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https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1412850761231392773 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1412850761231392773 Cabel Sasser emailed Phil Schiller ideas on

https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1412850761231392773 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1412850761231392773 Cabel Sasser emailed Phil Schiller ideas on the app review process in 2016. A good chunk of it wound up getting implemented. I'd love to see a sequel. Unrelatedly, I think the tone in his email is a perfect example of giving successful constructive criticism.

lapcat 4y ago
> A good chunk of it wound up getting implemented. It did? 1) "When we decided to pull Coda from the App Store (due to sandboxing)" Sandboxing is still required. 2) "we regained our ability to release software the moment we need to" Nope, nothing has changed there. 3) "we could fill a small book with frustrating and tragicomic App Review anecdotes" This was written before the Untitled Goose Game rejections. 4) "Reviews are often the dumping ground of the uninformed" Still painfully true! 5) Refunds: "And when this happens, we can do nothing." Still true. Developers can't issue their own refunds, and the App Store doesn't even have an official refund policy. I've been seeing more and more people get their App Store refund requests rejected by Apple, for no apparent reason. 6) Low app prices Still a problem of course!
- lelandfe 4y ago
  Mhm, review responses were added[0], Apple moved away from the "no refunds" policy[1], and completely stopped holding up bug fixes over guideline infractions[2]. That's a solid portion of his list! (I also think most of what you listed were not asks in that email) [0] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/ [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084 [2] https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=84w3e5bm https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=84w3e5bm
  - lapcat 4y ago
    > review responses were added This was just about the least Apple could do. You can't have a conversation, you can only post one reply. And in my experience, App Store reviewers almost never correct their bad reviews, even if you reply with info that will fix their problem. > Apple moved away from the "no refunds" policy Apple still has no official refund policy. You can request a refund, which Apple may or may not grant, as I mentioned, at Apple's own discretion, for any reason or no reason. So I don't see how anything has changed from Cabel's email. > completely stopped holding up bug fixes over guideline infractions Completely wrong. What happens is that App Review still rejects your bug fix updates. But then you can request that App Review let your update go through, and fix the problem in the next update. The problem is that this can still take an indefinite amount of time, because App Review can reject you at any time, even when you're asleep, then you have to contact them, then they have to see your message and respond, all of which can take half a day or more. It's a joke. We're still delayed.
    - lapcat 4y ago
      [UPDATE:] The other day my app got a 1-star customer review titled "Monthly subscriptions ain't it" and saying "0/5 now that it's subscription based." My app is not subscription based, it's upfront paid. This is the crap that developers have to deal with all the time in the App Store. The crowdsourced rating/review system is a blight.
  - StewardMcOy 4y ago
    I want to second what lapcat said. Apple promised to stop holding up bug fixes for rule violations, backtracked on some of that, and then just seemed to have given up on it entirely. Bugfix builds are routinely rejected, even now, and reviewers ignore you when you point out they shouldn't be. After their initial announcement of the policy, Apple clarified that they would still reject bugfixes if the app violated section 5 of the guidelines, the section titled "Legal". On the surface, this would seem reasonable. After all, can't go violating legal requirements. However, this is still counter to the spirit of what they had promised. If it's up on the store already, if it's violating the law (e.g. for scamming users out of money), it should be taken down. If it's not violating the law, it's better that customers get the bugfix. They also copied a bunch of rules from the other sections into section 5, to give themselves more leeway. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#legal https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#leg...

lapcat 4y ago

> A good chunk of it wound up getting implemented. It did? 1) "When we decided to pull Coda from the App Store (due to sandboxing)" Sandboxing is still required. 2) "we regained our ability to release software the moment we need to" Nope, nothing has changed there. 3) "we could fill a small book with frustrating and tragicomic App Review anecdotes" This was written before the Untitled Goose Game rejections. 4) "Reviews are often the dumping ground of the uninformed" Still painfully true! 5) Refunds: "And when this happens, we can do nothing." Still true. Developers can't issue their own refunds, and the App Store doesn't even have an official refund policy. I've been seeing more and more people get their App Store refund requests rejected by Apple, for no apparent reason. 6) Low app prices Still a problem of course!

lelandfe 4y ago
Mhm, review responses were added[0], Apple moved away from the "no refunds" policy[1], and completely stopped holding up bug fixes over guideline infractions[2]. That's a solid portion of his list! (I also think most of what you listed were not asks in that email) [0] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/ratings-and-reviews/ [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084 [2] https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=84w3e5bm https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=84w3e5bm
- lapcat 4y ago
  > review responses were added This was just about the least Apple could do. You can't have a conversation, you can only post one reply. And in my experience, App Store reviewers almost never correct their bad reviews, even if you reply with info that will fix their problem. > Apple moved away from the "no refunds" policy Apple still has no official refund policy. You can request a refund, which Apple may or may not grant, as I mentioned, at Apple's own discretion, for any reason or no reason. So I don't see how anything has changed from Cabel's email. > completely stopped holding up bug fixes over guideline infractions Completely wrong. What happens is that App Review still rejects your bug fix updates. But then you can request that App Review let your update go through, and fix the problem in the next update. The problem is that this can still take an indefinite amount of time, because App Review can reject you at any time, even when you're asleep, then you have to contact them, then they have to see your message and respond, all of which can take half a day or more. It's a joke. We're still delayed.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    [UPDATE:] The other day my app got a 1-star customer review titled "Monthly subscriptions ain't it" and saying "0/5 now that it's subscription based." My app is not subscription based, it's upfront paid. This is the crap that developers have to deal with all the time in the App Store. The crowdsourced rating/review system is a blight.
- StewardMcOy 4y ago
  I want to second what lapcat said. Apple promised to stop holding up bug fixes for rule violations, backtracked on some of that, and then just seemed to have given up on it entirely. Bugfix builds are routinely rejected, even now, and reviewers ignore you when you point out they shouldn't be. After their initial announcement of the policy, Apple clarified that they would still reject bugfixes if the app violated section 5 of the guidelines, the section titled "Legal". On the surface, this would seem reasonable. After all, can't go violating legal requirements. However, this is still counter to the spirit of what they had promised. If it's up on the store already, if it's violating the law (e.g. for scamming users out of money), it should be taken down. If it's not violating the law, it's better that customers get the bugfix. They also copied a bunch of rules from the other sections into section 5, to give themselves more leeway. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#legal https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#leg...