Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.
Closed 12 years ago.
Improve this question
I'm finding a great many people buy my Android app in the google market and immediately return it for a refund. That works fine with physical goods, but for virtual goods, they have now acquired the app for free!
Has anyone else noticed this fatal flaw in the Google Android market for apps? What other markets are there without this problem?
Peter
Yes you are correct. As per Android Market policies if an user uninstalls the application that he has bought with 24 hrs he is eligible for a full refund. I think this policy might be for the benefit of end users. The user is given access to the app only after he pays for it and unlike physical goods he wont be able to examine it before. He may like or dislike it once he starts using it. But in this case he needs to first uninstall the application so that he can ask for refund.
http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134336
I am sure that not all users will take this approach and as a developer i wont be interested in asking money for my application that an user is not happy of.
You're right, but it isn't a market flaw. I really like this feature 'cause I wouldn't like to buy an app and then discover it's totally useless.
If you're experiencing a lot of users buying and then returning your app, you should probably search for the reason of such a behavior. Probably they don't like your app. If I'm right you might get some feedback at uninstall time why the user did such a step. Analyze this feedback to improve your app!
One special feature of my app is that it delivers the source code to the SD card, on first being run. There is no way to recall that on uninstall. I can probably address most of the situation by not writing the source until 24 hours have passed. (Yes, yes, and checking for the clock being moved forward, if I want to inhibit all the cheaters).
I'm going to withdraw my app from the market, until I can implement this protection. – Peter vdL
Related
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 6 years ago.
Improve this question
I am preparing myself to submit my first app to the Google Play Store, and have the following questions regarding the process, which might have been covered or not covered before, so I apologize if there are any duplicates beforehand, because I could not understand some of them.
In submission of an app to the Play Store, what is the expected time duration which it will get accepted or rejected?
Because I do not live in an area where Google Payments is accessible, what are the payment schemes that I can get for my app?
Is it possible to submit a complete rewrite of the same app as an update at a later date? If so, is there a specific method (e.g. signing schemes)
Thank you in advance.
From my experiences to avoid rejection or suspension do not put copyright protected contents on your apps and store listing.
Do not make apps that having harmful behavior.
If you collect user data make sure you have a well documented privacy policy.
Try to avoid spam words for your app name (like flappy,candy crush, clash of clans etc.. Avoid these words)
Avoid putting ads against their policy
Be clear with the UI. Don't confuse user with UI elements that leads to any kind of promotional contents without proper description.
App approval time may vary according to their job loads and types of app you are submitting, Apps now go through both machine and human verification, usually games get faster approval than apps. Average time I feel is around 4 - 5 hours for initial launch, updates get faster approval.
They give enough time to repair the problems.
App Rejections are easier to get through but App suspension are difficult.
It is hard to win a dispute with Google :)
Especially if you get a copyright issues you can't even pass machine verification and can't argue with algorithms ;)
Now it's much more easier because they have human verification too. They point out most of the problems. Before that it was a total mess. They reply with some pre generated generic replys
Good luck with your venture.
Closed. This question needs to be more focused. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by editing this post.
Closed 8 years ago.
Improve this question
Minor background here: not an app programmer here.
If you look at the tags for this post, you can see that I tried to choose the ones that I know (please let me know of any other that I may have missed) of that are wrappers around the native language of the phones, namely iphone and android.
So, someone wants to know if it is easy to update an app once it's been downloaded on a phone?
And how easy/hard is it for the creator to update the app?
Thanks in advance.
edit
the person in question forwarded me the questions as she wanted them to be:
how easy/difficult will it be to update the app? So for example, if we want to add a new restaurant to the list, or a silent auction item, how much time and effort will it take?
Let's say I download the app from the website on Monday. On Wednesday we update the app with new restaurants and other items. Will the version of the app on my phone update automatically?
second edit
is it possible to have an app available via web and not through formal measures via Apple's iTune, etc? It's mostly informational and meant to benefit a charity.
third edit
Ok, normally I don't care about the downvotes. Still don't. But since this question is getting downvoted a little too much, I just wanted state that this is a genuine question. Really. And honestly, do you realize how much information there is online when you're trying to google for specific question on an arena you're not that familiar with to begin with?
The answer is it depends.
I can speak to Android, but for iOS, an update to the source code that's pushed through the store takes an average of 6ish days between submitting it to Apple and the update showing on the store.
This means if you downloaded your App on Monday of week 1, and I pushed an update on Wednesday of Week 1, it's probably Tuesday of week 2 at the EARLIEST that Apple has approved the app and put it on the store.
From here, the updated version isn't automatically the version on your phone necessarily. Some people have automatic app updates, some don't.
But, and this is a massive but... sending source code updates through the app store isn't the only way to "update" your app.
The updates you talk about aren't what many developers would consider updates at all--they certainly don't require source code changes or pushes through the app store. All you're "updating" is your backing data.
A well designed app would grab this data from the web, and in this case, the app can be updated immediately.
For IOS you have to submit the compiled code to apple and wait for them to approve and test your app (for new apps or updates) and it might take some days sometimes 1 or 2 weeks. Android, I think you can upload it almost instantly. And as "nhgrif" stated, you should feed any dynamic info on an app from a web server so you don't have to update frequently.
For both iOS and Android, it is possible to have a file online (APK for Android, IPA for iOS) that allows users to install the app. There are no real restriction on Android, but there are on iOS. apparently you can only install on a max of 200 devices, there might be some certificate issues, etc.
Take a look at this question to see what restriction on iOS are: iOS installing apps without app store
The iOS restrictions might be circumvented with TestFlight (But just maybe).
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.
Closed 9 years ago.
Improve this question
I got an app at playstore, yesterday I get a bad rating (1 Star) but not of any error inside that app. It is no problem for me to handle bad ratings, because this gave me some feedback and shows me that I have to modify my app. But in that case the user hadn´t read the desription in playstore and inside the apps manual.
This user complains that my app is downloading dropbox if the dropbox app is not installed. But this is not possible without user confirmation and a warning before. Also this is described in App discreption at Playstore, so it is no suprise and this bad rating is just unfair.
I asked the user if he wants his money back, if yes I will cancel the purchase. My question is, will be that rating also removed from playstore if the app purchase is cancelled? I can´t get no information about this, this is not described anywhere in the developers guide or anywhere else. If somebody knows this I would be thankful if he/she tells me.
First of all, get used to unfair ratings. It sucks but this just happens, depending on how big the application it could happen a lot.
If someone doesn't like the color, not enough warnings, too much warnings, etc etc. Theres always a reason for someone to give a bad rating.
What to do about it?
Make a great app and get more and more better ratings.
What I found on your topic of removing ratings when uninstalling:
Uninstalling the reviewed app does not seem to remove one's review. (Which makes sense, I guess.)
Here is some extensive information about it:
How do I remove a review I've written from the Android Market app?
Google doesn't seems to allow to remove reviews at all:
Issue 16483: Android Market doesn't allow removing an existing application's rating and comment.
Tips:
Make sure you warn people in application description that you require dropbox. Not just warn in-app. This might also be the reason for low ratings because people do not expect it.
If the user would like so, cancel the purchase / refund anyway. This might give incentive for the user to change his rating before uninstalling. And gives you a good name.
Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.
Closed 9 years ago.
Improve this question
Edit: I voted to close this question as it is off-topic. I asked it when I didn't know any better.
What's your experience distributing Android apps outside of the Android Market?
Which alternative markets an Android developer should consider? Any success/horror stories?
SlideME is worth taking a look at. My app is available on both Google's Market and SlideME. I also provide a plain download link to an APK file for people not interested in "markets".
There also are:
AppsLib http://appslib.com/ (Archos)
AndAppStore http://andappstore.com
Insyde Market http://www.insydemarket.com/
Camangi Market http://www.camangimarket.com
FileDir http://filedir.com (All apps in one place)
And probably some other..
Zedge will promote your app in Zedge Discovery Network. Registering here before the public release might give your app some buzz.
Other popular promotion and app sites: androlib.com, appbrain.com, androidpit.com and getjar.com
I have used AndAppStore and got between 1K-10K downloads for some apps. However, all those apps got much more downloads from the Android Market. I have yet to know an alternate market that produces more downloads than the official one.
AppsLib is interesting because it targets the unofficial Android tablet Archos 5 IT.
I have had decent success on a few of the alternate markets, but the total downloads of all of the alternate markets that I have seen are somewhere around 10% of the downloads on the main market. That doesn't mean that these people can't download from the main market, I just think that people like choices. I think the majority of my SlideMe purchases are from the USA, which surprised me.
I personally think that 10% is worth a little time. I also have faith that I'll eventually make the $100 minimum of SlideMe, but it could be a while.
Then Amazon came out with their app market and that is a game-changer.
Start with these:
Amazon
SlideMe.net
GetJar.net
There are DOZENS of others that I've checked out, and am in the process of blogging about. Start with the three above, however.
In my experience as of March 2013 I have found the following app stores most useful for distribution in terms of maximum downloads:
Samsung
Google Play
SlideMe
I also tried out InMobi App Publish today and did a small review here, it promises to distribute you app to 130+ store globally.
I have found Amazon, GetJar, CNet not to perform so well.
Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.
Closed 10 years ago.
Improve this question
I just uploaded my application in the market, but I'm not able to purchase it (it's a pay app).
I saw here that it seems to be made by design, but then why the error message is Server Error try again ?
Is there a way to bypass that ?
'Please note that it is against Google Checkout's policies to purchase your own application. You will receive an error message when you try to purchase your own application.'
Doesn't look like it. Why are you wanting to buy your own app?
There's definitely validity in trying to buy your own app, simply for the licensing service.
I tried to do the same thing, and received the same error on the server. My purpose for buying my own app is that even when I install the signed .apk file on my phone, the Licensing Verification Library that I use to check License validity does not cache licensing checks UNLESS it is purchased from the market. So there was absolutely no way that I could test the true Licensing experience that users would have on there phones before publishing!
In my case, my brother bought the app right away and tested it, and it worked great coming from the market, where it works a bit differently on my phone. Because of this, I have to wait for it to do the License check every time I run my own app. This wouldn't be bad, except for the fact that I can't run my app when I don't have a connection, such as airplane mode, because it doesn't cache the successful licensing responses!
I would really appreciate Google changing it so you just couldn't rate or comment on your own apps, but that you COULD purchase them. After all, you're actually losing money by purchasing it, since they take 30% for the carrier fees, etc.
Do you have an Android Developer Phone? If so, you can't purchase your own app by design. Since ADPs are unlocked, there's nothing preventing an ADP from easily pirating any app it downloads, so they are purposely cut off from downloading paid apps.
Yes, the Google account associated with your market seller account cannot purchase it's own apps.
Personally I think this is a mistake on Google's part. I found some issues I couldn't solve until I had a market downloaded copy of my app - for some reason the debug version worked with the license service all the time, but downloaded ones didn't. I ended up buying it on my wife's phone.
Personally I wish I'd created a new Google account to use for selling my apps.
Yeah, I ran into the same problem. I uninstalled the APK from my phone so that I could download it from the market. It works fine for my free apps but not my paid apps. I guess there is no need for QA and the customer to use the same process lol