Under 3.10 rules are incentivised reviews banned?

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Level 1

8 points

Under 3.10 rules are incentivised reviews banned?

According to 3.10 clause in App Store Review Guidelines:

"Developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods will be removed from the iOS Developer Program"

The wording is quite vague as to what constitutes an "other inappropriate methods". I read somewhere on the internet that incentivising users to leave a review is one of those methods. It doesn't really fall into the category of "paid reviews", but I think everyone would agree that it should be treated as a violation.

However, there are many apps in the store which do this. In fact, I have recently had a chat with Apple Support about one such app. In this app, users are prompted to leave a review to unlock extra content within the app for free. I have checked and at the point of my complaint this app had the following stats:

1) 4 years in the store

2) 6 thousand reviews in total

3) 4 thousand of these reviews came from the beginning of December after incentivised ratings were introduced.

Obviously, such a high numbers of reviews prompted this app to fly up in the top charts ranking.

When I had a chat with Apple Support they told me that they would look into this matter and will take appropriate action. Well, I have to say that several weeks have passed and appropriate action was not taken.

Several days ago an update was released for another app in the same category. They have clearly realised that having incentivised reviews helps a lot and decided to introduce this feature themselves.

Both of these apps prepare users for theory test in the United Kingdom and occupy tops spots in the Education category. The reason why I am following this category very closely is because I am working on a similar app myself.

As someone who wants to enter this market, I obviously would like to know:

1) Should I add incentivised reviews as well?

2) In case I shouldn't add them because they are prohibited, why does Apple overlook the violations committed by some of the competitors? Is there any way to contact some responsible department and let them know about these violations?

Posted on Mar 1, 2016 4:08 PM

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Answer 1

Werdan Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 2, 2016 7:06 AM in response to Keith Barkley

Thank you for your reply.

I don't think that my question is in any way unreasonable and that it is wrong to ask about this matter. Once I release my app I will have to compete with other developers. From my discussions with Apple so far I see that they are ignoring this issue which obviously leads me to believe that they are OK with incentivised reviews.

If it is the case then I have to be realistic and I have to incorporate incentivised reviews into my app as well. Otherwise, I will be in a position when everyone is using this powerful tool and therefore they are going to prosper as a result of it. At the same time my income will be much less due to this unfair competition. The only compensation for this being that I am the most honest guy in this app segment which I think is not very fair.

My real struggle comes from the fact that Apple clearly ignores this issue. I do realise that they might wake up at some point, however, it is totally unreasonable to wait many months until they look into this. Especially as I am not talking about apps which went from 5000 to 1000 spot. I am talking about apps which are right at the top of Education category in the UK.

Do you know if it is possible to somehow contact the relevant department at Apple? Or maybe they have a mechanism which allows you to submit a complaint directly to the relevant people?

This issue is quite pressing for me because my app is almost done. And I really need to decide whether I am going to follow the rest of the field in introducing incentivised reviews or whether I am going to ship my app without them and somehow manage to ask Apple to ensure that other apps comply with review guidelines as well.

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,668 points

Mar 2, 2016 8:25 AM in response to Werdan

Werdan wrote:

1) Should I add incentivised reviews as well?

2) In case I shouldn't add them because they are prohibited, why does Apple overlook the violations committed by some of the competitors? Is there any way to contact some responsible department and let them know about these violations?

Hello Werdan,

1) I can answer this one pretty easily. No. You shouldn't. It is dishonest and a slippery slope to blatant scam-ware.

2) I can't answer this one per the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use (Apple Support Communities Use Agreement)

I can say this though. The Apple App Stores, and pretty much the whole consumer software market, is just overrun with scams, cheats, adware, you name it. The only thing distinctive about apps in the Mac App Store is that there is an upper limit on the kinds of advanced system functionality they can provide. There is no upper limit on the number of scam apps.

As you have seen, people have been pretty successful getting past any of Apple's App Store guidelines. That doesn't necessarily mean that you, as an honest developer, will be successful trying that too. You have a fundamentally different approach. I can tell that because you are asking here. If you had a natural talent for scamming, your app would already be in the store with lots of rave reviews.

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Answer 3

Mar 2, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Werdan

I have said before, that if you have to ask it violates the spirit of the law, if not the letter. Also, if you ask here you are announcing your intentions publicly* which might not be a good thing.

We are not Apple, so we cannot speak for them or parse legalese.

*It is like the lawmakers in the US who propose carefully worded legislation to get creationism in the back door of public schools. They then announce that they are "Putting God and Jesus back in the classroom", thus shooting themselves in the foot.

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Answer 4

Tifroz

Level 1

4 points

May 3, 2016 11:01 AM in response to Werdan

That's a tough one. Incentivized reviews are explicitly banned, but if they are implemented cleverly they are hard to catch, so many of them slip past the review process, and the reviews are extremely valuable so they have been creeping up lately. I am in the same situation where my competitors are using incentivized reviews to prop up their apps (and very successfully so) - I have been reporting the violations to Apple, but they have not been very responsive, to say the least.

All the talk about taking the high road about review cheaters doesn't help much when your own app is gets buried in the app store by developers playing loose with the rules. It's a huge conundrum: you are essentially left with 2 unattractive options: #1 Your app gets buried in the app store by interior apps that are riding the review gravy train #2 You can level the playing field by incentivizing reviews yourself - at your own risk, because you may get kicked out of the app store.

My advice: don't decide yet. Report the apps committing review fraud via itunesconnect (Apple will send you a thank you email and then will hurry to do nothing), call the developer support number +1 (800) 633-2152 to explain the bind you are in and the unattractive options that are presented to you. My hope is that if enough of us demand that Apple plays the role it is supposed to play, eventually they may realize they have a big problem on their hands unless they crack down hard and fast.

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Answer 5

warpling

Level 1

8 points

May 3, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Tifroz

I learned—after having it in my app for a bit—that it is not allowed. I don't agree that the rules are explicit though.

3.10 says:

Developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods will be removed from the iOS Developer Program

When I first read that I recalled seeing incentivized reviews on the store and upon reading Christian's take on Quora…

However, to reward the user for leaving a review on the app store does not manipulate the rankings, since the user can leave a poor review without your knowledge (or indeed, return to your app without having left a review at all, without your knowledge).

My thought at the time was that if I let players press the rate button when they want, only ask if they'll share their thoughts with others via a rating (not asking for 5 stars), and vaguely hint at a reward (that they'd get regardless of leaving a review) it'd be okay. I think I was doing it in a tasteful, non-scuzzy way, but it's understandable why Apple wouldn't want everyone doing it. Still frustrating when we have to watch the proliferation of developer rate exchange sites and the big guys getting away with all sorts of other violations though.

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