Mikey Campbell
It appears that Apple is disallowing iOS 9 beta users to submit app reviews — positive or negative — with the latest build released on Tuesday, a feature that was becoming an increasingly irritating thorn in the side of developers since Apple opened its public beta program earlier this year.
Testers running Apple's fourth iOS 9 beta, currently for developers only, are able to access the iOS App Store as usual, but no longer have the ability to post reviews. Attempting to do so now results in an error pop-up that reads, "This feature isn't available. You can't write reviews while using a prerelease version of iOS."
AppleInsider reader Lars was first to spot the change.
Apple likely deprecated the feature to prohibit users unfamiliar with beta software builds from posting unduly critical assessments of apps that, for whatever reason, are incompatible with the upcoming system update.
While a good portion of iOS apps work as intended on iOS 9, there are a few that experience stalls, crashes and other hangups not present when running under iOS 8.4, the most up-to-date consumer release. The two systems may be mutually exclusive, but the underpinning services are not. Posting negative reviews based on an experience within a beta environment has a very real impact on developers, as they can be viewed by and sway the opinion of average App Store customers.
Indeed, a number of titles in the iOS App Store have seen their star ratings drop after Apple released its iOS 9 public beta. What's more, developers are unable to submit patches for problems discovered in iOS 9 , only updates for iOS 8. This means most issues end users run into will remain unfixed until the next-generation operating system debuts this fall.
The problem has existed for some time, but with previous beta programs the impact was slight because access was limited to a rather small pool of users. And those users were, for the most part, developers. Issues became increasingly pronounced after Apple opened wide access to early iOS and OS X builds through its "public beta" program, entry into which is as easy as signing up.
Relatively more stable than developer-only builds, OS betas labeled "public" are still just that, unfinished software that hasn't been fully vetted by Apple or the thousands of app developers coding for it.
It is unknown if Apple intends to extend today's moratorium on app reviews to prerelease versions of other operating systems like OS X 10.11 El Capitan.
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
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Wesley Hilliard
42 Comments
Good, about time.. This was needed many, many iOS versions ago! People have no place posting reviews for issues/crashes while running a beta!
Good, about time..
This was needed many, many iOS versions ago! People have no place posting reviews for issues/crashes while running a beta!
People are stupid indeed.
I've only had one app not work with 9 (admittedly I haven't tried all of them), CARROT Weather. This makes me sad, of course, but I don't blame the developer for it, I move on.
(funnily enough the widget still works)
Good, about time..
This was needed many, many iOS versions ago! People have no place posting reviews for issues/crashes while running a beta!
Actually reviewing from betas is fine. If it is impossible to support betas, everyone will get the same number of negative reviews and it comes out even. The issue is it isn't impossible. The complaints are coming from crappy developers whose apps are especially poorly written and not future proof (ie. that use APIs that were already deprecated in iOS 8 and are now unusable in iOS 9) and thus actually worse than those from other developers. They deserve their reviews and will get them sooner or later. Fortunately, this should be easy to work around by reviewing from another device.
Its always easy to tell in October who knows how to write code and who doesn't. Good developers who develop the way Apple clearly tells them to can easily support the latest features, such as iPad split screen. Those who rely on third party tools and couldn't write a line of Swift to save their lives are the ones who take all year to get those features in while they wait for others to do their work for them.
Actually reviewing from betas is fine. If it is impossible to support betas, everyone will get the same number of negative reviews and it comes out even. The issue is it isn't impossible. The complaints are coming from crappy developers whose apps are especially poorly written and not future proof (ie. that use APIs that were already deprecated in iOS 8 and are now unusable in iOS 9) and thus actually worse than those from other developers. They deserve their reviews and will get them sooner or later. Fortunately, this should be easy to work around by reviewing from another device.
Its always easy to tell in October who knows how to write code and who doesn't. Good developers who develop the way Apple clearly tells them to can easily support the latest features, such as iPad split screen. Those who rely on third party tools and couldn't write a line of Swift to save their lives are the ones who take all year to get those features in while they wait for others to do their work for them.
Not true. There are limitations to bugs that can be fixed in iOS 9 when you are developing against the iOS 8 SDK. The App Store doesn't allow builds against the 9.0 SDK during the beta period. Using your example, if an API has been deprecated in iOS 9, there are limits to what you can do fix them and furthermore, resources are limited as it is developing new versions for the fall release.
I wish Apple would force developers to optimize for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus displays already. It's so lazy to still have your app pretend these larger models don't exist while you continue to submit updates almost a year after they've been released.