Connect IQ store spammed with low-quality apps and watch faces

Aaron 5 months ago

Lately, the Connect IQ store is getting spammed by a few unethical developers pumping out high-volume but low-quality copy-paste degenerate apps and watch faces. They are essentially the same, with only the background image changing and usually have 0 or low star reviews. See examples below (in all the categories):

This is displacing quality apps/watch faces that developers here are putting real effort into. This is a slap in the face to honest developers -- why bother trying hard to make a real app if it never gets a chance to appear in the CIQ store listings?

Garmin - Is there a plan to filter out these low-quality results? This is degrading the Connect IQ store experience. I used to remember seeing more quality listings, but now after scrolling past 1 page, all I get are these spam apps and watch faces.

Top Replies

Aaron 5 months ago +5

Brandon.ConnectIQ - don't these apps count as a violation of Garmin's Terms of Use?

No Spam, Malicious Software, or Other Damaging or Disruptive Activity. You may not use the Site in any manner…
flocsy🤠 5 months ago +2

Again... This comes up every month. And we'll just have more and more low quality garbage with time - especially that new and new watch-face generator tools will be there.

I don't know how the collected…
Aaron 4 months ago in reply to flocsy🤠 +2

That's really a shame, I expected better from Garmin.

Garmin! Imagine the experience of the poor new Garmin owner who just spent $1000 on a watch.

They are excited to discover there's a Connect IQ…

All Replies

flocsy🤠 7 days ago in reply to FlowState

I don't think that's the case. It makes no sense IMHO. The big corporate already have a payment system, most probably the features are only for subscribed users, and the Garmin app is free (like: komoot, strava, youtube, spotify, etc)

FlowState 7 days ago in reply to flocsy🤠

Maybe my explanation makes no sense, but neither does the idea that Garmin cares what indie devs think of the store, and that fixing the store (as per indie devs' complaints) will lead to a return on investment for monetization.

Indie devs complained on this very forum about the change to the store where we can't see exact download counts. Has Garmin addressed these complaints at all?

The big corporate already have a payment system, most probably the features are only for subscribed users, and the Garmin app is free (like: komoot, strava, youtube, spotify, etc)

Ever since CIQ was launched, users have been complaining that the store is nothing but hobbyist apps. Clearly komoot, youtube music and spotify aren't enough for those users. (What do you mean by "strava" in this context - i.e. big corporate Garmin CIQ apps? Strava Relative Effort? Does anyone actually use that? I don't know any runners who do. Plus it's preloaded on the device, so it's really not the same as an app that you have go out and find in the store.)

Do you see any big corporate apps which have a way to purchase a CIQ app using their own payment system? I don't. Lots of indie devs do, though.

As you said, the big corporate CIQ apps are free. Typically you pay for the service associated with the app (ilke Spotify or YouTube Music). How do you know that the big corporate apps wouldn't have used CIQ monetization if it had been available in the past, when they launched? Maybe they wouldn't have and maybe they won't. In that case, does Garmin really think that they'll make significant money off of indie apps?

Even the popular watchfaces by indie devs like Crystal (1 million+ downloads) apparently make peanuts in donations. Do you think 1 million ppl would pay for Crystal? How is Garmin going to make money off of indie devs?

Maybe monetization is really only here for Garmin's own apps (like their All-Star watchfaces and their GoPro remote control app).

All I'm saying is that if Garmin had some big cash cows in the store (i.e. not us), it's those big players who would influence Garmin's store practices, policies and implementation, not us. Yeah, I realize it's kind of a chicken and egg problem, since they couldn't have any cash cows before introducing monetization.

warmsound 6 days ago in reply to FlowState

FlowState said:
Even the popular watchfaces by indie devs like Crystal (1 million+ downloads) apparently make peanuts in donations. Do you think 1 million ppl would pay for Crystal?

Last year's total, after PayPal fees, was just over £400, across 163 donations. The counter was showing at least 3.5 million total downloads before the rounding started, so I would say "peanuts" is an accurate description.