Apple Will Finally Let Developers Respond To App Store Reviews (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader shares a TechCrunch report: Apple is finally going to give its developers a way to respond to customer reviews on its App Store and Mac App Store -- a feature that's long been available to Android developers on Google Play, much to the chagrin of the Apple developer community. According to developer documentation for the iOS 10.3 beta, when this version of Apple's mobile operating ships, developers will also be able to ask for reviews in new ways, in addition to responding to those posted publicly on the App Store. Apple's ratings and reviews system has felt antiquated, and has been a source of frustration for developers and users alike. When a customer leaves a negative review, developers couldn't respond to the criticism -- which is sometimes unwarranted -- in a way that other App Store customers could see. For example, a customer may be misunderstanding a feature, or may have complained about a bug that's been fixed in a later release.

Comments

I got your null pointer

[Anonymous Coward]

right here! C what I did there?

Re:I got your null pointer

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that you, Mr. Trump?

ONLY apps can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

LUDDITE developers can't app apps! ONLY modern app appers can app apps while apping other apps!

Apps!

Re: ONLY apps can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are not the app guy, not even close.

Stop with the Nag screen

[Registered Coward v2]

I get tired of developers who seem to think I'll give them a good review if they keep asking for one; that is especially true if I paid for the app. I don't mind a one time ask when I first start using it or after an update; but periodic asks is just as likely to get a 3 star so so review as a good one even if I like the app.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

I get tired of developers who seem to think I'll give them a good review if they keep asking for one; that is especially true if I paid for the app. I don't mind a one time ask when I first start using it or after an update; but periodic asks is just as likely to get a 3 star so so review as a good one even if I like the app.

I find reviews of mobile apps to be almost entirely worthless. A lot of them are bullshit reviews trying to push up the rating, many of them are people trying to use the comments to get "tech support", and most of the rest provide no useful information ("this sucks" and "this is awesome").

Of course: https://xkcd.com/937/

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Mitreya]

I get tired of developers who seem to think I'll give them a good review if they keep asking for one

It is annoying. It sounds like you were ok with the app but did not feel like leaving a review
I don't have a solution, but the problem is common -- 1000 people use the app and are ok/happy with with it and 7 of them leave a good review. 5 people have a serious problem and 5 of them leave a terrible review. Also, 2 more people did not understand what the app was for and 2 of them leave a bad review as well. And now it looks like half the people hated the app.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[OzPeter]

I get tired of developers who seem to think I'll give them a good review if they keep asking for one; that is especially true if I paid for the app. I don't mind a one time ask when I first start using it or after an update; but periodic asks is just as likely to get a 3 star so so review as a good one even if I like the app.

I know that this is an Apple story, but a while ago I had the Calculator App on Windows 10 pop up and ask me if I wanted to give it a review. WTF. Am I supposed to commend it for telling me that 2+2=4, or is it along the lines of the XKCD Tornado Warning App where I am impressed by the look and feel, but missed that it returned a wrong result?

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

We decided to wait until the 5th launch, and just ask once. There's no point on asking the first time at all, and asking the second or third time you might get people who are like "eehhhh maybe its ok" but if they've used the app 5 times, then they're basically committed users. Even then, we get reviews like "3 stars: can't do X" and so we add X and put in our release notes you can do X now, but people don't read those really, so being able to put a note saying "we released a new version on mm/yyyy which can do X now, try it out" will be a big deal for us.

We learned this the hard way: On our first app we tried asking for reviews right away and got plenty of feedback like "1 star: I haven't even used it and it wants to know what I think" or "3 stars: I dunno if its good or not yet".

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[The-Ixian]

I know what you mean. I don't generally rate apps because I don't find app reviews to be all that useful in the first place since most people seem to blindly or subjectively rate.

My general practice has always been to hit the "rate me" link when asked, but then close the appstore without leaving a review just so it stops bugging me.

However, it has even gotten to the point where newer apps are periodically checking to see if you actually did leave a review and throw the nag if you haven't.... that kind of practice makes me want to punch the dev in the face. I am not here to promote or review your app.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[The-Ixian]

This is where install-base numbers might be useful.

Just have the appstore description state how many user's have this app installed.

Of course, this would require telemetry... which we all know is evil incarnate...

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

wow your generous. Tinder pops up all the time asking for a rating (even though i've already rated it once). Whats more there is no apparent way to move forward without rating (other then closing and reopening app). i always rate it the lowest 1 star because of this annoyance.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

So.... you needed a calculator for 2+2?

Oh right, you are using Windows 10... nevermind

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[shadowrat]

i have started giving them bad reviews.

this app works, but it won't stop asking for reviews. 1 star.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

And so what? Statistically, that would happen to all apps, so all this effect would do is great apps don't have 5 starts but "great" territory starts at 4, or 3 or whatever. A negative bias doesn't hinder comparisons at all. Plus if it really was a problem we have algorithms to "calculate away" such effects.
But I recognize the attitude from the article: the problem with not being able to reply is not that you can't help/communicate with your users, no the big problem is obviously that you cannot "correct" bad reviews.
On the one hand I can understand that this is a huge issue for anyone who has to make a living from apps, but on the other hand I have no desire at all to help developers that primarily care about their ratings and how their app is perceived while the users themselves at best come second. My solution is to not make money from apps, that way I can actually care about the users (with the minus point though that I have little time to implement their wishes) and let anyone who wants to give a bad review give a bad review without it bothering more than my pride.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[tlhIngan]

I get tired of developers who seem to think I'll give them a good review if they keep asking for one; that is especially true if I paid for the app. I don't mind a one time ask when I first start using it or after an update; but periodic asks is just as likely to get a 3 star so so review as a good one even if I like the app.

There are scummy ones too - I know of a game that ask you for a review, just after you score big... but before they reveal you suddenly need to ante up $1000 to keep playing. So naturally, everyone's all 5 stars and "awesome game, lots of fun!" because at the point of the nag, that's true.

What they didn't tell you was 5 minute later, it starts pushing you for money.

Apple needs to add a "Are you still happy with your review?" question a random amount of time later - perhaps a day to a week later in case the developer pushes you for a good review by getting you all feeling great and having fun, only to start demanding payment to continue playing after the review, knowing most people can't or won't be able to revise it afterwards (you can edit your review either by leaving a new review or finding your old one and editing it. Of course, by then the app stops nagging.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[vux984]

That's really the only right answer here. Hit them RIGHT where it hurts, and let them know WHY. I'm going to be doing this from now on.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[SuperKendall]

Maybe it telling him 2+2 = 4 was in the mandatory tutorial video that played when you ran the app... :-)

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[gweilo8888]

Install base tells you next to nothing except that the app was downloaded and installed. It doesn't tell you if the app was ever tried even once, and even if you set it to show only app installs which have been run a single time, there's no meaning beyond that tiny, meaningless metric. You might have used the app once for twelve seconds; I might have used it for a thousand hours, but we both show as identical participants in the install base. You might have used the app and hated it, but been too lazy to uninstall it; I might've loved it and wanted to use it on an hourly basis for years, but again we both show as identical participants in the install base. Like it or not, install base numbers are only fractionally more meaningful than download numbers, and both Google and Apple already provide approximate download numbers for every app.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[ameline]

I agree; if I get nagged for a review, you're getting 1 star, and I'll explain why; I paid for the damn app, so stop nagging.

There should be a global pref to turn off all review nags.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it get sqrt(4) - 2 right, unlike the built-in Windows calc? If so, maybe it deserves the stars afterall.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[omnichad]

"One Star - developer nags for a review constantly"

Problem solved.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

The iOS App Store resets ratings and defaults to hiding reviews of older app versions specifically so that outdated comments like "can't do X" won't drag down your improved new version.

If Yelp and the BBB are anything to judge from, I expect a lot of developer responses to be variations on "You're holding it wrong..." And that makes me a sad panda.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[omnichad]

Can confirm - this is bad.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[LifesABeach]

One cannot change what one does not know is broke. Likewise, ass hat reviews are worthless to the developer. Sniper shots of the app are useless also. There really is no need to respond to either. But those few reviews that have constructive insights, or requests are priceless; developers can use this stuff.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Quirkz]

Shoulda panned the Win 10 calculator while you had the chance. It's slower than dirt. Every time I launch, I can count to 3 full seconds before it actually loads the app, and until it's fully loaded it's not buffering any keystrokes.

Also, sometimes it starts to launch and then just closes itself again.

Compared to the calculator in XP, Vista, 7, or 8, the one in 10 is inexplicably bad, just for those two things.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

"One Star - developer nags for a review constantly"

THIS

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[youngone]

The tech support reviews make me laugh. They're often in awful English and offer the poor developer no details of any use at all.

Someone should collect them, they're often entertaining as hell.

"Reunited me with my dad 26 years after he said he was going to the store to buy milk and cigarettes."

That's a good review right there.

Re: Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

The people who buy reviews look better, and the honest developer is shoved into 3 star oblivion.

It's a massive clusterfuck.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[rtb61]

The negative reviews are the most worthwhile, bad luck, that is just the way it is. Even developers can get dirt cheap advertising by buying their own products and ohh look, reviewing it and various different phone accounts, pretty cheap advertising even when you talk hundreds of low cost barely used phone accounts. Every possible B$ marketing scam is running all of the time on the internet, from politics to all other crap product reviews, the worse the product, the bigger the advertising spend ie decades worth of US elections as proof (they also push hate messaging).

Advertising has gone over-saturation and is starting to generate negative responses, excessive product exposure generating anti-barker like responses (it's ok for a bit, like a sideshow but all of the time in your own private places and product hate is developed).

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[narcc]

I couldn't puzzle that out either. Fortunately, someone else did so some time ago:

http://www.daviddeley.com/profdeley/math/windows_calculator/index.htm

Looks like the error has been around a while. At least there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for why it seems to give an absurd result.

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[mcfedr]

I completely agree that they are annoying, but as an app developer I know that the nagging works, and reviews are so important for getting downloads - our app downloads per day go up and down with our rating

Re:Stop with the Nag screen

[Anonymous Coward]

No it doesn't. And when I brought it up to check, it popped up a window asking me to give it a fucking review.

Amazing new feature...

[Ecuador]

Amazing new feature, I bet Apple will try to patent it as well... I only have a niche hobby app on the store, that it's not there to make money, but it sort of drives me nuts that among the 5* reviews there are a few more, ehm, "critical" ones, that would really need a reply. For example, an Australian complaining that the UT time/date display shows "yesterday's date"... If my income depended on the App store, it would have been even more annoying...

Effing finally!

[paulpach]

I have responded to thousands of reviews in google play for my app. Sometimes users just want to know that I am reading what they post, sometimes users don't know how to do something, sometimes they want more features, sometimes they want to report a bug, sometimes they just want to curse at someone.

Whatever the case may be, from the perspective of a developer, responding to a customer has 1 objective: turning that 1 star to a 5 star. This means a developer has a powerful incentive to be polite and helpful to customers. There is absolutely nothing to gain by being rude to customers so Apple is not "protecting" them.

My customers are frustrated because they get no help and they don't know whether I am listening. I get frustrated because I could easily help my customers if I had a way to reach them.

This was my #1 beef with iTunes and I am glad that Apple is finally adding that feature.

Re:Effing finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

so a link to a support email doesn't work?

Re:Effing finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

> responding to a customer has 1 objective: turning that 1 star to a 5 star.

I prefer the developers that respond because they actually want to help...

Re:Effing finally!

[SuperKendall]

If you don't have a really easy way to get you a support message before they even think of dropping a one-star review, then you have only yourself to blame for one-star reviews.

Re:Effing finally!

[paulpach]

Customers usually just leave a review asking a question instead of emailing. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

Re:Effing finally!

[paulpach]

> responding to a customer has 1 objective: turning that 1 star to a 5 star.

I prefer the developers that respond because they actually want to help...

That is one and the same objective, the best way to get a 5 star is to help.

Re:Effing finally!

[paulpach]

If you don't have a really easy way to get you a support message before they even think of dropping a one-star review, then you have only yourself to blame for one-star reviews.

I provide email, forum, website, and even chat which I link to within the app. Still many users prefer to just ask a question in a review. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I don't blame the users, they expect an answer to their review, I just want to meet them where they want to be met.

Re:Effing finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Motive matters, and the way you wrote it didn't sound like a very positive attitude to users, blackmail sure could work for getting 5 stars, and does not qualify as "helping".
I know, that is not at all what you meant, but to people like me someone writing what you wrote is a huge warning signal of "developer happy to throw users under bus if he comes out ahead with it" (your other replies sound like that interpretation would be completely wrong in your case, but that's still how it reads to me instinctively).

Re:Effing finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Surprisingly for me, I noticed that of the people choosing email (let's not even talk about github issue) almost all are male. The reviews are still far from 50%, but not that bad (as far as it's even possible to tell). Has anyone else noticed that? It's a dictionary app, so I wouldn't expect any bias due to subject, though it being OpenSource and the app description might of course have an impact.

Re:Effing finally!

[SuperKendall]

Then it sounds like indeed you did what you could... I should have made it clearer and less glib that I felt like most apps did not offer good support paths and that's why they get bad reviews. My hat is off to you for taking the time to do it right.

Re: Effing finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing you can do? Add a "help" button on the main screen.

Sounds like a shitty customer support system where they hide the phone number so you can't waste their time the way they asked yours. And if you can't afford to provide support, expect shitty reviews about lack of support.

People who use, mich less buy apps, don't want to figure it out. They'd use an amazon cloud hosted vm and lamp stack if they wanted to tinker. Maybe you shouldn't develop apps in stores if you don't understand the customer base you are marketing to.

Re: Effing finally!

[paulpach]

I do provide a link in the app to my page, I provide forums, email, and even chat.

People still like to leave reviews and ask questions there. There is nothing wrong with that. I just want to meet people where they want to be met.

Re:Effing finally!

[paulpach]

I am not sure how I could "throw users under the bus" replying to customers. The worst I could possibly do is not give refunds (I do give refunds when asked, a couple bucks here and there are not worth fighting for). But that is off topic because people do send emails when they want a refund.

I have been contacted by companies selling 5 stars reviews. You pay them and they guarantee X number of 5 star reviews. I don't care whether it is legal or not, as a matter of principle I don't buy reviews. But again, it is off topic because we are talking about responding to customers.

Yes, of course I want to help my users, I put a lot of effort into my game and I care whether people enjoy it or not. I am simply pointing out that there is also an economic incentive to be respectful and helpful when replying.

Alternative facts and bug reports/feature requests

[jtara]

Oh, great, then developers can respond with alternative facts!

As a developer, I have some misgivings. I fear that the reviews will be used even more than they are now for feature requests and bug reports. It's not what they are for. And I fear that developers will fall right into that hole.

I read a retort elsewhere (on MacRumors) that seemed to make the assumption that the above was the purpose of this change, and suggested that users should use "the usual support channels".

The problem is, there ARE no "usual support channels". Each author is responsible for providing whatever means of support, including bug reporting and feature requests, and every one is different since it is up to the author to set something up (or not). Unless you are a heavy user of an app, it is not worth going to the trouble to register on the author's site for access to a reporting system, forum, etc.

What Apple needs is a uniform, in-app (or in-app accessible) bug reporting and feature request feature. And then require or strongly urge use of it. Yes, developers will complain, as each has their own favorite system. But I think a uniform system would bring so much to app quality (due to higher participation) that it would be worth the (perceived) developer pain.

Re:Alternative facts and bug reports/feature reque

[swb]

Maybe they should have something like:

apps.apple.com/your_official_ios_app_name

And have it be a forum-type page where you could post questions, reviews, get answers, etc.

Ranking of reviews is better

[seoras]

I started with iOS Apps and recently ported to Android. The review system is startlingly different.
  - iOS rating of an App is per country. Android are global and lumped together. I prefer this.
  - iOS has 2 ratings. Current version rating and all time rating. I hate this as it's actually stifling innovation on the App Store. Why? Because the keyword search rankings are affected by current version rating. So if you submit a new version of your App it resets to zero and your App falls in ranking as do install numbers. What you end up with is a top 10 (no one ever looks beyond there) of complacent Apps that haven't had an update in a couple of years.
  - Android reviews can be "liked" or marked as "Unhelpful, Inappropriate, Spam" by other users. This seems to affect what reviews appear at the top of the list, it's not strictly chronological. This I like a lot. I'd like to see reviews up rated or down rated by other reviewers too lazy to write their own but happy to back up others. This way a developer can see interest level in a requested new feature. Talking to non-techie Android using friends I discovered none of them even knew they could do this with reviews. So it could be improve a lot. Hiding the "Unhelpful, Inappropriate, Spam" under the vertical ellipsis button doesn't help.
Yes, Play's App review system is superior. It could be better.
I'm hoping Apple's doing a lot more than just allowing feedback from developers which doesn't really help us dealing with "you're are a-hole for not giving me the god damn app 100% free with no f-ing Ads" kind of reviews which too often makes me feel like an ant being tortured by a child with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. Last month I responded to those reviews with "Happy holidays, hope you have a wonderful 2017". What else can you say?

Re:Ranking of reviews is better

[jarkus4]

- iOS has 2 ratings. Current version rating and all time rating. I hate this as it's actually stifling innovation on the App Store. Why? Because the keyword search rankings are affected by current version rating. So if you submit a new version of your App it resets to zero and your App falls in ranking as do install numbers. What you end up with is a top 10 (no one ever looks beyond there) of complacent Apps that haven't had an update in a couple of years.

This is actually something that Android devs at work are jealous of. On android a single problematic version is likely to stain your rating forever, as people use 1 star ratings "new update broke it" as a way to complain and often never changing their vote when its fixed. Basically both approaches have their own merits.

Re:Ranking of reviews is better

[tlhIngan]

- iOS has 2 ratings. Current version rating and all time rating. I hate this as it's actually stifling innovation on the App Store. Why? Because the keyword search rankings are affected by current version rating. So if you submit a new version of your App it resets to zero and your App falls in ranking as do install numbers. What you end up with is a top 10 (no one ever looks beyond there) of complacent Apps that haven't had an update in a couple of years.

Unfortunately, you need per-version reviews as well, because I have an app that is awesome (it was a paid app). They went free,but then started charging for everything that was free. If you paid for it, you got screwed, because the app is free, but also what used to be free is now paid.

If you look at the history of the app, prior to that version, it was getting 5 stars because it worked great. After that version, it became a 1 star app.

Granted, what Apple should do is simply show a rating that was based on the previous version, marked as "Because there is insufficient reviews for the current version, this rating is from the previous version".

Per-version ratings are needed - developers often pump and dump - or change things so radically that users hate the new rules.

Re:Ranking of reviews is better

[omnichad]

On the other hand, when an app requests 20 new permissions and you refuse to update, you'd like to leave a review that affects their rankings without having to install that newer version.

Re:Ranking of reviews is better

[Actually, I do RTFA]

- iOS has 2 ratings. Current version rating and all time rating. I hate this as it's actually stifling innovation on the App Store.

I disagree. It's hard to make a lot of changes to an app, to bring a bad early release inline with what people expect, when you have to dig yourself out of a hole of bad reviews.

Re:Alternative facts and bug reports/feature reque

[thegarbz]

Oh, great, then developers can respond with alternative facts!

Half the time it's not the developers which have the alternative facts, but the users.

I fear that the reviews will be used even more than they are now for feature requests and bug reports. It's not what they are for.

Sure they are. If you produce a great app that crashed constantly when I try to do something, expect a bad review and a low rating.
If you create an app for a purpose missing a killer feature (Tomtom being one of the few navigation apps that doesn't allow you to force an audio stream allowing you to link to your car's bluetooth and use navigation at the same time, expect a bad review).

Still one feature missing

[Anonymous Coward]

The App Store and the Play Store are still missing the ability to rebut a developer's answer. All too often, developers reply to Play reviews with irrelevant info., canned replies, suggestions that the user is at fault for whatever they are complaining about, and requests to contact them directly. Users should be able to reply to devs, if devs can reply to them, whether to clarify or explain their review/rating or to call out the developers for trying to mitigate bad ratings with inappropriate or incorrect replies. This is not as bad as eBay's system where sellers can reply however with impunity to negative reviews, often without actually addressing the issue and often smearing the reviewer because buyers can not answer publicly, but it is still broken.

Re:Still one feature missing

[Anonymous Coward]

Users can "reply" by editing their review. It's not very readable, but it works and my users are doing it all the time (luckily for me - as far as I care - usually just to say that it's fixed, was their mistake etc).

CABLE?

[houghi]

Thet should copyright a new protocol and call it
Combined
Airpod
Bifocal
Line
Enhancement

And that just to mess a bit more with people and they could say that they have a CABLE connection with their iPhonie.

That's great

[Anonymous Coward]

And probably appropriate for how things have evolved, that's great for developers. They can't rightly be called 'reviews', anymore though, that's more of a forum. Ratings are going to end up being based on criteria that have nothing to do with the actual quality of apps, thereby rendering them useless for that purpose. Social media-fying everything has created widespread medioctity I never would have believed possible before. I'd love to be wrong, but bad data and hyperbolic manipulation have already born this out in so many other areas. Real word of mouth is all we have left, methinks, or some kind of separate system.

Re:Alternative facts: the phrase of the month

[Anonymous Coward]

To frame 'responding to the customer' as merely a way to send alternative facts is piss poor.