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App Store Scam App Required a Good Review to Function at All

Cosmosent said:
The BIG picture, if the Judge in the Epic vs Apple court case gets wind of this, one of Apple's main arguments just went out the window !
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I believe Apple said it's review process isn't binary. It's not all or nothing. So nothing to see here.
 
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Ion-X said:
Could that be attributed to Apple's secrecy? Perhaps they don't want to give insight into their internal development timelines and processes?
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I honestly don't care. If I'm going to go through the time to submit a detailed bug report, I want at least an acknowledgement that someone looked at it.
 
zorinlynx said:
I honestly don't care. If I'm going to go through the time to submit a detailed bug report, I want at least an acknowledgement that someone looked at it.
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I submitted so many bug reports on macOS, Xcode and other Apple aps. Nothing. Still open. Probably untouched and never read by anyone.
Also: Nothing of the reported got ever fixed and all the bugs are still in there (reported somethings a year ago).

They probably only care if the same issue gets reported in large quantities.

Otherwise: "A small number of users are affected by this" (tm).
 
There is a particularly odious developer on the Mac App Store that uses a similar tactic. they continuously throw up a notification that says "Updates Available" which gives you two options: Restart and Later. If you click Later you get Try in an Hour, Try Tonight, Remind Me Tomorrow and Turn On Auto Update. Note that there is no way to select Go Away and Never Darken My Door Again. Apple needs to do something about this.
 
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Mr Beardsley said:
That makes for a lousy user experience. On the previous app I worked on, we took great pains to avoid popping the review prompt when we thought it was inconvenient for the user. In that case it was a streaming app, and we didn't want the prompt to happen while you were in the middle of watching something. Instead, we called the API when the user was switching tabs to one that didn't involve streaming.

The review prompt API is fine. It's the AppStore review and Apple's opaque and arbitrary process that are the problem.
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Why would something baked into iOS decide to automatically pop up a review prompt while you are in the middle of watching something? That would be a dumb thing to do.

I can think of plenty of ways that a review prompt could be instigated automatically by iOS without inconveniencing a user.
 
If all of the people working for Apple around the world would try one new app per day per country, they'd find crap like this.

It's not as though it would be an extreme measure and it wouldn't require any extra software development. The company could even pay employees with a gift card or something for reporting bad apps.
 
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randyhudson said:
Your post makes no sense. Epic is a legitimate app trying to save iOS users money compared to the same purchases made on other platforms. This scam app proves that Apple is just lining their pockets off the work of other developers.
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I'm sure that you know what you want to say. You might write it so that it makes sense to the rest of us.

Epic Games is not trying to save users money. They are trying to get all of the money for themselves.

Apple doesn't need a cut of the money for services it doesn't provide, but Epic Games having their own store would ruin the reputation of iOS, by allowing crap to flourish.
 
IceStormNG said:
Apple's review cannot detect that. It's very easy to disable features of an app while the App is under review. Guess how Epic got their payment into the app. Or how Uber got hidden user tracking into their app and hid it from the review by adding a geofence into the app around the review locations.
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Not only that, but an app can tell if it's been distributed via the App Store.

I learned this accidentally! My app had two different code paths for configuring crash reporting, one when distributed via a provisioning profile and one when distributed via the App Store. (I got more diagnostics from the app in testing mode, and my testers know that… but it turned out to be the release mode code that crashed.) That mistake showed me Apple had definitely tested the app, and also which path the app followed when being tested by them.

Luckily, Apple gave me an expedited review to get out the bug fix.

…and then another when I discovered what was actually going on. Them following the testing mode was a huge surprise. 🙂

I've been much more careful since, and I've no recent evidence that the follow the testing path so it might have changed. (Crashing on startup was not a planned experiment!) There's probably still ways, though, even if that one doesn't work.
 
This is not Apple's official popup, it's been mimicked with a different behavior, and this is clearly fraud.
 
There is an easy fix for this problem: Apple needs to hire about a dozen or two of people like Eleftheriou.

As far as the scam app goes, look like the app is gone from the App Store.
 
Kosta needs to let it go. It just 'aint good for the soul to be that bitter and angry towards something like a company.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the makers of UPNP did this on purpose fully expecting to get burned since the timing is far too well aligned with the closing of arguments on the Epic-v-Apple case.
Anything that undermines the credibility of the App Store goes in Epic's favour.
So for things like this to come out now seems like everything else with Epic's game play - well orchestrated.

Watching with interest to see what other worms come out of the wood work over the next few weeks in more attempts to smear Apple and the App Store.
I hope Apple's reviewers are at the top of their game right now.
 
jetrois said:
having alt stores would note destroy the ecosystem. You seem to not understand how all this works hell it works for the mac very well you would need to actively in settings state that you would like alt stores by default iPhone would come as app store only. Done Issue resolved
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It doesn't work well on the Mac. You have to deal with several sources for your software.

iOS guarantees only one source for all your software if you are a consumer. AFAIK, no other consumer computer system does this.
 
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Yeah this is terrible that it made it through approval at all. I definitely agree that Apple needs to do better at curating the App Store and approving/denying Apps… but I also won’t mince words when I say that I think Apple’s control over their App Store needs to be tighter… not looser. This imo is actually an argument in favor of Apple’s curation becoming stronger, not weaker, and I appreciate an App Store that’s miles better than the Play Store even if it’s not perfect.

I will add that I’m in favor of opening up the ability for sideloading(and maybe even alternative app stores)… but I also think there should be stark warnings associated with enabling it through a very deliberate process and disabled by default(maybe require device reset to toggle this access on/off?). That would be the fairest & best way in my opinion that would allow competition & customization outside of the App Store umbrella, but leaves the safety intact for those that decide they would rather Apple continue to tightly tailor their experience(which is most all of my friends, family, and usually even me). I’m a fan of the Apple approach, but that’s also why I care that it to continues to improve.
 
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I've noticed that some of my apps have been approved without ever being launched, which was fine with me.

But of course they would have caught this scam if they routinely launched each app at least once. Clearly they should.
 
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App store is one of the worst places on earth.
I said this as developer.
Apple adds pnly works for large companies, your product is hardly viewable if you arent making big money, Small developer program is a scam, I know dozens of small devs waiting since January for the aprovement.
and now, all this privacy conspiration agains stablished adds... they are changing a lot of stuff in the digital world forcing small devs to find more money to spend in marketing, not in real products.
Lets see how affects this in 2-5 years
 
The inability to report an App is a fundamental omission. The number of times I've found something and thought "that's definitely not right", but there's no way to flag it as a violation of rules or suspect reviews.
 
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randyhudson said:
Your post makes no sense. Epic is a legitimate app trying to save iOS users money compared to the same purchases made on other platforms. This scam app proves that Apple is just lining their pockets off the work of other developers.
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Yet I remember reading that Epic already found fake Fortnite apps or pirated versions including malware on Android alternate app stores as soon as Google banned it from the Play Store… hardly a good point for Epic, that chose to not bring up this point during the trial (I think it was explained in an internal Epic’s email).

That being said, unless there is a geo or IP address test or a time delay in this app to enable its cheating behavior only after review, Apple has no excuse to allow it in the App Store. According to the article, it has now been removed but I hope the developer’s account has also been revoked.
I wish Apple would restore the “Report a problem“ button, or audit apps again when they bring a lot of money, check the coherence of the star ratings without reviews and the ones with reviews (they can easily automate that one) and maybe open a dedicated channel for developers and users to report scams. It would probably not stop every scam, but it would certainly help to take them down much faster, hopefully before they can bring in enough money.
 
Who has the best "App Ratings Dialog Monitor" ?

Anybody know ?

After looking into this in detail yesterday (when the news first broke), I'm now convinced BIG Tech have had their own custom App Ratings Dialog Monitors in-place (i.e., in their apps) for years !

BTW, replicating what the Scam App did was a good Trial & Error exercise !

Would never use it in a production version of an app, but it's a great starting point for trying to catch up with BIG Tech (i.e., data & knowledge of what Users do when the dialog is presented to them).
 
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