Should Apple have stricter regulations regarding the frequency of app updates for app developers

[pcslookout]

What do you think ?

 

[v-600]

What counts as an update? Would simply resubmitting it to the app store unchanged be ok? Do UI colour changes count?

 

[KeithP]

I don't think Apple should require any set frequency to updates. What would be nice (or maybe this is already possible?) is that if it was easy to view an app's update history since it was originally released.

-keithp

 

[Herr Kutz]

I think they should have strict regulations for bait and switch apps.

I purchased the road bike pro app because I could log my stats without signing up for them to sell my data. In the latest update they removed the ability to use the app without logging in. Nowhere in the description did I see that this was one of the included changes. Considering I paid for the app and you cannot go back to a previous version, this is a serious problem.

 

[purbeast0]

Just because an app is updated doesn't mean you have to update it. Updates are (typically) a good thing though so you usually want to be on top of them. That means the app is getting support. However I personally hate updating apps so have auto-update off and I will manually update apps when I have to.

As for bait/switch apps, that is solely on the app developer. Complain to Apple about it and leave a bad review. That will hurt the company in the long run and force them to change, or they won't be around very long.

I have over 10 apps published in the app store so I have some experience with the whole process.

 

[sxr7171]

The updates are a joke. It is pretty obvious that some apps update very frequently to purge bad reviews. Because the reviews tend to reset for the current version.

The real problem is that there are still no delta updates. This is 2017 and they still can’t figure that out? I literally pull gigabytes of data daily to update my apps. It’s getting ridiculous in a regressive world of data caps and overages on land based ISP service.

 

[HitAnyKey]

I don't think Apple needs to encourage updates - they are happening all the time. The update situation is getting out of control. Way too many updates especially since latest IOS release. Tonight I had over 20 apps that needed updating - most were not games like Youtube, Paypal.

I would love to understand why some apps are updated daily. Are they really that buggy? How did they pass QA on the last update? Aren't these updates submitted to Apple for approval beforehand?

 

[sxr7171]

I don't think Apple needs to encourage updates - they are happening all the time. The update situation is getting out of control. Way too many updates especially since latest IOS release. Tonight I had over 20 apps that needed updating - most were not games like Youtube, Paypal.

I would love to understand why some apps are updated daily. Are they really that buggy? How did they pass QA on the last update? Aren't these updates submitted to Apple for approval beforehand?

They are updated daily to refresh reviews. It’s a game they play. It’s nonsense. That should be banned. Can’t they work on it for a week even? But really in 2017 no delta updates? It’s absolutely ridiculous. What kind of 3rd rate joke of a company would inflict that on their users? Oh yeah that one. The perfect one.

 

[purbeast0]

You can literally submit an update that does nothing other than bump the version number up and it will go through. Apple doesn't do any kind of QA or anything on the app either, I'm not sure why one would expect them to be your QA department.

It doesn't help that Apple now requires you to submit updates if you want to change some information about the app such as keywords and a few other fields. A while ago you could change all of that without introducing a new binary.

 

[sxr7171]

At the end of the day why no delta updates? These things really matter if you are traveling and have to deal with roaming or with spotty Wi-Fi. They are so elitist about everyone having perfect internet connections. I can get around 2-3GB a day updating apps.