Apple's 'Move to iOS' app bombed with one-star reviews | Hacker News Reader

Apple's 'Move to iOS' app bombed with one-star reviews

geekscribe.com.au

55 pointsgeekscribe51 comments

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These are not app reviews but rather political views. Shouldn't Google have some policy about such reviews?

Not worth the negative press when they accidently censor reviews on an app which should not be censored.

Also, why should they care? Apple should be happy Google even allows them in the Play Store.

Not worth the negative press when they accidently censor reviews

It's a frigging app store. Negative reviews should probably be deleted automatically with a random probability anyway.

Reviews not pertaining to the app should be deleted. But Google is not gonna police their app store for each and every review submission.

They are Google with a capital G. If anybody can do automatic curation of textual data, they can.

Imo this is censorship and unwanted control

Telling crazy people to go away isn't censorship though.

This would be community moderation. I think you lose the right to whine about "unwanted control" when you accepted the terms and conditions in order to make use of a commercial enterprise's for profit software store, private ecosystem or walled garden.

This review hits all the right keywords:- http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55781673e4b058c6d6a34d...

None of the reviews is a critique of the app in itself, except some material design ones, but just the fact that the app is from Apple to lure away Android users. This also highlights the common problem with app store reviews, they are not able to paint a picture of the app for me. If I have to purchase something, I look at Amazon reviews and they provide me a decent picture of the product. But app store reviews are a cesspool.

They have the same policy everyone does: don't take them too seriously.

As a mostly happy iphone user I can say there's some decent trolling in here, have a laugh and enjoy, I think the sky will still be there tomorrow!

Why would they? App reviews are just user comments, they're not curated content - and trying to force the one to be the other would inevitably go down a weird rabbit hole. "I'm not allowed to tell you that I find this 'cheat on your spouse' app objectionable, but I can say that the screen transitions are crisp, and the text, while deplorable, was clearly legible on both my devices."

Any user content is "curated", otherwise most of comments would be ads of competitors and viagra shops.

"Curated" doesn't just mean "spam-filtered".

Well, 1-star spam is a spam also.

> No thanks Apple, I prefer being the one in control of my phone.

Ironically, one of the main reasons I switched to iOS is control - with an iPhone, I can control which app has access to my contacts, images, GPS etc much better than I ever could with Android, where every app just requests all permissions up front.

Cyanogenmod does allow this permission control.

Unfortunately, CM is difficult for many users to implement (and impossible with some newer phones).

For me a phone is a tool, not a hobby. I want to use it, not play/tinker with it. Hence I prefer it delivered in a state I can live with and not in a state requiring root and firmware change first.

I wonder if Apple would allow the inverse app in its App store.

> The reaction is hardly a surprise, given the polarising nature of the two platforms, but Google deserves some credit for allowing the app in the Play Store - as John Gruber points out, Apple's rules would preclude a similar app for Android from ever appearing in the App Store.

Apple would not approve it, as there is a clause in the review guidelines, that forbid mentioning competing platforms:

3.1 Apps or metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected

Pretty hypocritical, if you ask me.

IANAL but seems like an anti-trust suit waiting to happen

Apple is hardly a monopoly in the mobile space, so not going to happen.

Apple has less than 20% market share in the mobile and table business, no anti trust danger there.

But the Android Wear app is available so, like most of Apple's rules, it's selectively enforced.

Has always been the case with Apple review process.

In this case, "Android Wear" != "Android", so it is allowed.

Hypocrisy is damn good business.

Don't ever fool yourself into thinking Apple is positive for humanity.

Well, but it makes no sense here. Mere mention of a competing platform would never have a real effect on sales. The crazy Jobs era is done, they should really go over that document and remove much of the nonsense stuff. It will just help their image and drive more people to Apple.

Even ignoring Apple's rules, I don't think it could be done within the confines of the sandbox that third-party apps run in. Some of the stuff that gets transferred just can't be accessed.

The "Move to iOS" app is, to some extent, pointing out just how much of your data can be read by any application.

... if the user approves such access.

This article really taught me the error of my ways. Thanks apple and Google.

Can you expand on that thought please? (just curious)

This is #1 on the front page? sigh

Apple-Android wars bring the best in everyone. :D

IMHO the one star votes are childish reactions.

Voting for an app should require to have used the app first.

No, you won't be in control of your phone, some far-off credit card fraudster will. Or the NSA. Apple has shown that they take security seriously. Google? Hahahahaha.

More importantly to me is that Apple created such an app in the first place. That's a very defensive move, certainly not the kind of move you would expect from the owners of a platform who are comfortable in their lead and their superiority.

This kind of move is usually the first step toward downfall.

Huh? You know what pain it is to move from one platform to another? Within Android, moving from one manufacturer to another is already difficult enough. If Apple manages to really assist here, it's a big win for them.

> Within Android, moving from one manufacturer to another is already difficult enough.

How so?

You're right, they haven't made money on iOS in years. They're making such a small portion of the profits in that market. They'll fail soon enough. We heard it here first...

Either "tongue in cheek" or plain arrogant[0][1][2]. Regardless, your comment allowed me to research some fascinating articles so Thank You.

[0] http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/05/27/apples-ios-drives-...

[1] http://9to5mac.com/2015/07/13/apple-smartphone-profit-share/

[2] https://bgr.com/2015/04/15/ios-vs-android-developers-revenue...

The sarcasm flew right over your head, didn't it?

Personally rude comments like this break the HN guidelines, and I'm dismayed to see that you've been posting much worse: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10219165. We ban accounts that do this repeatedly, so please read the rules and follow them when commenting here. That means commenting civilly and substantively, or not at all.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

Apologies. No malice was intended in the above post, contrasted with the one you linked, where I was emotional and may have stepped over the line.

Understood. It's important to err on the side of civility, though, because intentions don't communicate themselves. (I misunderstood yours, for example, in the above.)

Thanks for the polite reply! We...don't always get those.

Well, given that it's hard to get sarcasm across via text, I did acknowledge that your comment could have been "tongue in check"...but you downvoted me because you didn't understand the reference?

Oh well.

There's a small possibility you're right, and this signals the beginning of a rapid decline in smartphone market share.

More likely, this is a move to solidify any existing opportunities to move a user from android to ios.

Defensive move? Quite the opposite. Apple has the gall to go on the offensive with an app to assist people in abandoning the competition. It would take a tiny percentage of a single percent of android users to switch to have made this stunt profitable.

Even if nobody ever uses the app to switch, it got some chuckles during the keynote, and gives us iDevice users a cheap laugh. Of course, I don't give a damn what phone you use. Both operating systems are good, and both offerings have good hardware. The only "defensive move" seen here is people on both sides trying to protect their choice of device against criticism from other people. Stop caring what people think about your phone. And stop caring about other people's phones. Everyone wins!

> Apple has the gall to go on the offensive with an app to assist people in abandoning the competition

You are missing something so obvious you'll facepalm when you realize it: why didn't they do this sooner?

If it was such an offensive, obvious, right move, they've had six years to do it. Why didn't they?

Because they felt they didn't need to. Even acknowledging the existence of Android was a sign of weakness. So they just purposely didn't make that move.

But things are getting heated, now. Android is in the 60-70% market share depending on the country you are looking at, iOS is at most 20% and shrinking every year. They are growing very, very nervous in Cupertino, so they are beginning to reach for measure that probably make Jobs turn in his grave.

But it's the right thing to do, and I give Tim Cook credit for approving such a bold move. But make no mistake, it's a very, very bad message they are sending to their share holders and investore by having created such an app.

Especially since it's being decimated in reviews in the Play Store, but that's a separate topic.

I find it very odd also. As a highly technical person who has drank the apple kool aid, use mostly apple products, pay for iCloud subscription, etc. it strikes me as a desperate move to attack your competitor on its home turf. Especially when you are literally the most valuable company on the planet.

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