When App Makers Behave Badly
I was working on my Mac when my iPad sounded a push alert. I checked to see which app was sending me an important, urgent message. The alert, I discovered, came from Peekaboo Barn, an app from developer Night & Day that I bought for my kids last year. I'd never received a push alert for Peekaboo Barn before--I didn't even remember that the app supported push alerts; it's an app where animals appear and make their standard animal sounds. What would Peekaboo Barn need to push--that the cow says moo?
Thu, May 05, 2011
Macworld — I was working on my Mac when my iPad sounded a push alert. I checked to see which app was sending me an important, urgent message. The alert, I discovered, came from Peekaboo Barn, an app from developer Night & Day that I bought for my kids last year. I'd never received a push alert for Peekaboo Barn before--I didn't even remember that the app supported push alerts; it's an app where animals appear and make their standard animal sounds. What would Peekaboo Barn need to push--that the cow says moo?
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Not quite. The push alert read as follows: "New app from Night & Day! Ed Emberley's Shake & Make, an art puzzle game for all ages."
That alert really frosted my flakes. I want push alerts to convey updates that are important to me, on information I've requested--breaking news, or when it's my turn to go in Words With Friends, or when someone sends me a direct message on Twitter. I grant you that the fact that it's my turn in a Scrabble knockoff isn't hugely important in the grand scheme of things, but it's important to me. That a developer has released a new app and would like me to buy it isn't an alert I signed up for: It's an ad. Worse, it's an unsolicited ad that interrupts me when the I app I did purchase isn't even running.
To me, such behavior is hostile to customers. And unfortunately, there's a surprising amount of customer-hostile behavior lurking around the App Store--often hiding around in some wonderful apps.
Perhaps the most obvious example of egregious developer behavior is the desperate plea to be loved. Far too many apps seek your public praise with in-app alerts asking you to take a moment to review the app on the App Store. Of course, doing so interrupts your flow and would require that you exit the app completely. If I like an app enough--or dislike one enough--I'll write a review without further prompting.
I understand completely that iOS developers' success is tied directly to App Store performance, and that higher app ratings can significantly boost sales. But apps that beg for reviews are focused on their developers' needs, and not mine. If I stuck a bag of popcorn in my microwave, and before I could hit the Start button, my microwave prompted me to write up a few sentences about how nicely it heats up food, I'd be similarly annoyed. When a developer interrupts me within an app for that developer's benefit, it's rude.
