4 ms·

Ask HN: Curated Google Play Alternative?

Can anyone recommend a source of proven high-quality Android apps, that are human-tested and does not contain any spammy/broken apps? If not, is there a desire for such a resource?

benologist 13y ago
I think there is demand for this, a ridiculous amount of my android games just come from HumbleBundle. There are some blogs like http://www.droidgamers.com/ http://www.droidgamers.com/ but nothing really appeals to me ala http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/ for iOS.
- notduncansmith 13y ago
  Just out of curiosity (and the fact that I'm totally going to build this if I can validate it) would you pay for such a service? I would assume the way to go would be a submission fee for app developers.
  - benologist 13y ago
    Do you mean for the store, the curation, or the apps themselves? I think I'd be open to a subscription that gave me a selection of new games every month. The other thing I like and do often is buy games on sale on iOS which doesn't happen as much (and especially 'free this weekend' kind of stuff) on Play. Edit: I'd also be super, super open to a weekly or twice monthly humble bundle style thing for Android.
    - notduncansmith 13y ago
      I meant the curation: however, it's interesting that you bring up the Humble Bundle, as I was considering going that route as well. There are multiple takes on the idea: one being more of an index of high-quality games/apps, and the other being a HB-style sale (which of course, would contain only high-quality apps). As a consumer, which would you prefer?
      - benologist 13y ago
        I prefer the bundle style because it's more serendipitous for me, I only have to like one game for it to be worth it, and I only have to check once a week or whatever to see if there's a new one. As just an index you'd have a harder time monetizing it but it would be shitloads easier to do - Amazon will do affiliate links but you won't get anything for Play referrals, that leaves you with just ads which only works with lots of traffic. One thing that I thought would be quite awesome a while ago is if you could hijack a subreddit and let them power recommendations for you - get people to include "#whatever" in the submission title to nominate a game, use votes for ranking, and largely automate it. If you can get legitimate participation and interest that would be really, really interesting and you can incorporate meta-votes in comments as well, like #sale or #towerdefense or whatever.
  - 6thSigma 13y ago
    I'm an Android developer and I wouldn't list my apps on an unproven platform - let alone pay to do it. FWIW.
    - notduncansmith 13y ago
      I certainly wouldn't ask you to :) I'd like to prove the service first before monetizing. However, you say you wouldn't list your app: does that mean you wouldn't want your apps selected even if you didn't have to do anything?
      - benologist 13y ago
        So I have some experience with this - there's a lot of app stores for android, most of which have either no traffic, no English speaking traffic, or developing countries with limited purchasing power. Play is probably 95% of android customers, then Amazon is maybe 4% since they barely exist outside USA, and then you have dozens or hundreds of other stores sharing that last percent. In exchange for no customers, free or paid, most of these stores have retarded dashboards that are just painful to use. There's also a lot of people trying to part developers with their money, as soon as you get 100s or 1000s of downloads on Play you start getting emails from people offering to do paid reviews, get you to use their ads, whatever, and there's really nothing in it for the devs. You can expect a lot of skepticism, especially on cold emails to app-listed addresses!
        notduncansmith 13y ago
        Yeah I can imagine, this will definitely need to be "done right" to work. What would you, as a developer, want from someone offering to "bundle" your app?
        benologist 13y ago
        It all comes down to traffic ... you can probably research the success of android and non-humblebundle bundles on reddit pretty easily to figure out if there's room for this.
factorialboy 13y ago
I would like a store that highlights open source apps. I tend to trust them more, for very good reason.

Can anyone recommend a source of proven high-quality Android apps, that are human-tested and does not contain any spammy/broken apps? If not, is there a desire for such a resource?

benologist 13y ago

I think there is demand for this, a ridiculous amount of my android games just come from HumbleBundle. There are some blogs like http://www.droidgamers.com/ http://www.droidgamers.com/ but nothing really appeals to me ala http://toucharcade.com/ http://toucharcade.com/ for iOS.

notduncansmith 13y ago
Just out of curiosity (and the fact that I'm totally going to build this if I can validate it) would you pay for such a service? I would assume the way to go would be a submission fee for app developers.
- benologist 13y ago
  Do you mean for the store, the curation, or the apps themselves? I think I'd be open to a subscription that gave me a selection of new games every month. The other thing I like and do often is buy games on sale on iOS which doesn't happen as much (and especially 'free this weekend' kind of stuff) on Play. Edit: I'd also be super, super open to a weekly or twice monthly humble bundle style thing for Android.
  - notduncansmith 13y ago
    I meant the curation: however, it's interesting that you bring up the Humble Bundle, as I was considering going that route as well. There are multiple takes on the idea: one being more of an index of high-quality games/apps, and the other being a HB-style sale (which of course, would contain only high-quality apps). As a consumer, which would you prefer?
    - benologist 13y ago
      I prefer the bundle style because it's more serendipitous for me, I only have to like one game for it to be worth it, and I only have to check once a week or whatever to see if there's a new one. As just an index you'd have a harder time monetizing it but it would be shitloads easier to do - Amazon will do affiliate links but you won't get anything for Play referrals, that leaves you with just ads which only works with lots of traffic. One thing that I thought would be quite awesome a while ago is if you could hijack a subreddit and let them power recommendations for you - get people to include "#whatever" in the submission title to nominate a game, use votes for ranking, and largely automate it. If you can get legitimate participation and interest that would be really, really interesting and you can incorporate meta-votes in comments as well, like #sale or #towerdefense or whatever.
- 6thSigma 13y ago
  I'm an Android developer and I wouldn't list my apps on an unproven platform - let alone pay to do it. FWIW.
  - notduncansmith 13y ago
    I certainly wouldn't ask you to :) I'd like to prove the service first before monetizing. However, you say you wouldn't list your app: does that mean you wouldn't want your apps selected even if you didn't have to do anything?
    - benologist 13y ago
      So I have some experience with this - there's a lot of app stores for android, most of which have either no traffic, no English speaking traffic, or developing countries with limited purchasing power. Play is probably 95% of android customers, then Amazon is maybe 4% since they barely exist outside USA, and then you have dozens or hundreds of other stores sharing that last percent. In exchange for no customers, free or paid, most of these stores have retarded dashboards that are just painful to use. There's also a lot of people trying to part developers with their money, as soon as you get 100s or 1000s of downloads on Play you start getting emails from people offering to do paid reviews, get you to use their ads, whatever, and there's really nothing in it for the devs. You can expect a lot of skepticism, especially on cold emails to app-listed addresses!
      - notduncansmith 13y ago
        Yeah I can imagine, this will definitely need to be "done right" to work. What would you, as a developer, want from someone offering to "bundle" your app?
        benologist 13y ago
        It all comes down to traffic ... you can probably research the success of android and non-humblebundle bundles on reddit pretty easily to figure out if there's room for this.

factorialboy 13y ago

I would like a store that highlights open source apps. I tend to trust them more, for very good reason.