I’d encourage Daring Fireball readers, whenever they encounter these “Please rate this app” prompts, to go ahead and take the time to do it — but to rate the app with just one star and to leave a review along the lines of, “One star for annoying me with a prompt to review the app.”
That has been my mobile app review policy when it comes to apps that stop you in the middle of doing something to ask to go review the app. I suggest that mobile apps have buttons for ‘leave a review’ in the settings section of their app instead of hijacking the work flow of their users.
3 replies on “Mobile App Review Policy”
Good idea!
My “favorite” scummy tactic I’ve seen in a few apps is that they first pop a modal asking if you’re enjoying the experience (or ‘do you like the app’, or ‘do you have any comments’). There is a boolean choice (Yes or No). If you click Yes, you’re taken directly to the app store to rate and review. If you say ‘No’, rather than risk negative feedback left on the store they pop their own modal that goes directly to the developer for comment. Still super obtrusive and annoying. However, they fork the users and only prompt those who state they’re having a good experience to review.
I’m both disappointed and impressed with that technique.