App Reviews

[MrTAToad]

I've made a quick blog about the review process of the Android and webOS version of my applications.  It shouldn't be taken to mean that I dont like criticism about them (Spots had a bit of a problem with level 31 and language selection for a short time) before someone contacted me about it, but most of the reviews I've got are pretty useless - they have no mean and degrade the application for no real reason...

http://tickleatoad.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/app-reviews/

[Gary]

To be honest I have found the same on the app store. I am suprised at Apple allowing so much swearing in reviews of apps especially with their stance on that kind of language in the actual apps.

I would say out of 10 bad reviews, 9 of them are totally worthless saying things like "pile of c**p" but the 10th one does actually offer constructive advice on how to improve things.

[Ian Price]

The whole review system is deeply flawed - whether it's for iOS, webOS or Android. For starters they shouldn't allow anonymous reviews - if you don't have a profile, how can you leave a review? Give the author of the software an opportunity to reply to reviews/comments/queries. Allow the user to flag up reviews that are either meaningless, wrong or contain inappropriate material (swearing etc.)

To be fair, I have had some good feedback (constructive criticism that I have taken on board) but it would appear that most people using the review system are some or all of the options below -

a) Thick
b) Stupid
c) Shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere near an electronic device
d) Don't understand what a review system is or how to use it properly
e) Don't care that negative reviews can have a massive impact on the app that some poor sod has spent months working on

I would say that the above also apply to the HP/Apple reviewers.


[EDIT] One of my "fave" reviews for Dicey (a free app) was something like "Could the owner of the white sedan please come to the reception."

[Moru]

a) Thick
b) Stupid
c) Shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere near an electronic device

To be fair, your points a-c is why it's possible to actually make some money at all on the iPhone/Android market so don't wish for something you don't want.

Reviews will always have this problem as long as there is no repercussions or social connection. There is the same problem in the normal world, look on all those movie and book reviewers. They can totally kill a book or movie over a little whim of theirs. A movie or book the authors have spent years and years on. I suggest you either try to convince Apple of the normal changes (users can vote review as helpful or inappropriate, hide reviews that gets bad scores and so on - slashdot/stackoverflow or similar system). Or just get used to the situation since the same thing will happen everywhere.

[Ian Price]

To be fair, your points a-c is why it's possible to actually make some money at all on the iPhone/Android market so don't wish for something you don't want.

I'm not wishing for anything. And I'm not making money either. You can get crap reviews/comments for free apps too you know. And that was supposed to be a bit of tongue in cheek humour.

hide reviews that gets bad scores

I don't believe that is actually helpful to potential purchasers TBH. A bad review/score may still be useful if it's constructive.

Or just get used to the situation since the same thing will happen everywhere.

It's a case of having to accept them; there is no alternative and no comeback. TBH I've been much luckier with my apps than MrTAToad and haven't had any real scathing reviews and as I said earlier, I've had some very constructive and useful comments.

[MrTAToad]

There does seem to be a lack of common sense for those submitting reviews

What is disappointing is the lack of comments for the Android Market...

[BdR]

http://tickleatoad.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/app-reviews/

I can say that I've had exactly the same experience with "reviews" on my first game. Most of the appstore reviews are useless, crude and negative. "one star: it doesn't start! stupidest game ever!" are you kidding me!? I also have a few that are nothing more than nonsensical ramblings. I suspect it's also due to the fact that iOS (older versions) prompts the user for a review the moment they delete an app, not the best timing..

On the other hand, there was one review in particular that was positive, polite and helpfull (this one). He or she even addresses me directly "to the developer:", but because it is anonymous there is no way for me to contact him or her. Kind of frustrating..

Two months ago, I've made that game for free for one day (btw it only got me 2 days of 10~15 units sales boost) and most of the reviews came from those users. It was downloaded for free about 12400 times, and only 13 people wrote a review. 12400/13 = ~0.1% .. it's less than a tenth of a percent even, if you take into account that 2 reviews came from a colleague and a family member.

So, actively asking the user for a review, using a dialog in the app, sounds like a very good idea. I can't say how effective it will be yet, but at the moment I'm working on putting such dialogs into all my apps for the next update.

[BdR]

I'm not familiar with Android (yet), but it seems you can't link directly to the "rate this app" page, according to this stackoverflow question. But you can link to the Android app page as following (according to this code example):

market://details?id=com.zeptolab.ctr.paid

Which is sort of equal to http://market.android.com/details?id=com.zeptolab.ctr.paid except it should start the market app directly. Can anyone verify that the market:// link works when used in combination with the NETWEBEND command?

[MrTAToad]

I'm thinking of putting in a buttom in my setup code to allow the user to go to a web form which would allow them to contact me and then go to the Palm/Android store for that game, rather than do in code - should save a bit of coding

Would probably get some spam, but they can always be deleted

[BdR]

So, actively asking the user for a review, using a dialog in the app, sounds like a very good idea. I can't say how effective it will be yet, but at the moment I'm working on putting such dialogs into all my apps for the next update.

I released the update of my apps last week, and the first reviews and rating are coming in, all positive btw. So it definitely pays to actively ask the user for a review. btw I made it so that my apps display a rate-this-app dialog in the level select screen after 10 app startups.

It's hard to say how many reviews exactly, because Apple made it almost impossible to view any user reviews or ratings in iTunes Connect. First of all, you can only view reviews and ratings of the current app version. Review ratings of same app but older versions are not visible in iTunes Connect. wth? Second and more important, you can only view reviews per country and there's no overview page or anything. Just one big drop down list with 123 (one-hundred-twenty-three) countries which you have to individually click to check for any reviews.. geez

[blackway]

So, actively asking the user for a review, using a dialog in the app, sounds like a very good idea. I can't say how effective it will be yet, but at the moment I'm working on putting such dialogs into all my apps for the next update.

I released the update of my apps last week, and the first reviews and rating are coming in, all positive btw. So it definitely pays to actively ask the user for a review. btw I made it so that my apps display a rate-this-app dialog in the level select screen after 10 app startups.

It's hard to say how many reviews exactly, because Apple made it almost impossible to view any user reviews or ratings in iTunes Connect. First of all, you can only view reviews and ratings of the current app version. Review ratings of same app but older versions are not visible in iTunes Connect. wth? Second and more important, you can only view reviews per country and there's no overview page or anything. Just one big drop down list with 123 (one-hundred-twenty-three) countries which you have to individually click to check for any reviews.. geez

You can check reviews, sales & ranking in a good way with Appannie:
http://www.appannie.com

It works great, you can receive a Daily report by email and It's free!

[Kitty Hello]

I use Appfigures.com, but with the load of my apps, they are not really a bargain.

[ampos]

Someone knows a similar service for Android apps?