That's tragically funny but it shows another problem with the app store. Years after the app store has been released, Apple hasn't solved a basic need for support and bug tracking. It would be an big help the community (both customer and developer) to give them a transparent and easy way to communicate issues with each other.
Does anyone know if this has been addressed in anyway with Apple saying they are considering it or not?
The basic need for support and bug tracking is a hard problem to solve, because users are stupid. If apple puts a bug tracker on the app store, any moderately popular app is going to end up with a huge mess of 'durrr... it doens't work' and 'hey developer your a fukhead' type comments. Even in the open source world, where the user base is generally more competent and savvy, the bug tracker is never front and centre on any of their websites - you've got to go looking for it and create an account, and most of the big projects still have a problem with useless bug reports.
Bug reports from the general public are simply not of any value. And building a support forum into the app store creates an expectation of support, which for most $1 apps is an unrealistic expectation. The developer has a facility to communicate with the users: the release notes on updates. The users shouldn't get a facility to communicate with the developer, unless the developer wishes to provide that facility outside the app store.
I mostly look at paid apps in both the (German) iOS and Mac App Stores, and I find the reviews to be surprisingly good. I often read them, see bugs described by clearly smart people, and feel good about making a buying decision. For everything worth more than $10+, I actually find Mac App Store reviews to be more helpful than the fluffy crap that bloggers love to write.
It would be a great first step if developers could at least opt in to an easy feedback channel.
Basically, no matter what the developer and Apple do, people will always use reviews as a place to submit vague bugs.
There have been a few times where I was lucky enough to be able to track someone down based on their username and personally contact them to help them out, but if they'd gone though official channels for support instead of via a review, it would have been much better for both of us.
I actually would like to see the ability for developers to publicly respond to reviews. Sure, some may abuse it by submitting nasty responses to bad reviews, but good developers would provide useful/polite responses, and that would be another signal users could use to determine if they want to buy the app in the first place.
> Basically, no matter what the developer and Apple do, people will always use reviews as a place to submit vague bugs.
Easy fix then: a small checkbox on review page "this is a technical problem", which will forward review and contact details for the reviewer to an arbitrary developer bugsystem.
Oh wait! It doesn't show up when using the App Store app!
So even if you put a link there you need someone to be aware that such a link exists, to believe there might be something useful at the end of that link (which you point out, there rarely is), then wants to go to/turn on their computer, fire up iTunes, attempt to & succeed at finding your app, click the link, possibly register for your bug tracker (doesn't seem too uncommon), possibly check their email to confirm their registration and then finally file a bug report.
Ah! Not being an IOS dev (or owner) I had no idea. What is the typically-wrong use of it? Could it be simply that the word "Support" is a bad one to use for most people? Can it be changed to "Help?"
Anybody can feel free to contact me about this via my profile here, I'd truly be interested in making this flow easier and I know how to write this stuff.
I've seen a (large) number which just send you to the root page for the app (or company. or blog. or worse). Often without any clear way to send an email or report a problem, just a splash page that prompts you to download the app... which you've evidently downloaded.
Personally, a "report a problem" link would be a lot more inviting, especially if it let you send them a message from the app store, and include the last crash report (if it was the last one).
I'll probably do this soon. I've already put an option to mail a report set to pop up in various error conditions in the code. Some information is automatically added to the message but the user can add some more if required to describe what they were doing.
I've never actually had one back which I think I take as a good sign, I don't think I've had a crash report on iTunes Connect either so touch wood it is pretty solid although I'm adding more under the covers error logging at the moment using Parse which makes it pretty easy (saved me a day or so setting up and securing a server to my satisfaction). This will mean I can log from later in a crash (if it happens) than I could from email as I don't need to pop up any views just send it although where possible I will pop up the email option.
Does anyone know if this has been addressed in anyway with Apple saying they are considering it or not?