{"id":32628,"date":"2021-05-26T16:37:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T20:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=32628"},"modified":"2022-01-25T16:48:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T21:48:01","slug":"forced-5-star-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/26\/forced-5-star-ratings\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced 5-Star Ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kosta Eleftheriou<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>, MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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The review: “This app forced me to give it a good rating before I could use it.”<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

If you think you can trust App Store ratings, you haven’t been paying enough attention.<\/p>\n

This is the iOS system<\/em> rating prompt, not a custom look-alike one.<\/p>\n

The worst part? This trick is EXTREMELY easy for any developer to do, and not limited to this app.<\/p>\n

This developer has more than 15M downloads and $MILLIONS in revenue.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Apple also says they conduct a “robust” review process - yet this fraud takes place immediately upon launching the app.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Francisco Tolmasky<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Tangentially related, I commented<\/a> a while ago on what a missed opportunity the notch was to have a “Secure UI\" for native dialogs to tell them apart from fake ones[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Guilherme Rambo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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It looks like the app is using the native review dialog, then observing windowDidBecomeVisible:<\/code> for the container window that’s rendered in-process, and putting something on top of that to prevent interactions other than five-star reviews.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Stephen Warwick<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Apple has pulled an app from the App Store that forced users to leave a good review before using it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Francisco Tolmasky<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I don’t even know why this API exists in the first place. It’s user hostile even when used “correctly”: I hate<\/em> getting this stupid pop-up when I’m using an app. Not to mention that reviews, generally speaking, are the laziest way to “outsource” curation in a store.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

A company that was actually laser focused on making “the best AppStore” would have thought outside the box for alternative ways of surfacing quality.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

This is just one idea — but it highlights the unique features Apple could actually take of advantage of by controlling the “entire experience”. The ability to let you know that an app has a great support history would be killer for non-tech savvy users.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The crazy thing is that Apple is hypothetically correct<\/em> about the advantages of top-down control. But ironically, once you start realizing all the cool things Apple could provide with their vertical integration, you notice the disconnect with the things they actually invest in.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n