Database Info

[CLOSED][APP] ScoreKeeper Plus - a free score keeping app. Could use some feedback!

HI all,
I'm somewhat new here -- been lurking a while, and have recently started posting. Anyways, I recently hit the marketplace with a free app I've developed, ScoreKeeper Plus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bammsoft.scorekeeper
In a nutshell, it's a score keeping app, tailored towards board games and the likes, with many uses. Additionally, I've included a few useful utilities for such events -- a highly configurable dice roller and a game timer.
So far, I've received perfect reviews from my modest user-base (~20 users), but I'm looking to grow that and get some feedback to further development.
The app is free and has no ads, so please share with all who may find this useful!
All feedback is HIGHLY appreciated. :fingers-crossed:
- Shane

Why does the app need permission to read contact data on the phone?
The description says why internet access is needed, but the combination of that and reading contact data for an app that doesn't seem to obviously need the phonebook could look suspicious.

kenyw said:
Why does the app need permission to read contact data on the phone?
The description says why internet access is needed, but the combination of that and reading contact data for an app that doesn't seem to obviously need the phonebook could look suspicious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See screenshot attached.

Hi sorry, I missed this question. Thanks to the poster above, yes it's to pick player names from your contact list.
The network permission is to pull a message of the day when you first launch the app. The MOTD let's me communicate with my users. It pulls from here: http://android.bammsoft.com/ScoreKeeper/MOTD.txt
On a side note, I'm quite pleased because there's been an explosion of new users, a 700% increase in the past 2 days!
Cheers,
Shane
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Just pushed a significant update (1.2.0). I added many translations and completely overhauled the new game screen.
Check it out!
EDIT: It's still propagating through the play store
EDIT 2: Is available now.

I want to reset my Note 3 to factory defaults. But I'm worried that my saved scores are gone after this. So my question is where are the scores saved and can I make a backup of it.
Thanks in advance!
Kind regards,
HS1986

@sjb933 do you have an alternative to your app or are you willing to put the app code in open source so it can be continued by others?

sjb933 said:
I'm somewhat new here -- been lurking a while, and have recently started posting. Anyways, I recently hit the marketplace with a free app I've developed, ScoreKeeper Plus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bammsoft.scorekeeper
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thread closed! Please advise the moderators team to reopen the thread when ready to provide a workable download link.
Regards
Oswald Boelcke
Senior Moderator

[dev] google's racist contact policy

greetings
i'm sorry if this is against any of xda rules, or shouldn't be posted here. but i'm an android developper having a top app in my country (1 million + downloads on play store) and the thing is every time my app seems to be top app, google removes it and sends me a warning + they suspend my account. i'm pretty sure the app is virus free, and does not contain any privacy violation. in fact there are several other apps offering the same features ( or at least trying to ) and i cant contact google from a 3rd world country.
i'm not sure if a competitor is running a script on the report page , or google removes it by mistake. could any of you guys help me try to figure this out?
PM me for further info
thanks

lesalloum said:
greetings
i'm sorry if this is against any of xda rules, or shouldn't be posted here. but i'm an android developper having a top app in my country (1 million + downloads on play store) and the thing is every time my app seems to be top app, google removes it and sends me a warning + they suspend my account. i'm pretty sure the app is virus free, and does not contain any privacy violation. in fact there are several other apps offering the same features ( or at least trying to ) and i cant contact google from a 3rd world country.
i'm not sure if a competitor is running a script on the report page , or google removes it by mistake. could any of you guys help me try to figure this out?
PM me for further info
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that if you are able to create an app and publish it "from a 3rd world country" then you are more than able to contact Google and resolve this yourself.

Sir that is a strong title, Please take it up with Google.
Thank you & Thread closed.

Tips about a good customer support

No matter if the app is free or paid, as a developer you want to offer a good support to the end users. Why? Because as long as they are happy they will continue to use your app and they will recommend it to others. So it is in your best interest to do your best and resolve issues that customers are reporting, implement requested features and solve as many bugs as possible.
To that end, you must ensure you provide easy to access means of communication between you as a developer and the end users. There are many ways you can achieve that and I will list a few I am using and the more you can provide the better so we can put together a list:
Create an email address or use one you already have (I prefer the former) and provide links on Google Play and inside the app. It is nice if you add an accessible menu item that says (Suggestions/Bug report/Support/Etc) that will start an intent chooser for sending emails to this email address
Use forums (XDA ) and post your app and frequently visit and answer suggestions/questions. There are a lot of helpful users there that will test the app and discover bugs, suggest new features and it is very good if you can keep the thread hot so you keep the interest up. Users like feedback and makes them feel important (which they are) so try to answer as many posts as possible even though you don't have a solution to the problem yet
Get social! Social networking is very helpful these days both for spreading the word about your app but also for customer support. Create profiles for the app on all major social networks (Facebook, Google +, Twitter, etc) and try to get as many users as possible. Post as many updates as possible and keep the users informed about changes to the app, answer to their comments and implement suggestions
Prioritization - build yourself a TODO list with priorities: for each update try to solve major bugs first that are heavily reported or that are causing big problems. Always find some room for improvements and user suggestions. Then fix small bugs and try to improve UI.
Localization is an important part of today's apps. Try to support as many languages as possible making easy for the users to understand the app and to better communicate their findings
Use the publish console to check for crash reports. Many users use this feature and send crash reports along with the stack trace and it is very helpful to keep track of major crashes and identify the root cause
Please reply with more tips so we can create a big list for everyone

Email is the number 1 way people ( from my experience ) contact the developer to ask questions, recommendations, etc. What I did in addition to all the things in the op was create a cheap 5 page website with Godaddy website tonight its like $100 bucks a year or something. They also auto optimize your site for mobile viewing!Then made a contact us page, were users can choose a reason for contacting us. This works really well and you can set up an auto responder to send them a message letting them know you got the email.
I always try to answer emails immediately (during business hours) but always within 24 hours. Having a great customer service program even if your a solo dev like I am will translate into 5 star ratings based solely on customer service!
Have a lax customer service program and you will see the negative 1 or 2 star ratings pop up again based solely on customer service. It shouldn't take anyone more than say 48 hours to re connect with someone and at least start the process of answering their concern.
You can see the contact us page here
Good policy will turn into good reviews and good downloads!
:good:

I've put a feedback page in all my apps.
You don't even need to create a new email address. Just use your personal email address and create an alias. That way it looks formal on the outside but messages go to same inbox as your personal one, only have to check one inbox everyday.

HMMMMMM!
FIRST OF ALLL EMAIL AND AFTER THAT XDA POSTS.........:victory:

email or the message box is very important. But it's also important to reply to their questions promptly.

Free Customer Service SDK
Replying promptly to customers is essentially the first step towards good customer service. If you are an iOS app developer, looking to impress your customers with excellent customer support, try out Freshdesk's Mobihelp SDK ( [freshdesk.com/mobihelp) you can snap-in to your app and start communicating with your customers from right within your app. I'm sure it will be of great help in your customer service efforts!

Thanks for the tips! Just a question: I have got one Crash report in google play console very early, but since then nothing. I have put email in the game and on the play store. But nobody used it. I do not have many installs, but I wonder what is the usual percentage of people who actually report bugs?

kulisgames said:
Thanks for the tips! Just a question: I have got one Crash report in google play console very early, but since then nothing. I have put email in the game and on the play store. But nobody used it. I do not have many installs, but I wonder what is the usual percentage of people who actually report bugs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience, if the app is something people desperately need (e.g. utility) or want (e.g. game) but it isn't working quite as they expected, they will be vocal. Not hearing anything from users is usually a warning sign that nobody was too excited about the app in the first place, or that not that many people downloaded the app in the first place.

If I see a crash on Google Play I assume that the same crash occured for 10 others who didn't bother reporting it. So I try to fix it ASAP.
You could use Google Analytics to report crashes without user prompt.
Regardless of the above, it sounds like you have a general marketing challange which is much more critical than that crash report, so you should investigate marketing and promotions in general.
kulisgames said:
Thanks for the tips! Just a question: I have got one Crash report in google play console very early, but since then nothing. I have put email in the game and on the play store. But nobody used it. I do not have many installs, but I wonder what is the usual percentage of people who actually report bugs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Bad reviews on google play
slackydroid said:
No matter if the app is free or paid, as a developer you want to offer a good support to the end users. Why? Because as long as they are happy they will continue to use your app and they will recommend it to others. So it is in your best interest to do your best and resolve issues that customers are reporting, implement requested features and solve as many bugs as possible.
To that end, you must ensure you provide easy to access means of communication between you as a developer and the end users. There are many ways you can achieve that and I will list a few I am using and the more you can provide the better so we can put together a list:
Create an email address or use one you already have (I prefer the former) and provide links on Google Play and inside the app. It is nice if you add an accessible menu item that says (Suggestions/Bug report/Support/Etc) that will start an intent chooser for sending emails to this email address
Use forums (XDA ) and post your app and frequently visit and answer suggestions/questions. There are a lot of helpful users there that will test the app and discover bugs, suggest new features and it is very good if you can keep the thread hot so you keep the interest up. Users like feedback and makes them feel important (which they are) so try to answer as many posts as possible even though you don't have a solution to the problem yet
Get social! Social networking is very helpful these days both for spreading the word about your app but also for customer support. Create profiles for the app on all major social networks (Facebook, Google +, Twitter, etc) and try to get as many users as possible. Post as many updates as possible and keep the users informed about changes to the app, answer to their comments and implement suggestions
Prioritization - build yourself a TODO list with priorities: for each update try to solve major bugs first that are heavily reported or that are causing big problems. Always find some room for improvements and user suggestions. Then fix small bugs and try to improve UI.
Localization is an important part of today's apps. Try to support as many languages as possible making easy for the users to understand the app and to better communicate their findings
Use the publish console to check for crash reports. Many users use this feature and send crash reports along with the stack trace and it is very helpful to keep track of major crashes and identify the root cause
Please reply with more tips so we can create a big list for everyone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
how can we deal with bad reviews on google play, reviews that comes from pepole that didn't understand the meaning of the app?
Thanks.

If you're looking for app support best practices, contact a big startup like Buffer or Squarespace and see how they respond to your question. Notice the friendly tone of voice, the detailed answers they try to give you, and the call for action at the end of every support ticket - whether it's to try and recreate the event that caused the bug or read a FAQ section. Do that a dozen times and you'll learn more about 'proper' support than any how-to article can teach you.

dimnikolov said:
If you're looking for app support best practices, contact a big startup like Buffer or Squarespace and see how they respond to your question. Notice the friendly tone of voice, the detailed answers they try to give you, and the call for action at the end of every support ticket - whether it's to try and recreate the event that caused the bug or read a FAQ section. Do that a dozen times and you'll learn more about 'proper' support than any how-to article can teach you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep makes sense in my experience - personalise as much as possible and reflect the tone of voice of your app. Users will really appreciate it. Stay social.

Why not have some kind of in-app help?
Having a suggestions/feedback menu item seems to be the common thread here to provide good customer support.
But wondering - why not some kind of in app help itself? Sort of a Whatsapp inside the app? I feel email being a separate channel breaks the context - help within the app itself and in context would be so much easier for the end user.
Thoughts?

I know it is an old thread but there are SDKs that help you integrate a support chat right within the app. I have seen zomato use one of these.

Thank you for a list!

Mobogenie official announcement

As many of you I have been suffering from the constant spam of Mobogenie app, forcing downloads on both of my Android devices. What concerns me is the easy way this guys can skip us, the users, to downooad something we don't want, which by definition its called SPAM (so I guess Playstore and Android guys should take care of)
Nether ways I find this official announcement from the Mobogenie staff: http://blog.mobogenie.com/mobogenie/news/a-message-from-mobogenie-support-team/ ( sorry for not placing the hyperlink but this tablet messes with thr selection tools)
Complete text:
"We have been made to understand that some of our users have been inconvenienced by the automatic download of Mobogenie on to their PCs. While it has never been our intention to spam any user, we would like to apologise to them for the same. Having learnt that there was a technical issue with one of our promotional arms, we have tried our best to fix it at the earliest possible.
Team Mobogenie keeps a close tab on all its promotions, and recommends the download of the Mobogenie application only from reliable sources such as Google Play, Mobogenie.com and other partner networks. We ensure that there shall be no more inconvenience caused to any Android user in future.
If you face this problem or anything similar again, please do report it with the following:
1. A screenshot of the site you are visiting
2. A website / app / popup that forced you to install Mobogenie automatically
3. Any other method that you suspect made you install Mobogenie
Write in to us at [email protected]. We also welcome your feedback and questions on your experience using the application.
Thank you.
Team Mobogenie"
What do you guys think about ti? Should we take some action at their social networks such as Tweeter so on?
Thanks

To mobogenie stop begging to download ur app.dnt force to all andriod users to download your app.if there is realy special anything about ur app den people will download it by there own self .dnt force or interupt on every browser on every site to every andriod user to use it. Non of the app developers begs lik you stop this shiiit as soon as possible .

medo-op said:
To mobogenie stop begging to download ur app.dnt force to all andriod users to download your app.if there is realy special anything about ur app den people will download it by there own self .dnt force or interupt on every browser on every site to every andriod user to use it. Non of the app developers begs lik you stop this shiiit as soon as possible .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 stop this.I never will install this even if it is the best app.Your behavior is bully.

It's unacceptable this continuous spam and hijack of the web from this nonsense app.
Mobogenie is a pirate of the web that needs to be stopped and the people behind this app deserve nothing but being sent to prison.
I detest you mobogenie

Thank GOD they realised that :/
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA mobile app

[CLOSED][guide]Block porn sites easily

Moderator Announcement: Thread closed as download link is broken! Oswald Boelcke, Senior Moderator
Title says all just follow this simple steps to block porn sites.
all credit goes to the creator of this app.
i have just made a video to make it simple
download link:- https://labs.xda-developers.com/store/app/org.pornaway
if you want to know how to use it .then here it is

Eh is this me or ya'll?
After stalking Ops profile he's just tryin to promote his videos.

okay .same here then..parents will do their duty and kids will their.it depends who is smarter to win the game.but u know what ,what i will do????. i love sharing and i will do it.

Hey OP, just a fair reminder, if you keep post links about YouTube tuts in here, then most of em' here including me will think like he's promoting his videos / channel etc...
So they gonna report your threads, Infact I've had reported a Buncha threads like that.
So, try to write tuts in here first, then link yo YouTube videos you're good to go.
Regarding your threads, there is already one with the same intention - *Ref

Thread cleaned.
As long as there is a valid download link and only one link to the video we will allow it but I do agree with the post above, it is better to write tutorials rather than just post a link to a video
Regards
Sawdoctor

Best way to block porn on android that i've found is to use a Private DNS in your phone Settings like adult-filter-dns.cleanbrowsing.org and then use an AppLock(also give Advanced protection so the app could not be uninstalled) to lock Settings and Playstore,obviously you have to ask someone close to you to set an applock pattern or password for you and don't forget it so when you need to enter settings or playstore you would ask him/her to enter the password.
There is also an app called Bulldog blocker that is very helpful,i've used the app for a couple of days and you can set a timer from where you will have to wait an hour,three,one day or two days in a weak moment to unlock the app or uninstall it but i've found that the app it doesn't work all the time,also i've encountered slow internet connection because the app uses VPN.