Why I made App Peers

Good apps get few reviews

When an app just works and nothing annoys the user, he uses it and doesn’t write anything. People leave a review when they really love the app, or when something made them angry. So if your app is normal and good, most of the reviews you get can be the angry ones. And a new app with zero reviews has it even harder, nobody wants to be the first one to install it.

Not everybody starts from the same place

Stores say you can’t incentivize reviews. But when a product launches, a lot of developers ask friends, family, colleagues and followers to try it and rate it. Nobody calls this cheating, it’s just how launches work.

But what if you work alone? No big family, not many friends who use the same store, no audience. Then you start in worse conditions from day one, and not because your app is worse. I don’t like that, and App Peers is my try to fix it. It gives you what others get from their friends: a few real people who actually open your app and say what they think.

What I don’t want it to be

I don’t want App Peers to become a review farm. So I built it with rules that you can’t switch off:

• Nobody pays or gets paid. The service is free, and paying for feedback is forbidden by the Terms.
• Every review costs you your own work. To get a review, you have to try someone else’s app and review it yourself within one hour, and upload a screenshot.
• There are limits. At most 20 open exchanges at once, at most 3 screenshots waiting from you, and one request to the same person per 24 hours. Several accounts to get around the limits are forbidden too. You can get a start here, not hundreds of reviews.
• The rating is honest. Nobody can demand a specific rating, and an honest low rating is not a reason to reject someone’s work.
• Only real apps. Every app is verified with a one-time file on the website from its official store listing. You can’t add somebody else’s app, and there are no accounts without apps.
• Each person writes the review himself, from his own store account. App Peers never posts anything to any store.

Why you can trust the other side

For me as a developer the most important question was: can I trust the person who rates my app? What if he just puts one star without even opening it? On App Peers the person who rates you is a developer like you, with his own verified app and a public record: completed exchanges, likes and dislikes, and the reasons for dislikes. He knows how one lazy review feels. And you see all of this before you send a request.

And the store rules?

I’m not a lawyer, and App Peers is not approved by Apple, Google or Microsoft. Their rules about reviews are strict, and a review in return for a review can fall under them. As I see it, these rules exist to stop fake and bought reviews, and App Peers is built against exactly that: real people who really used the app, writing their own honest opinion, and nobody gets paid. But the stores decide how to apply their rules, not me. So please read the rules of your store and decide for yourself.

Who it’s for

For solo and small developers who made a good app and don’t have a crowd behind them. If that’s you, I made it for you.

Questions or ideas: support@apppeers.com