[Ratings & Reviews Prompt] PWAs not installed from a catalog

[wanderview]

The explainer currently suggests that a store review prompt should be offered for PWAs that were not installed from a store:

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/RatingsAndReviewsPrompt/explainer.md#choosing-which-app-catalogs-to-offer

This seems like a quite bad experience for users. They never visited the store yet the browser is pushing one in an unsolicited prompt. This seems like a UX that is likely to confuse users, be misunderstood as malware, etc.

I strongly encourage that browsers not prompt for reviews for PWAs installed organically on the web without a store involved.

[aarongustafson]

@wanderview I don’t disagree with your critique, but my primary concern is that this could potentially cut out indie catalogs altogether or at least disadvantage them in relation to the major app stores/catalogs. The only way to ensure they can still participate would be to develop some way of tracking the installation origin—perhaps via a hand-off from @PEConn’s proposed web-based installation scheme—in order to map it back to the catalog for review.

[wanderview]

It seems like that should be done anyway? For example, if the browser's default store is A and the user installs an App from store B, it seems reviews for the app should go to store B. The app may not even be in store A.

I would think sending users to the default store A in these cases would make it even harder on india catalogs to get started. Even if they got a user to visit and install, then browser would send their users to the browser default catalog.

[aarongustafson]

The app may not even be in store A.

There’s an open question about that ;-)

I would think sending users to the default store A in these cases would make it even harder on india catalogs to get started. Even if they got a user to visit and install, then browser would send their users to the browser default catalog.

Perhaps there’s an opening to support alternate catalogs within a browser (much like you can choose search engines).

[PEConn]

I think tying an installed PWA to the store that installed and having that store come up first (or alone) for the ratings is a good idea.

For the original point, I wonder whether developers of organically installed PWAs would be asking for reviews outside of this API. While I agree that asking the user to rate a PWA on the Play Store when they didn't install it from there, may not make sense, I wonder whether the developer will just ask them for that review anyway and we'll then just decrease consistency.

[b1tr0t]

I agree that reviews should be connected to the store the user installed from, doing otherwise would probably be very confusing for the user.

I am increasingly thinking a mechanic like this ought to be bundled, along with a digital goods payment handler, with a proposal similar to this one: https://github.com/PEConn/web-install-explainer/blob/main/explainer.md

I had previously been imagining these Install / Digital Payments / Reviews could be separated, but I think it's the tight integration that creates the best user experience and simplifies matters enough for catalog & app developers to make web catalogs feasible.