5 ms·

You've clearly never been on the other side of things... ratings help app developers get reviews, which is important for their business. It's a hard place to be

You've clearly never been on the other side of things... ratings help app developers get reviews, which is important for their business. It's a hard place to be, and they're doing something that works, even if it is kind of annoying. For Microsoft apps, sure, rate whatever you want, but if you're giving 1-star reviews to apps made by smaller developers just because they're asking for a review of their app, you're just a jerk.

ulucs 6y ago
It's more because of the dark pattern of blocking possible bad reviews by redirecting them to support.
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Well usually bad reviews do include a lot of details. I also often see support from the company actually responding to users, and these issues getting resolved and the ratings modified. This is one way where that process works well.
GekkePrutser 6y ago
Well it's more than "kind of" annoying. Just to clarify: I'm only doing the 1-star review on apps that ask more than once. But tbh I haven't seen it in apps made by smaller developers. Only in ones by big companies. The ones made by smaller devs usually care much more about their user experience, if they ask it at all they ask it once only and not over and over again like Microsoft does. Reddit's app is another big one there but obviously they don't give anything about their users, they are super annoying anyway (like constantly trying to force you to use the app if you view reddit in a webbrowser on a phone). But the ones I use from smaller devs are usually FOSS so they don't care about their ratings at all, as they don't make money anyway. And I'm much more likely to support these with good ratings anyway. I don't care about Microsoft's business :) Still, I think it is bad practice. If I love an app I give it a good rating anyway. If you do it, please don't make it a yes/no. But also include a "stop bothering me" button :)
- impendia 6y ago
  I recently gave a 1-star review to Adobe Acrobat Reader, when it interrupted me to ask for an App Store rating. If I were using an app made my some small, scrappy developer, then there is no way I'd do this. It would feel rude, and I'd understand that they might need to scramble to survive. But Adobe? Come on.
MattGaiser 6y ago
The point is to make it not work so that they try something else.
Nextgrid 6y ago
Disagreed. The primary purpose of the app is to do whatever the app is supposed to do, so unless the app's only purpose is to ask for feedback then asking for feedback (especially in the middle of a task) is disruptive and annoying. --- Enjoying this post? Please leave a review in the form of an upvote! --- Furthermore I think asking for reviews should be banned by the App Store (whether Google's or Apple's) guidelines as to put every app on the same playing field. Reviews are best when they come organically instead of being gamed by nagging the user (and a lot of people will just respond randomly with a 5-star just so it gets out of their way). --- We've noticed you still haven't upvoted this post. Would you mind doing so now? It would really help us. --- This relatively recent (10 years ago this didn't seem like a widespread thing) trend of constantly asking for feedback or similar ("SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON!") is extremely annoying and I wish all platforms would take steps to penalize this behavior given how annoying it is (as you can probably see right here). It's even worse when it's about a product that has already lots of publicized complaints that remain ignored for years (looking at Windows 10 or similar Microsoft products).
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  I think Apple already does block apps that keep fishing for reviews. But I haven't used iOS in a while. Google's validation process isn't that deep so they will usually miss this. But yes I agree, it is so annoying. Especially in paid apps. I already paid for the app so obviously I like it.
  - Dahoon 6y ago
    Not really unless it is spamming users. Apple have an API for sending "yes I like your app" to give a rating and give "no I hate it" a feedback form. On the Play store it is "gaming the system". In the App store it is "working as intended".
- yoz-y 6y ago
  Game theory applies. If everybody stopped doing this then sure. As things stand ratings/likes/points are a signal to the aggregators that a thing is popular and useful. Note that on iOS asking for reviews otherwise than through the system dialog is basically forbidden (rule 5.6.1). This method does not allow spamming the user as the dialog can only be shown a number of times during a period of time.
kickopotomus 6y ago
I would agree if they only ask once, but on a lot of apps nowadays it's a daily or weekly occurrence. That's annoying. If I already said that I do not wish to rate/review your app, don't ask again.
chepaslaaa 6y ago
If your user experience pisses off users you'll get knee jerk reactions.

ulucs 6y ago

It's more because of the dark pattern of blocking possible bad reviews by redirecting them to support.

GekkePrutser 6y ago
Well usually bad reviews do include a lot of details. I also often see support from the company actually responding to users, and these issues getting resolved and the ratings modified. This is one way where that process works well.

GekkePrutser 6y ago

Well it's more than "kind of" annoying. Just to clarify: I'm only doing the 1-star review on apps that ask more than once. But tbh I haven't seen it in apps made by smaller developers. Only in ones by big companies. The ones made by smaller devs usually care much more about their user experience, if they ask it at all they ask it once only and not over and over again like Microsoft does. Reddit's app is another big one there but obviously they don't give anything about their users, they are super annoying anyway (like constantly trying to force you to use the app if you view reddit in a webbrowser on a phone). But the ones I use from smaller devs are usually FOSS so they don't care about their ratings at all, as they don't make money anyway. And I'm much more likely to support these with good ratings anyway. I don't care about Microsoft's business :) Still, I think it is bad practice. If I love an app I give it a good rating anyway. If you do it, please don't make it a yes/no. But also include a "stop bothering me" button :)

impendia 6y ago
I recently gave a 1-star review to Adobe Acrobat Reader, when it interrupted me to ask for an App Store rating. If I were using an app made my some small, scrappy developer, then there is no way I'd do this. It would feel rude, and I'd understand that they might need to scramble to survive. But Adobe? Come on.

MattGaiser 6y ago

The point is to make it not work so that they try something else.

Nextgrid 6y ago

Disagreed. The primary purpose of the app is to do whatever the app is supposed to do, so unless the app's only purpose is to ask for feedback then asking for feedback (especially in the middle of a task) is disruptive and annoying. --- Enjoying this post? Please leave a review in the form of an upvote! --- Furthermore I think asking for reviews should be banned by the App Store (whether Google's or Apple's) guidelines as to put every app on the same playing field. Reviews are best when they come organically instead of being gamed by nagging the user (and a lot of people will just respond randomly with a 5-star just so it gets out of their way). --- We've noticed you still haven't upvoted this post. Would you mind doing so now? It would really help us. --- This relatively recent (10 years ago this didn't seem like a widespread thing) trend of constantly asking for feedback or similar ("SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON!") is extremely annoying and I wish all platforms would take steps to penalize this behavior given how annoying it is (as you can probably see right here). It's even worse when it's about a product that has already lots of publicized complaints that remain ignored for years (looking at Windows 10 or similar Microsoft products).

GekkePrutser 6y ago
I think Apple already does block apps that keep fishing for reviews. But I haven't used iOS in a while. Google's validation process isn't that deep so they will usually miss this. But yes I agree, it is so annoying. Especially in paid apps. I already paid for the app so obviously I like it.
- Dahoon 6y ago
  Not really unless it is spamming users. Apple have an API for sending "yes I like your app" to give a rating and give "no I hate it" a feedback form. On the Play store it is "gaming the system". In the App store it is "working as intended".
yoz-y 6y ago
Game theory applies. If everybody stopped doing this then sure. As things stand ratings/likes/points are a signal to the aggregators that a thing is popular and useful. Note that on iOS asking for reviews otherwise than through the system dialog is basically forbidden (rule 5.6.1). This method does not allow spamming the user as the dialog can only be shown a number of times during a period of time.

kickopotomus 6y ago

I would agree if they only ask once, but on a lot of apps nowadays it's a daily or weekly occurrence. That's annoying. If I already said that I do not wish to rate/review your app, don't ask again.

chepaslaaa 6y ago

If your user experience pisses off users you'll get knee jerk reactions.