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FWIW: As a dev I've made both contact with Apple and with Google reps and it was like day and night. Apple actually offers support and tries to resolve my probl
by hn3333 6y ago
FWIW: As a dev I've made both contact with Apple and with Google reps and it was like day and night. Apple actually offers support and tries to resolve my problems while Google feels like getting some bureaucracy done at a public office or worse. (Speaking of European bureaucracy, YMMV.)
- mekkkkkk 6y agoWell the difference is that as a general app developer you barely ever need to interact with Google. As for Apple, you do it a lot. I'd rather take rare and abysmal interactions than constant, annoying ones. I've had numerous app rejections because of reviewers simply incapable of reading instructions, and it's immensely frustrating. Especially when important hotfixes etc. is put on hold for days for no reason whatsoever. Instruction: Do NOT tap button X to log in, instead use method Z. Rejection: Tapped button X, could not log in. Your app is broken. Welp, time to resubmit and wait for a couple of days to possibly get the same rejection again. EDIT: To clarify, the login procedure is different and simplified for test accounts, such as the ones reviewers are using. Real users need to identify with real ID for (valid) reasons.
- vinayak2110 6y agohi
- howlgarnish 6y agoWhy do you have button X if you're not supposed to tap it? Will all your users read, understand and follow your instructions?
- mekkkkkk 6y agoSorry for being unclear. I updated my post. The service uses swedish digital ID verification. This is not feasible for reviewers.
- ehutch79 6y agoYou can't be the only app doing this. Others must have been approved. How did they handle it?
- toast0 6y agoThe same way. Resubmit until a reviwer reads the testing comments.
- ksec 6y agoLots of Apps have special log in system or even Apple Review User account just for the reviewers. They will have the same hurdle. And resubmit again and again and possibly; again. That is why many developers are so frustrated. It isn't some one -off problems. It has been going on for years. Just like the Butterfly Keyboard, it wasn't until a journalist wrote about it and mainstream media pick it up causing Apple PR damage before Apple acted on it. Just the same with App Store review. This time with DHH.
- valuearb 6y agoYou create special ids, and logins for Apple reviewers so you don’t have this problem. Or you decide that’s too much hassle and accept the extra days in review as a different cost.
- mekkkkkk 6y agoDon't get me wrong, most of the time they read the instructions and everything works great. No issue. But the uncalled-for rejections happens enough that we can never feel confident. As I say, it's a major nuisance, but it isn't unworkable.
- StavrosK 6y agoForgive my ignorance, but why would you ship an app with a broken login system (or whatever) in the first place?
- tasubotadas 6y agoWhy do people deliver software with bugs at all???
- StavrosK 6y agoAgreed, why deliver an app with an egregious bug you know about?
- vunuxodo 6y agoBecause the Powers that Be insist on making a particular release date, consequences be damned. I am currently in this situation.
- jessedhillon 6y agoIs it my imagination, or has people's ability to detect and understand sarcasm just fallen off a cliff over the past 1-2 years?
- StavrosK 6y agoIt would appear so.
- protomyth 6y agoIt's been longer than that. I would expect this is a sore point with people because few professions allow their practitioners to knowingly ship defective products to meet a deadline. Alternatively, why understand sarcasm when the lack of understanding provides some folks with an amazing weapon?
- mekkkkkk 6y agoI updated the post. The normal login flow requires swedish digital ID. Reviewers won't have access to that.
- gcmrtc 6y agoWell, that is what most of your users would have done anyway. You dealt with a reviewer instead of multiple angry users that couldn't log in, looks like the review process works.
- mekkkkkk 6y agoIt's a different login procedure for test accounts (such as the ones made available for reviewers).
- dep_b 6y ago> Well the difference is that as a general app developer you barely ever need to interact with Google. Those days are over. Want to access text messages because you have 2 factor logins? Want to access phone logs because your apps measures how much time you spent on the phone with each of your clients?: Be prepared for a lot of bureaucracy. Of course you can't even access texts or calls on an iOS device, but then again when that's the case none of your customers can ever force you to build a feature around it.
- gogopuppygogo 6y agoYears ago, a family member of mine hired a college student to develop an informational application for their small business. This app offered reference guide type information for a niche. To set expectations, my family member paid sub $10k for the entire app to be developed when mobile apps were new. After a few years it had attracted a few thousand users but needed updating and the developer was non-responsive. The family member of mine was non-technical and had allowed the developer to publish the app under their own developer account. A saga begins that I won't bore everyone with the details but basically this family member didn't want to lose the thousands of users. They tried to get the developer to send them the app to maintain but the developer was non responsive. They tried to enforce their trademark on the app but Google would only delist it. Now they had no listing at all for their company so they tried to start over. They tried to create a new app with the same name but Google's review process wouldn't let them because another app had already existed with that name. Armed with a trademark and people we knew who worked at Google we got exactly zero steps further after three months of trying to work with Google on the issue. Eventually, we tracked down the mother of the developer who had ghosted on us and paid them to give us their developer account. Where we showed the trademark, had the app re-activated, and moved it to another Google account we controlled. Basically, Google couldn't help us at all. It was a mess. Eventually we got things sorted but we had to go around Google. Was this Google's fault? Heck no. The family member got unprofessional help from a student developer who ghosted on them but Google didn't make it easy to fix the issue. They made it impossible.
- mekkkkkk 6y agoThat certainly sounds less than ideal. I have also had a few interactions of this nature with Google, and unless you have contacts in the company or have some sort of partnership, it's very hard to get any form of manual intervention. That being said, Apple is also known for being incredibly draconian when it comes to account management. I don't think you would have been in a better position on iOS. I think understaffed, off-shored and with a lack of permissions is just the baseline when it comes to this sort of tech support.
- bartvk 6y agoSo to recap: party Foo tries to take over the developer account of party Bar, using trademark law. Google makes this not possible. How is this a problem?
- ehutch79 6y agoYour users will absolutely tap X. They will find your app is broken.
- valuearb 6y agoYou need to do a better job documenting test logins and instructions for reviewers. Not defending Apple, but don’t half-ass the things you control when you go to review.
- mekkkkkk 6y agoI don't know how you got access to our developer console, but you need to stop.
- avree 6y agoYeah, it’s amazing how painful Google makes any sort of developer support for a company that’s supposed to be “developer-centric”. With Apple, you may have to convince them of your opinion, but you can very quickly talk to a human who will reply with an actual, thoughtful response. With Google, if you manage to get a human on the other side of the line, you’re probably weeks or months later, several automated forms and replies deep, and completely confused.