[lcfg]

I can't believe the responses I'm reading here.

People, if you do the following: divert users you suspect will leave a low rating to an external service and direct users you think will leave a high rating to the play store... you're scamming the system. You are absolutely abusing the way the Play Store works, what reviews and rankings mean within the ecosystem of the Play Store and worst of all, you are _most definitely_ abusing the trust of your customers.

Why are people happily admitting they're doing this? It's a scam!

[egwynn]

I mostly agree with you. But I also think there are non-scammy advantages to using in-app feedback. The primary one is that it could allow for better communication between an unsatisfied user and the app developer. Developers could funnel feedback into a custom ticketing system which could help them actually fix bugs faster than they could using the store’s review system.

FWIW, I don’t know if the feedback system in question actually serves this purpose, so I won’t/can’t defend it specifically.

[coryl]

You underestimate the absurdness of some users who will give a poor review for the poorest reasons, sometimes as a result of their own misunderstanding. On Apple's app store you can't even respond or address these misgivings.

You aren't abusing the mistrust of anyone because you still have to be good to get good reviews and ratings.

[srikrishnan]

I run a "inbox for your app" product (plug: www.konotor.com), and I must say a lot of people end up using it as a way to request Happy customers to leave ratings. Nothing wrong in that. Its not as though they are offering money to leave a rating - these are genuine people who like the app afterall. If you hate the app you will still find your way to the app store and leave a review - its not like they blocked out that ability :).

[daviross]

Seems like the reaction will need to be (in order to combat/penalize this): Any app which does this sort of thing will automatically get a Play Store/App Store 1-2 star review. Even if it's otherwise a great app.

Engage in dark patterns/socially abusive behavior? Deal with the repercussions.

[soraminazuki]

That is one of the reasons I don't trust app ratings, but I don't think it would get any better even if developers stop redirecting negative comments because people who would ever bother to write a review either have a negative feeling about it, or hired to write a positive review.

[reagency]

It isn't a scam, it is making the best of an utter garbage star rating system.

[electic]

Not to mention, their hawking their own service. Makes it hard to really trust the article itself.