How negative app reviews from iOS beta users could be prevented

There really is no reason for Apple to allow reviews from beta versions of their OS. It doesn't bring the developers any useful insight, it's a time-waster at best and a commercial nightmare at worst. I too am left wondering why this is possible in the first place… especially since I assume Apple is fully aware of the "grey" iOS beta market.

I really wish the title of the article was more along the lines &quot;Apple should prevent negative app reviews when using iOS beta&quot;.<p>I felt a little mislead and thought that a developer had somehow figured out how to do the current title of the submission (news) vs. what it was really about (opinion, that I agree with, but not news).

Agreed, it&#x27;s absolutely ridiculous to allow reviews from a beta iOS. Especially since you can&#x27;t submit apps built with the new beta SDK!

The real problem lays in the default trained behavior of the user - leave a review if _anything_.<p>Both app developers and Apple have wrongly been pushing users to voice opinions publicly in app reviews, leaving app developers exposed with no way to communicate with those users.<p>The real solution is to start pushing users to communicate their suggestions and issues privately, in the app, where you can better manage conversations, keep users engaged, and establish relationships that can turn upset users into long-term evangelists.<p>1) Do not bury support or email buttons multiple taps deep. Surface a contact button so that it&#x27;s easier for users to contact you.<p>2) Do not ask users to fill out more than a single field to send you their thoughts. Automatically capture user ID, device, platform, OS version, app version, etc. by passing a unique session or user ID.<p>3) Keep them in your app, engaged, and talking. Think of this more like &quot;user relations&quot;, not &quot;user support&quot;. You need them engaged and sharing their thoughts more than they need you and your app.<p>In terms of what can be done now for helping to avoid iOS 7 app reviews, here are a few suggestions:<p>1) Add an alert for iOS 7 users that your app is not yet compatible: <a href="http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/iphone/uialertview/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mobile.tutsplus.com&#x2F;tutorials&#x2F;iphone&#x2F;uialertview&#x2F;</a><p>2) Here&#x27;s an example:<p>[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@&quot;Unsupported iOS Version&quot; message: @&quot;This version of the app is untested on this version of iOS, please check for an update in the app store.&quot; delegate: self cancelButtonTitle:@&quot;Skip&quot; otherButtonTitles:@&quot;App Store&quot;,nil];<p>2) If you have an email list of your users, send them an email with when they can expect the OS update. Users will expect a great, new experience with iOS 7 and will be deleting apps that don&#x27;t meet their expectations. You can&#x27;t expect users to keep using your app when there is so much new &quot;eye candy&quot; on the App Store.<p>P.S. Stuart from Appbot actually covered this with a scary screenshot of iOS7 reviews only one week into Beta1: <a href="http://stuartkhall.com/posts/stop-allowing-app-reviews-from-beta-ios-versions" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stuartkhall.com&#x2F;posts&#x2F;stop-allowing-app-reviews-from-...</a>

&gt; If I see a review that contains the word &quot;iTouch&quot; I don&#x27;t just report it to Apple, I report it to the proper authorities.<p>Eh?

Also offer a way for users to contact you and let you know about the issues other than through the reviews. I&#x27;ve found a number of apps that don&#x27;t work with iOS 7 and I contacted at least one developer through email or there website to let the know. With another (a large company) I couldn&#x27;t find any way to contact them on their website so I gave them a medium review not for incompatibility with iOS 7 but for being uncontactable.

Apple should change how they distribute beta OSes so that it is more difficult for non-developers who just want the &#x27;latest&#x27; to get it.

I think an easier solution would be to just hide reviews that are submitted from a device that&#x27;s running a beta version of the OS.<p>That way (legit) customers can still submit feedback, but it doesn&#x27;t affect the app on the appstore.

The reviews, taken as feedback and then sent directly to the developers could be useful. But to have the reviews&#x2F;feedback actually show up in the iTunes store reflects bad for Apple and the developers of the app.

Apple should be restricting this, not us. But of course they aren&#x27;t very good at things that aren&#x27;t in the following categories: hardware.

Everyone has wanted this for years now. I wouldn&#x27;t hold my breath.

I&#x27;m not sure how &quot;Doesn&#x27;t work on iOS 7&quot; qualifies as a negative review exactly. He&#x27;s not saying the app is a pile of crap. He&#x27;s saying it doesn&#x27;t work on iOS 7, which appears to be a factual statement.<p>App reviews are not a guaranteed advertising venue. They are there for the reader, not the developer. The fact that an app doesn&#x27;t work on iOS 7 is relevant to anyone using iOS 7, whether or not it&#x27;s an official release yet. As the article says, the iOS 7 beta is pretty widespread at this point. I don&#x27;t think you can have it both ways; if the beta is in that many hands, then the feedback is useful for potential buyers.<p>Unfortunately, I&#x27;m guessing many of these reviews rate the app poorly as well. That&#x27;s a much more legitimate complaint, and I assume what the author really wants to curtail. I think restricting reviews is the wrong way to go though. If you really can&#x27;t be bothered to fix the issue until launch, then stick something in the description telling people that the iOS 7 version will be live on launch day. If enough people are complaining about it in the meantime to make a significant difference in your app&#x27;s rating, then I&#x27;d take that as a pretty clear sign that you should consider fixing the problem. No one is forcing you to rewrite from scratch, and the vast majority of apps are going to update existing codebases just fine instead.