So a while ago a i remembered one post from HN, it was some guy crawling google play store and keeping apps that were paid and people used them but had a low rating. He was selling this list, not sure if it was successful but i made something similar and updated
So far checking only 3 marketplaces, my crawlers found so far about 100k apps, the default filters show only the more interesting once (paid and low rating)
Its free.
I will add more and more marketplaces eventually. I will also try to add some social features, like "working as a team on some idea" and posting own ideas, but will see how it goes.
Feedback welcome
EDIT: i just see it on mobile, it does not look ideal. Will need to work on that hm.
EDIT2: just added pagination :), hope it works for you.
Can someone explain the value of such a list, am I missing something? Don't get me wrong, your project is neat and I enjoyed looking through it, but I don't understand how anyone would try to sell this or pay money for this.
Good luck tring to do a better job replacing these on Android where every device x android version permutation out there = something breaks for a different user.
Like the "Automatic Call Recorder Pro" (highest number of ratings on the list) has "try the free version first to see if this will work on your phone" ... I feel sorry for Android developers. As much as I dislike the "Apple way" of designing products (walled gardens and super opinionated instead of open and providing choices), every time I need to develop something for Android I'm flabergasted at how shit the platform is under the hood. Soo many APIs to do the same thing, depricated system APIs all over the place, but the only way to do things on devices X, but only from manufacturer Y, on Z the API functionality isn't even supported, on W you need to use newer APIs, on Q you need to use a custom solution - nobody really uses Q but your client got 3 complaints and can't determine priorities (understandable given the ecosystem fragmentation)
Most of those buggy features are centered around things that shouldn't be possible anyway. On iOS, these apps would probably not even be available.
Call recording used to be easy to implement, until Google took a look at the obvious security problem with apps recording calls from the background, and restricted the normal APIs to system software only. If an app has automatic call recording that works well, the manufacturer probably put an insecure OS on the phone, because then any app or game you download probably has that capability.
The supported APIs all have excellent backwards compatibility through AndroidX. You can still many if not most modern APIs all the way back to Android 5 without much change in the code. Most system APIs are backported through Google's libraries, and for many others the standard compat library has shims that avoid most version checks. This is sort of the opposite of iOS, where most users are updated within a few months so many years of backwards compatibility isn't a big priority.
Cheap, slow, crappy devices and background task killers are much more of a problem than the problems plaguing a lot of the APIs.
Very bad example. You are not supposed to be able to record calls. Some drivers are working against you and depending on the audio path you might not have access to it. So some use workarounds such as pretending to be a bluetooth device just to get access to the audio.
Now you might have a different opinion, that call recording is a basic feature that all phones should have. And I would agree. But if you have any such opinions then IOS is dead on arrival anyway.
Do ratings actually matter? The only time I look at them is when it’s an Indie game and I want to see people’s impressions of it. Even still, I’ll go on Reddit and find the reviews there.
I say this because I have seen excellent but popular apps have very low ratings just because they are popular. Also, when someone gives it a low rating because of a bug that’s fixed 2 days later, is there a mechanism to take that into account?
If the app is not a scam, low ratings often mean the users failed to find a way to report an issue or get help. They care enough for your app to go through trouble of finding their way back to the store page, find the feedback form there and write an angry letter.
If you don't receive much written reviews but only low star ratings, it probably means that your app is asking the wrong users for a review or asking at a bad time.
Popular non-scam apps with low ratings probably simply fail at the feedback collection and communication with their users.
Exactly. For example, I recently tested out some child protection software. It has a terrible rating in the store, precisely because it's good. All the teens and children give it one star ratings!
There are many other reasons why an app might have low reasons despite being pretty good - for example, people often have unrealistic expectations of technical apps, in spite of the fact the app does exactly what it's supposed to. So, many people give it a low review, but the few people who understand the limitations find it useful enough to pay for.
Both of these types of app will find their way on to this list, but there would be no point in trying to build a better version.
> when someone gives it a low rating because of a bug that’s fixed 2 days later, is there a mechanism to take that into account?
Yeah I play some games that have low ratings. The quality of the games is great but...
The issue seems to be (based on the negative reviews) that people don't understand the game. They assume it is like popular game X, but they're playing a different game.
The tutorial explains that the game has a view distance and fog of war.....but the top reviews are negative posts about opponents in the distance "disappearing"....
This is interesting but I also wonder where the effect tapers off. I'm working on a startup in a particular space, and almost all competitors have high ratings on marketplaces but behind the scenes we know their churn is HUGE because people strongly dislike the products. Are some products just polarizing such that the highs and lows will be more willing to submit ratings while the displeased but unmotivated mids won't bother with a rating but will still churn?
People don't leave a bad review because they realise they don't need or aren't very interested in an app. It's because they need or want to use the app but are prevented from doing so by bugs or other issues.
Play Store would have a useful search engine if Google implemented this, but hubris cripples advanced search across Google’s properties. Their business is selling ads, and letting me find exactly what I want on my own instead of being served ads to suggest stuff that interests me—but almost never does—would wrinkle the bottom line. Same logic for supermarkets. Why tell me where everything is when I'll probably buy more if I wander around.
A few things to factor in: time spent in a supermarket is very different from time spent online. People are used to typing a query and the top 5 results that are yielded are the winners 90% of the time. Very few people will go beyond that. Which is why ads are crammed into that list. How often do you go to the second page of your web searches? Pareto 101 - either you're first or you're everything else and you get nothing if you are the latter. No matter how well you organize and present everything, the attention span of people online is absurdly low. I've fiddled with that concept at my old job and you lose clients at astonishing rates with every additional second you take away from their time, regardless of whether you give them an incentive to make it through to the end. I bet Google has come to the exact same conclusion over time. I remember they used to have a very advanced search engine features back in the late 2000's. These days those functionalities are still very much alive but you have to know them: +, - inuri, inurl, intitle, etc.
Can you name popular stores that actually intentionally list the worst rated items? Amazon, iTunes, and supermarkets don't go around listing the worst vacuum cleaners/songs/bacon. You might be able to find out by scrolling to the bottom of product list sorted by "Best Rating", or by the amount of stock, but I think intentionally pointing out the items by "Worst Rating" is kind of outside the mission of stores...
I love that you list Shopify apps. I was wondering about that exactly when i evaluated it for my business. A lot of the issues with the apps listed there are things that are simply not possible with shopify tho. Still interesting market IMO.
Something I’ve noticed with reviews on the Alexa “skills” store is that for de facto/universally used apps (for example, you can only connect to Apple Music with the official Apple Music skill), ratings tend to skew negative, as if you have a positive/neutral experience, you do not leave a review at all. You only leave a review if you have experienced a bug or are disappointed with the product, but that does not mean there is an alternative.
I've tended to write free software, designed to meet needs (as opposed to make money), but this is a good idea, and one that I think could be useful to folks that need to come up with "that big idea."
This reminded me of a post I read somehwere on the web of a guy who was looking to make some money early on when the App store was a thing and basically poked around on it trying to do the same thing your list suggests -- find an app that has enough downloads and a decent paid userbase but which seems kinda terrible.
Turns out he noticed there was a really popular app for... the bible, but he noticed it was pretty shitty. IIRC, he then made his own without too much effort, published in the app store, and made a decent chunk of change off of it for quite a while.
Just added my page to product hunt, i think it may be a good way to propagate updates on the product since i am so far not collecting emails from you or anything.
Theres a lot of issues with abandonment. Do people expect to pay $1-$6 for lifetime support of an app, otherwise its 1 star? Or should the developers have warned that the product is EOL'd, without refunding money to previous buyers.
This is a great resource and surprising to see it be free!
The trick is to of course read a few of the ratings to get behind the rating number. I also filtered for 1000+ ratings as who’d want to develop an app based on research for a app no one is using.
A theme I saw in my 5 minutes of usage were apps that were once loved and popular but have been poorly maintained through the android updates. I get that for small app devs - I had an app and I got so many “ya gotta do this” emails from Google I just abandoned it. It was a free app so didn’t feel so bad.
Very smart. Reminds me of a meta service i used to scout products for my e-commerce business. Not sure how you’ll be able to monetize it as it is relatively simple to copy but perhaps the first movers advantage is enough if you keep it free for visitors. Good luck in any case! I’m sure this will sprout new companies.
Yeah i am not sure either, but its weird that noone had this idea before it seems obvious especially when there was that one guy who made the static list, perhaps he it didnt sell well and that was the end of it.
The higher priced apps that cost $25 or more are dominated by e-commerce — 13 out of 17 of them are Shopify apps. Of the remaining 4, one is an app for professionals (DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria) but the others are a curious mix (GOLF NAVI PRO, Nursery Rhymes by Dave & Ava, and GO Launcher Super VIP).
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
So far checking only 3 marketplaces, my crawlers found so far about 100k apps, the default filters show only the more interesting once (paid and low rating)
Its free.
I will add more and more marketplaces eventually. I will also try to add some social features, like "working as a team on some idea" and posting own ideas, but will see how it goes.
Feedback welcome
EDIT: i just see it on mobile, it does not look ideal. Will need to work on that hm.
EDIT2: just added pagination :), hope it works for you.
[+] [-] ehsankia|4 years ago|reply
Can someone explain the value of such a list, am I missing something? Don't get me wrong, your project is neat and I enjoyed looking through it, but I don't understand how anyone would try to sell this or pay money for this.
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amelius|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shoto_io|4 years ago|reply
Q: How do you evaluate if the apps are still being paid for?
[+] [-] akudha|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkdk8283|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lambdasquirrel|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reader_mode|4 years ago|reply
Like the "Automatic Call Recorder Pro" (highest number of ratings on the list) has "try the free version first to see if this will work on your phone" ... I feel sorry for Android developers. As much as I dislike the "Apple way" of designing products (walled gardens and super opinionated instead of open and providing choices), every time I need to develop something for Android I'm flabergasted at how shit the platform is under the hood. Soo many APIs to do the same thing, depricated system APIs all over the place, but the only way to do things on devices X, but only from manufacturer Y, on Z the API functionality isn't even supported, on W you need to use newer APIs, on Q you need to use a custom solution - nobody really uses Q but your client got 3 complaints and can't determine priorities (understandable given the ecosystem fragmentation)
[+] [-] jeroenhd|4 years ago|reply
Call recording used to be easy to implement, until Google took a look at the obvious security problem with apps recording calls from the background, and restricted the normal APIs to system software only. If an app has automatic call recording that works well, the manufacturer probably put an insecure OS on the phone, because then any app or game you download probably has that capability.
The supported APIs all have excellent backwards compatibility through AndroidX. You can still many if not most modern APIs all the way back to Android 5 without much change in the code. Most system APIs are backported through Google's libraries, and for many others the standard compat library has shims that avoid most version checks. This is sort of the opposite of iOS, where most users are updated within a few months so many years of backwards compatibility isn't a big priority.
Cheap, slow, crappy devices and background task killers are much more of a problem than the problems plaguing a lot of the APIs.
[+] [-] tjoff|4 years ago|reply
Now you might have a different opinion, that call recording is a basic feature that all phones should have. And I would agree. But if you have any such opinions then IOS is dead on arrival anyway.
[+] [-] majani|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IgorPartola|4 years ago|reply
I say this because I have seen excellent but popular apps have very low ratings just because they are popular. Also, when someone gives it a low rating because of a bug that’s fixed 2 days later, is there a mechanism to take that into account?
[+] [-] mrtksn|4 years ago|reply
If you don't receive much written reviews but only low star ratings, it probably means that your app is asking the wrong users for a review or asking at a bad time.
Popular non-scam apps with low ratings probably simply fail at the feedback collection and communication with their users.
[+] [-] esperent|4 years ago|reply
There are many other reasons why an app might have low reasons despite being pretty good - for example, people often have unrealistic expectations of technical apps, in spite of the fact the app does exactly what it's supposed to. So, many people give it a low review, but the few people who understand the limitations find it useful enough to pay for.
Both of these types of app will find their way on to this list, but there would be no point in trying to build a better version.
> when someone gives it a low rating because of a bug that’s fixed 2 days later, is there a mechanism to take that into account?
I think so on the play store. Not sure though.
[+] [-] duxup|4 years ago|reply
The issue seems to be (based on the negative reviews) that people don't understand the game. They assume it is like popular game X, but they're playing a different game.
The tutorial explains that the game has a view distance and fog of war.....but the top reviews are negative posts about opponents in the distance "disappearing"....
[+] [-] vuciv1|4 years ago|reply
I haven't seen a difference yet, but I read for app store optimization purposes, higher ratings help.
Makes sense.
[+] [-] airstrike|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kapkole|4 years ago|reply
The source and the credibility of the ratings is an important consideration.
[+] [-] majani|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BigBalli|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] InvOfSmallC|4 years ago|reply
Cool job though!
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
I can add it but some other improvements come first.
[+] [-] noodle|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rozab|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moooshupork|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] axegon_|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mongolianbeef|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ehsankia|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] herbst|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uncomputation|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChrisMarshallNY|4 years ago|reply
I've tended to write free software, designed to meet needs (as opposed to make money), but this is a good idea, and one that I think could be useful to folks that need to come up with "that big idea."
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChicagoBoy11|4 years ago|reply
Turns out he noticed there was a really popular app for... the bible, but he noticed it was pretty shitty. IIRC, he then made his own without too much effort, published in the app store, and made a decent chunk of change off of it for quite a while.
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/ideas-filter
The link to PH is also on http://ideasfilter.com/ top right
[+] [-] harpiaharpyja|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iagovar|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throw14082020|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orf|4 years ago|reply
Weird.
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
The is no domain alias for that address so far.
[+] [-] quickthrower2|4 years ago|reply
The trick is to of course read a few of the ratings to get behind the rating number. I also filtered for 1000+ ratings as who’d want to develop an app based on research for a app no one is using.
A theme I saw in my 5 minutes of usage were apps that were once loved and popular but have been poorly maintained through the android updates. I get that for small app devs - I had an app and I got so many “ya gotta do this” emails from Google I just abandoned it. It was a free app so didn’t feel so bad.
[+] [-] lucaspanjaard|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] divbzero|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throw_839189|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pknerd|4 years ago|reply
It'd be very helpful!
Good job by the way!
[+] [-] visox|4 years ago|reply
and thx, peoples interest and praise is quite motivating