r/iOSProgramming • u/ethanator777 • 21h ago
What’s surprised you most about your app’s users? Question
One of the biggest surprises I’ve had since launching my app is how users interact with features I thought were secondary—they love them more than the core functionality!
What’s something unexpected you’ve learned about your users, and how did it change your app?
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u/zeiteisen 20h ago
That they like the app. At first I thought it’s a stupid idea but in the end it’s well received.
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19h ago
[deleted]
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u/tall-yak 20h ago
Released an app globally early last year and it became popular in another country. Unfortunately, users there won’t pay for it after exhausting the trial credits (even at the 2nd lowest localized price). So it’s costing me money to maintain 😅
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u/chriswaco 17h ago
I worked on Weather Underground's original weather apps. We debated whether to put user-entered hazards (icy conditions, fog, etc) into the app. I was skeptical that many users would use it and thought that there would be too many fake/inaccurate reports. On the first day we got 10,000 reports with no obvious false entries. We had a great user base.
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u/perfopt 14h ago
How did you check there were no false entries?
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u/chriswaco 13h ago
We mitigated the issue a bit beforehand:
- We made it hard to enter false or malicious data - no user-entered strings, for example, only a fixed list of items.
- We disabled options when they weren't possible - icy when the temperature was over 40ºF.
- We decided to time out each entry every 15-30 minutes, so bad data wouldn't last long anyway (like erasing graffiti).
- We required a valid GPS location from the phone (which can be spoofed, but not by most users) and had the deviceID so if we were getting bad data we could lock them out in the future.
- We had a "this is wrong" button so people could complain about a report. We had almost no complaints.
Then mostly we just watched the information flow in and waited for complaints or obvious lies, but didn't see (m)any. Mostly I think it was children playing with a parent's phone pressing every button. Today I would require FaceID or TouchID, but that wasn't available back then.
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u/AlmightyGnasher 14h ago
How different Android users are to iOS users. I had an app released on iOS for years, hardly any negative reviews.
Release it on Android and non stop complaining, mostly about the fact it's not completely free.
iOS users seem happy to pay for quality. Android users simply want everything for free.
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u/madaradess007 2h ago
developing for android is a waste of time, those cheap bastards think they pay with reviews xD
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u/abear247 18h ago
How much they love the app. We had an issue with Apple sign in when transferring from a personal account to a business. If someone got logged out, it would create a new profile when they logged in. We were stuck mid transfer (thanks to incorrect documentation from Apple).
Anyway, our users were begging us for their account back. Saying this is all in life that they have and they will do anything. People literally purchased premium when we restored their account. Absolute insanity.
Also, we excepted the app to be like 80% men but tons of woman use it too. Completely underestimated that.
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u/20InMyHead 12h ago
I work on a large app for a well-known American company. We have millions of users, so of course we see a little bit of everything. Without getting too specific, our apps are not games, and our demographics are adults of all age ranges.
For a long time we assumed accessibility, while important, was still an edge case. We supported the basics, but crafted our apps assuming most users did not use accessibility settings.
Then we did an analysis, and found the majority of users use at least one accessibility setting. Dynamic type was the biggest usage, but we saw from voice over, to low contrast mode, to reduced animation, you name it. The users did not skew based on age either, we saw similar patterns in users in all age ranges.
Accessibility is not an edge case, it’s the norm. It’s changed how our designers think, and how important accessibility bugs are treated.
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u/extendtheknowledge 19h ago
Can you give any examples of these secondary features that they love? And how do you know they love them?
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u/uhraurhua 18h ago
That they don’t use it. I learned the harsh truth that people are not easy to please and when asking for feedback some people are really mean.
I am now trying to implement more features which hopefully will bring more value to my users.
Building sth and selling it isn’t easy. At least, not for me
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u/CarefulImprovement15 21h ago
They are stupid