancillary modules that sit in the background, sucking up RAM and CPU cycles. when I find one of these I always ask myself if I really use it. IF not, it's gone! boom. Constant updates are a real pain, too, but at least that can be turned off.
As a developer I'd like to know a little more about notifications and what users consider acceptable. For example in one of my apps, http://www.perpenso.com/calc/calc3.html, I have some one time notifications regarding optional calculator modes. I may point out that historically calculators may do A or B, and that this app does A. The handful of notifications that I have are related to very common user errors.
So, what do people think. Are one time notifications regarding common mistakes acceptable?
When endless 'upgrades' are nothing more than adding more tie ins to every god damn social media site out there.
When the ads become too intrusive.
On the laptop when they nag to go to the 'pro' version, even once.
When the underlying website is pure nuclear bullshit to start with, like Netflix.
When running a utility provides no real world benefit.
I agree w/ everything right up until the 2nd & 3rd Don't
I think that's pretty extreme.
Don't add nice wheels to your car
Don't upgrade your Rotors...
Don't change the colors of your house.
FFS
If not USING your PC is your idea of IT, I'm glad I dont' work w/ you!
Me personally, like making the PC personalized. I don't need to be super Admin at work or anything, but I get pretty pissed at employers who utilize draconian GPs to lock down PCs that people sit at day in and day out. Somethings make work easier, like AutoHotKey. The later, I only use every now (not even quarterly?) and then to create rapid text macros needed for doing manual manipulation of >20 records at a time. A rarity, but it saves hours!
Is it more than you use daily, or more than you've ever used. Like many I've used photoXXXX, (including bump mapping, texturizing, Masking, Merging multiple layers, color replacements, etc... not making Memes) but I don't use PhotoXXXX on a regular basis, maybe 2x a year. Should I uninstall / re-install that every time?
Just playing Devil's advocate here.
All time favorite apps for PC:
WINDIRSTAT / MS Office
All time favorite apps for Android.
Titanium Backup / Tasker.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
I pretty much avoid apps with any kind of in-app purchasing. If you think your app is worth the price of all the extra bits, well then allow me to buy the whole thing. I'm not interested in being nickeled and dimed to death for extra levels, abilities or features.
I have two app, the full paid http://www.perpenso.com/calc/calc3.html app with various calculators built into a single app and a lite app where scientific (including fractions and complex numbers) is built-in but other modes such as statistics, business and hex are in-app purchases. The fully paid includes everything and there is no advertising and it is offered at a bundled price point, about 60% of the price of all the in-app purchases combined, equivalent to 3 of the available 5 in-apps. There are plenty of users who only purchase 1 or 2 of the in-apps.
The problem as a developer is that some users only discover the lite app. I mention the fully paid app in the lite app's description and that it may offer a cost savings, yet there are a noticeable number of users who purchase all 5 individual in-app purchases. I don't think all of these users are trying to be supportive, that most just did not notice the fully paid bundled app.
If I had done as you suggest and only offered the fully paid bundled version I may have lost many of the smaller sales. I'd be interested in hearing any suggestions. In the future I plan to again use this 2 app strategy of fully paid bundle priced and completely a-la-carte via in-app purchases. The difficulty seem to be in making potential users aware of both versions so that they can select the best fit.
I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all single app solution. Am I missing something?
KDE is just nuts. Why do I need to install their broken email/PIM app in order to get a desktop clock widget again?
Oh, right, I dont. Uninstall KDE and install WindowMaker. Nice clock.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
That's putting it a bit too strongly. I just put out my first app a few days ago, and I've already gotten useful user feedback and requests for new features. Plus, small developers don't have the equipment budget to test the way larger companies do. (12 to 50 devices on a regular basis, with periodic tests on more.) Especially on a new app, there's going to be a period where things have to shake out.
Or do you simply avoid any app that hasn't been around a while?
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
the Market for updates?
I use (and paid for) a calendar app that updates often. NEVER nags me. When I have a moment, I'll look to see if there are any updates to my apps. I'll read what the changes are, see if people are having problems with the update, THEN decide for myself if I want to download/install the newer version.
Am I many versions behind? Hell yeah. But I'm a happy camper. And I LOOK for this dev's new apps when I've got the time. Because I know his apps won't bug me.
That fucking camera app, $5 and a huge user base, best one out there. Until it got to be every. time. I. opened. it. it wanted to know if I wanted some new ding-dong "buddy" (an Obama picture,or a swastika) and I missed SO MANY PHOTOS because of that. Cameras should be instant-on, no fucking "let's stop and show you our new BUDDY, go download it now since you're fully paid". / "Not today? Maybe you'd like to try some of our other apps?!" —I wrote the devs an email and uninstalled, and will NEVER use anything they code again. What a crackhead move! Now I'm back on freakin stock camera/camcorder, but at least I can get a picture.
Those "surveys" are wrong. The users can check for updates on their own. (Oh, and user reviews? I tweet them and link to the Market. Please don't pull a YouTube and nag people to sign up for G+ to rate.)
"Firefox" wants access for Near Field Communication, ability to delete contents of my storage, and ability remove accounts. Google Search update wants the ability to directly call phone numbers or send SMS messages (for search???), and add/modify calendar entries (from search??)
Firefox wants NFC for NFC sharing. Google Search is also the device's voice command prompt; it gains new privileges as Google adds new features to compete with Siri. It probably wants dialing so that when you say "OK Google, call Staisy", you'll get connected. probably wants calendar writing so that when you say "OK Google, remind me of a meeting with Milo at 3:30 on Thursday", you'll get it on your calendar. I'm not sure about Bluetooth though.
The problem is that the choices are to accept whatever the stupid app wants or to forbid it entirely. There is no middle ground of allowing the app but forbidding access to things I want to restrict.
Android 4.3 introduces App Ops, which you can download from Google Play Store. It lets you disable individual permissions for individual applications. It's hidden by default because it would cause too many existing apps to force-stop with a SecurityException.
Your application looks interesting. Do you plan on bringing it to Android any time soon, or is it worth $220 for an iPod touch?
I am currently working on redoing the iOS user interface a bit and implementing a few user suggestions. After that I do plan on an Android version.
... I'm platform agnostic. Personally I tend to look for apps on iOS first but I definitely appreciate Android and have a few Android apps that literally are not allowed by Apple under iOS, "Wifi Analyzer" for example. That said the iPod touch is a pretty cool little device if you don't need cellular, gps, etc. I hope you have a lot more in mind beyond a calculator app though. :-) One thing that makes me a little reluctant about the touch is that the iPhone and iPad just got refreshed and moved to a new CPU, the touch is still using the previous generation CPU. There has been no announcement but I can't help but wonder when the touch will get refreshed and updated to the current CPU.
Regarding an iPod touch
I look for an app to do something I want. I find umpteen poorly described ones that seem like they might fit the bill. I try three or four at a time. Despite a promising description, they don't really do what I want/crash/require too much set up/they forget all the options I laboriously set up last time/they demand inexplicable permissions. I delete them, and try another three or four or five. Eventually, by luck I find an app intended for a different purpose, in a different category that does more or less what I wanted. If I'm lucky, it doesn't nag me to give good feedback until I can't stand it, stop using it, and look for a better alternative.
Why not add the ability to revoke permissions to an app?
Great, so the flashlight app wants to read my contact list: how about NOPE? 2D game wants to access my camera? How about NOPE? Other OS's include the ability to reject permissions to an app.
Why not Android?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Get the one from F-Droid. There is an open-source package repository and it has a bunch of useful open-source apps for Android.
You can be quite sure whatever you get from F-Droid is not an ad-ladden spyware. It doesn't have many apps, but there are some very good ones, and signal-to-noise ratio is much better than official app store.
--Coder