Does startUserReview() work?

Hi,

I implemented startUserReview() when a user has spent some time and completed a reasonable level of interaction with the app and was expecting an uptick in reviews… but don’t see any.

I tested myself and see the on-watch “stars” review screen pop-up OK and then a bit of confusion when asked if I want to enter a comment: this invokes an additional on-phone CIQ connection page which I cancelled (not allowed to review our own solutions; it’s in the T’s and Cs)… so if someone complete a “stars” review, indicates to add more info but cancels that stage, should the “stars” review still be submitted without comment?

I see nothing coming through in the reviews.

So I added an info log to a release and I see that I have 10+ people per day responding to a confirmation prompt to review which will show the startUserReview() but still nothing added to my review tallies for days and days now.

So does startUserReview() really work beyond showing the “stars” UI? I appreciate there was a several-hour timeout on CIQ yesterday but the observed pattern/question stands.

Top Replies

crispgarmin 4 days ago in reply to dpawlyk +1

dpawlyk said:
It's an open forum. So, you might get things you haven't asked for.

All types of response welcome and appreciated. Any conversation is better (including for future search and lookup…
crispgarmin 1 day ago in reply to dpawlyk +1

dpawlyk said:
you seem to think there is no possible downside

It’s a good, healthy, rigorous debate that is opening far more thoughts and angles than I expected.

But in response to the line above…

All Replies

jim_m_58 4 days ago

My own opinion is that asking for a review may have an opposite effect as the user may feel they are being bothered at a bad time. If a user wants to leave a review, they will do it on their own

dpawlyk 4 days ago

This is something that developers might want.

But users are going to tend to view it as a nuisance.

That irritation might lead to more poor reviews.

crispgarmin 4 days ago

Well, the results above show that users are more than willing to engage in a review process… when delivering a proven service I have 80%+ responding “Yes” when prompted.

I wasn’t asking about the “working” of the psychology of asking for reviews but if anyone else has anecdotal evidence of the Garmin service side actually working and processing reviews.

dpawlyk 4 days ago in reply to crispgarmin

It's an open forum. So, you might get things you haven't asked for.

The psychology might explain this thread isn't getting a lot (any) responses from developers who use it.

crispgarmin 4 days ago in reply to dpawlyk

dpawlyk said:
It's an open forum. So, you might get things you haven't asked for.

All types of response welcome and appreciated. Any conversation is better (including for future search and lookup on topics) is very welcome. Thank you and Jim for taking time to read and respond.

jim_m_58 4 days ago in reply to crispgarmin

One thing to consider is that the number of reviews might not mean that much. I have some apps with about 100,000 downloads and less than 200 reviews, which are visible in searches. One with 750,000 downloads and 179 reviews

dpawlyk 4 days ago in reply to jim_m_58

Having some (positive) reviews are helpful (I think).

But I’m not sure if having lots of them does much.

jim_m_58 4 days ago in reply to dpawlyk

I've seen cases where an app might have 25 reviews and all of them 5 star. That smells really fishy to me, as every app gets something other than 5

dpawlyk 4 days ago in reply to jim_m_58

That might be an example of "too few" reviews. I made no comment about that.

I would hope the text of the review would make it seem less fishy.

2203083 4 days ago in reply to crispgarmin

crispgarmin said:
I have 80%+ responding “Yes” when prompted

No, you can't know that.

API only allows you to initiate "Do you want to rate the app?" prompt, and you have no way of find out, what happens next: yes/no/close/timeout/... Check the docs to see what "ReviewRequestStatus" actually means.