Here at BGR, we’re very pro-developer. We know as well as companies like Apple and Google do that apps make the platform, and we spend a lot of time finding great apps to share with our readers. Each new app extends a handset’s functionality in a new direction that makes it feel fresh and new, albeit briefly. Then, a good app sticks around and remains useful or entertaining for days, months or even years. Talented developers make that happen, and we’re always happy to support them.
But now we have some advice for developers: Stop.
DON’T MISS: The 12 most innovative things we saw at CES 2016
If you’re a developer and you use Apple’s new 3D Touch feature to beg for reviews in the Quick Actions menu, stop right now. Seriously, you’re doing it wrong.
The image above, posted by a Reddit user earlier this week, shows an app that makes use of Apple’s new pressure-sensing 3D Touch feature on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to ask for reviews. This is a huge mistake, and it’s making users angry.
Reviews are very important to developers for obvious reasons and asking users who enjoy your app to review it is fine, provided the request is made in a way that isn’t disruptive or aggravating. Taking a new iOS feature like 3D Touch and using it to beg for reviews is both disruptive and aggravating.
Users are still exploring 3D Touch and it’s a nice little surprise when they happen upon an app that supports it. Imagine what happens to that nice surprise when a 3D Touch leads to a message begging for reviews. That’s right, nothing good.
Guess what the highest-voted comment in that Reddit thread is…
“Follow that link and leave some nice, buttery smooth, negative feedback for the developer.”
