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

[Cosmosent]

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 According to the article, it has now been removed but I hope the developer’s account has also been revoked.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.

Ideally, Apple would offer a Bounty for Users who discover (& notify them of) App Store Guideline violations.

Have NO idea why Apple doesn't already have this in place !

Apple could even offer (just) App Store credit as a starting point to get things rolling.

Say, $20 USD, for every violation reported & (subsequently) verified (by AAPL).

 

[Mr Beardsley]

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.

The OS has no knowledge of what the app does, and what might be convenient or inconvenient. In contrast the app developer does, and that is why the system works the way it does today.

 

[LV426]

The OS has no knowledge of what the app does, and what might be convenient or inconvenient. In contrast the app developer does, and that is why the system works the way it does today.

The "system" doesn't know that key presses are currently being routed to an app? That the app is in the foreground or background? That the app isn't consuming CPU resources? That the app...

The "system" doesn't have to work the way it does. It's changed plenty of times in the past.

 

[I7guy]

Ideally, Apple would offer a Bounty for Users who discover (& notify them of) App Store Guideline violations.

Have NO idea why Apple doesn't already have this in place !

Apple could even offer (just) App Store credit as a starting point to get things rolling.

Say, $20 USD, for every violation reported & (subsequently) verified (by AAPL).

See this as a potential avenue for abuse.

 

[duervo]

Could that be attributed to Apple's secrecy? Perhaps they don't want to give insight into their internal development timelines and processes?

No, it’s because there are plenty of bug reports that get submitted, and it would be too time consuming for them to respond to every single individually-submitted bug for the mere purpose of giving the submitter a “warm fuzzy feeling” that they have been noticed.

FWIW, I’ve submitted iPadOS bugs and although I did NOT get noticed in the form of a recognition notification email, I DID see progress being made for the bugs I reported, using Feedback Asistant. I was able to see the progress of every single bug that I reported. (Except for one, which was accepted and is still “open”, the others were closed as a duplicate.)

 

[DeepIn2U]

This is the kind of quality vetting that $72 billion/year buys you.

And the alternative was over a decade ago where all partner developer teams from EASports, etc lost 100’s of millions of dollars each, with more projections, when Nokia’s S60 game engine was cracked. That crippled mobile gaming for years unfortunately.

we can see how crappy management of App Store can get over on android. Wait until the get to enforce their rules & beat their multiple us state lawsuit.

we’ve seen just how much that worked for states against Microsoft lol.