4 ms·

It's a really important thing for the apps because by default only unhappy people go to Play Store and give 1 star. Then it looks like your app is crap and the

It's a really important thing for the apps because by default only unhappy people go to Play Store and give 1 star. Then it looks like your app is crap and the competitors are way better. In prev job, we had few ratings of our app, and avg. of 3.5. After adding the question, we got thousands of 5 stars and went to avg. 4.7 in a few months. Of course the app should give you "I don't care" option, and store your answer to not repeat the question.

Dahoon 6y ago
I always answer yes and give a one star rating. An app that tries to game the system (and likely breaks the stores rules) deserve it.
- jakub_g 6y ago
  You see two competing apps. One is rated 3.5 and has 100 reviews, another is rated 4.4 and has 10000 reviews. Which one do you install?
  - devilduck 6y ago
    You try them both and decide for yourself what you like.
  - badsectoracula 6y ago
    The second one, of course, but that should come from genuine reviews, not gaming the system because when you do that then it devalues the system for everyone.
  - IgorPartola 6y ago
    Both. Say I’m looking for a budget app. They can be very different and work very differently. Also given that it is still possible to buy reviews, how much do you really trust them. I would even look at the app that had 1000 one star reviews out of curiosity. I mean Apple’s own apps often have a 2 star average and they are the ones I use all the time. I think I’m going to adopt the strategy of leaving a 1 star review saying “the app prompted me to review it before I got to use it”.
  - cgriswald 6y ago
    In both cases I'm going to look at the reviews. In the case of a lot of 5-star reviews with little to no content, I'm going to assume they've either gamed it in the way being described upthread or that the reviews are fake, which renders the rating and number of reviews irrelevant to me. I'll definitely look at some 4-star reviews to see what people who liked the app in general didn't like. I'll also read some 1-star reviews to see if there are any red flags/deal breakers like... the pestering behavior being described upthread. This type of behavior is unlikely to succeed with me if I find out it occurs. Not everyone does it and "it makes me more money" might be a reason someone would do it, but it doesn't convince me I should tolerate it. I'm extremely intolerant of any behavior that shows disrespect for users and doesn't value their time. This method could succeed with me if it was a one-time purchase and I was unaware of the behavior. It won't succeed with me if the app is free and offers IAP (something I tend to avoid anyway, though) or if it is a subscription-based app.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    One of them. Or neither. I'm not using the app store for product discovery. Ratings are thoroughly gamed and comments are bullshit. If I install an app, it's because of an outside recommendation, and so I search directly for it by name. (It's a principle I live by in general: don't use e-commerce platforms for product discovery; neither the platform nor the sellers have any incentive to give you best value for your time/money, and manipulation is rampart.) But I get your point. If I were to choose, I'd probably lean towards the higher-rated and higher-review-count app, but I would make sure to read a few 1-star and 5-star reviews on both to determine how trustworthy the app is.
  - GekkePrutser 6y ago
    Usually I would just try the free version of both. And then decide.
  - II2II 6y ago
    Neither. When I go to the official app store, I already know what I am getting and why I am getting it. The few times I have glanced at reviews, they have been useless. When I'm browsing for Android apps, I tend to stick to F-Droid, where I judge from the description and maybe the website. They don't offer ratings or reviews. Much of the open source ecosystem seems to be like this. You don't get ratings in most package managers and extension managers. At best you will get download counts. I think the differentiation between commercial software (even the gratis stuff) and open source is telling. Ratings and reviews are about marketing, not the actual quality of the product.
hyakosm 6y ago
Same rules applies to all apps. It's curious to have 1 star when competitors have 4 or 5 stars.
phendrenad2 6y ago
I wonder if apps targeting userbases that are more averse to being nagged like this get overall lower reviews. App stores should really abandon reviews, they're clearly broken, due to this effect. Instead, maybe app stores should measure user engagement, and rank apps that way.
- scollet 6y ago
  How do you measure user engagement?
  - mmmateo 6y ago
    For starters, tracking how often an app gets used, abandoned, deleted
  - alexdw_mgzi 6y ago
    Add some metrics to the app itself, I'd wager. Then you'll get people complaining about how the app (or app store) is spying on your every action, and phoning home.
    - MereInterest 6y ago
      Which is an absolutely reasonable complaint. Pervasive monitoring of users is not an acceptable practice.
  - dalbasal 6y ago
    Spy on usage
- goodpeoplewin 6y ago
  I agree that reviews are a poor measure of value/quality. Fake reviews can be purchased now. But ranking apps by engagement is measuring the wrong thing: Some apps are wonderful, but are used very infrequently -> Low 'engagement'. A YC example would be AirBNB.
- zelphirkalt 6y ago

Dahoon 6y ago

I always answer yes and give a one star rating. An app that tries to game the system (and likely breaks the stores rules) deserve it.

jakub_g 6y ago
You see two competing apps. One is rated 3.5 and has 100 reviews, another is rated 4.4 and has 10000 reviews. Which one do you install?
- devilduck 6y ago
  You try them both and decide for yourself what you like.
- badsectoracula 6y ago
  The second one, of course, but that should come from genuine reviews, not gaming the system because when you do that then it devalues the system for everyone.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  Both. Say I’m looking for a budget app. They can be very different and work very differently. Also given that it is still possible to buy reviews, how much do you really trust them. I would even look at the app that had 1000 one star reviews out of curiosity. I mean Apple’s own apps often have a 2 star average and they are the ones I use all the time. I think I’m going to adopt the strategy of leaving a 1 star review saying “the app prompted me to review it before I got to use it”.
- cgriswald 6y ago
  In both cases I'm going to look at the reviews. In the case of a lot of 5-star reviews with little to no content, I'm going to assume they've either gamed it in the way being described upthread or that the reviews are fake, which renders the rating and number of reviews irrelevant to me. I'll definitely look at some 4-star reviews to see what people who liked the app in general didn't like. I'll also read some 1-star reviews to see if there are any red flags/deal breakers like... the pestering behavior being described upthread. This type of behavior is unlikely to succeed with me if I find out it occurs. Not everyone does it and "it makes me more money" might be a reason someone would do it, but it doesn't convince me I should tolerate it. I'm extremely intolerant of any behavior that shows disrespect for users and doesn't value their time. This method could succeed with me if it was a one-time purchase and I was unaware of the behavior. It won't succeed with me if the app is free and offers IAP (something I tend to avoid anyway, though) or if it is a subscription-based app.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  One of them. Or neither. I'm not using the app store for product discovery. Ratings are thoroughly gamed and comments are bullshit. If I install an app, it's because of an outside recommendation, and so I search directly for it by name. (It's a principle I live by in general: don't use e-commerce platforms for product discovery; neither the platform nor the sellers have any incentive to give you best value for your time/money, and manipulation is rampart.) But I get your point. If I were to choose, I'd probably lean towards the higher-rated and higher-review-count app, but I would make sure to read a few 1-star and 5-star reviews on both to determine how trustworthy the app is.
- GekkePrutser 6y ago
  Usually I would just try the free version of both. And then decide.
- II2II 6y ago
  Neither. When I go to the official app store, I already know what I am getting and why I am getting it. The few times I have glanced at reviews, they have been useless. When I'm browsing for Android apps, I tend to stick to F-Droid, where I judge from the description and maybe the website. They don't offer ratings or reviews. Much of the open source ecosystem seems to be like this. You don't get ratings in most package managers and extension managers. At best you will get download counts. I think the differentiation between commercial software (even the gratis stuff) and open source is telling. Ratings and reviews are about marketing, not the actual quality of the product.

hyakosm 6y ago

Same rules applies to all apps. It's curious to have 1 star when competitors have 4 or 5 stars.

phendrenad2 6y ago

I wonder if apps targeting userbases that are more averse to being nagged like this get overall lower reviews. App stores should really abandon reviews, they're clearly broken, due to this effect. Instead, maybe app stores should measure user engagement, and rank apps that way.

scollet 6y ago
How do you measure user engagement?
- mmmateo 6y ago
  For starters, tracking how often an app gets used, abandoned, deleted
- alexdw_mgzi 6y ago
  Add some metrics to the app itself, I'd wager. Then you'll get people complaining about how the app (or app store) is spying on your every action, and phoning home.
  - MereInterest 6y ago
    Which is an absolutely reasonable complaint. Pervasive monitoring of users is not an acceptable practice.
- dalbasal 6y ago
  Spy on usage
goodpeoplewin 6y ago
I agree that reviews are a poor measure of value/quality. Fake reviews can be purchased now. But ranking apps by engagement is measuring the wrong thing: Some apps are wonderful, but are used very infrequently -> Low 'engagement'. A YC example would be AirBNB.
zelphirkalt 6y ago