There’s only a few absolute certainties in this world that you can always count on: The sun rising in the East, the Chicago Cubs never winning a World Series, and idiots who install beta versions of iOS getting real mad in iTunes app reviews. It happens every year when Apple releases a new beta version of iOS: Non-developers, for whatever reason, race to download and install beta software on their primary device, then carpet bomb the App Store with one star reviews because their device, as well as the apps they use, work like crap (or not at all). It’s supremely frustrating for developers, as, in case you weren’t aware, the entire point of Apple releasing beta software is so developers can tweak and tune their apps to make sure they all work properly when the new iOS version is released to the general public. Particularly in early betas, a lot of things are typically broken, ironing out these kinks is the whole reason for a beta test.
But, that hasn’t ever, and likely won’t ever, stop random people from installing it and getting angry that some things don’t work properly. Thankfully, after years of iOS developers asking Apple to block people who are running beta versions of iOS from torpedoing their App Store listings with terrible reviews, Apple has finally done something about it. Now, if you’re running a beta version of iOS, you see the glorious new popup posted above. This means the days of reviews like this are over:
Gotta love 1-star reviews for iOS 9 Beta issues. https://t.co/6lrFn9cP65
— Paul Mayne (@paulmayne) July 11, 2015
It’s a great change overall, as negative iTunes reviews can have a detrimental effect on app sales- Particularly when so many single-star beta iTunes reviews are so vague. If you’re just browsing the App Store, you don’t know that the person leaving the one star review saying “app sux totally broken" is running beta software, you just (very reasonably) assume that it doesn’t work, and move on to something else. As Ron White always says, you can’t fix stupid, but, this at least applies a very small bandaid.
[via MacRumors]
