

Ask HN: Any way to find why users uninstall my app? - dotnick

A couple of years ago I developed an app in a very crowded category (productivity&#x2F;todo&#x2F;reminder apps) and even though I&#x27;ve been getting close to 100 new installs every day, my uninstall rate is close to 80%; the app is growing but very, very slowly.<p>I have added a feedback form to get feedback right from the app and I have been implementing suggestions and fixing bugs reported. The app seems very stable, at least according to Crashlytics. I have also added a rating prompt inspired by Circa and I&#x27;ve seen the rating go from 4.08 to 4.2 which tells me that the people that do use the app, really like it.<p>Do you have any suggestions on ways to understand why the majority of users uninstall the app or possible get some feedback from them before they uninstall? Any services that might be useful?<p>The app: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=com.nick.android.todo
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usrusr
With free/in-app apps, a popular workflow for selecting an app to actually use
is install half a dozen of the offerings, give each a test-ride worth a few
seconds and keep the one that seems to best match personal usage patterns. 20%
retention after the first five minutes might actually be a really good value!

If you do not have a means to tell those short-lived uninstallations from
uninstallations by long-term users, those numbers are about as meaningless as
comparing the number of play store page visits to the number of installations.
Remember when the first online retailers panicked about abandoned virtual
shopping carts?

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jacalata
You should set up analytics in the app which tell you at least whivh pages
they open in the app before uninstalling. Do you even know if they ever open
it? Perhaps they are installing six Todo apps, they like the second one so
they uninstall the others without trying them - or perhaps they look at yours
and it doesn't win.

~~~
dotnick
Good point; I'll have a look at the analytics data and see but I have already
been contacted by users in the past asking questions and suggesting features I
already have because they got mixed up by the other apps they were testing.

~~~
jarofgreen
> because they got mixed up by the other apps they were testing.

How do you know that is the reason? Could it instead be that users aren't
guided well enough to discovering the features your app has?

~~~
dotnick
They told me so :)

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ars
If it were me installing your app, I would uninstall it for lack of enough
features. (I did not actually try your app, maybe I will.)

Some things that appear to be missing (from the google page, I didn't actually
try it):

A way to sleep/snooze a reminder for a specific period of time.

Per-todo item auto-sleep rules. (Sleep, and just stay as a notification? Sleep
and go away? Sleep and alarm again?)

Options for what kind of alert - noisy, quiet, speak the alert, buzz, start
quiet, get louder. (All per todo, not global.)

Does it turn on the screen when there is an alarm? It shouldn't.

A guarantee that no alerts will be "lost" if the device is off when the
reminder should have gone off.

Way, way more flexible options for reminders. You need things like: Remind for
4 days, then sleep for 2 weeks. Or every other week, but only on these days of
the week. There are many patterns.

They way you program that is start with a basic repeat, then you add
exclusions, "not on these, days/weeks/months/dayofweek".

Next you add "don't start until date", and "stop after date".

Then you add unlimited "don't alarm on this date", and "alarm on this date",
where they just add a list of them.

Next you need multiple alarms per todo - the first one is just a notification,
and if I dismiss it the rest of the alarms go away. The next alarm is a short
quiet one. And then a loud one. But the user picks what kind of alarm, and how
much before the event. They can add as many pre-alarms as they like.

I have not found a good reminder program, very very very few have flexible
enough reminders. The best I've found is
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.splunchy.a...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.splunchy.android.reminder)
\- install it just to check out how to do complex alarms, and complex
repetitions. It's a beta though, with bugs, so I'm not suggesting it for use,
just to see examples.

Do you want to make a comprehensive alarm program? Or do you want something
simple? There is a market for both.

------
bluepill
Each time I install an app that says

Offers in-app purchases

I end up uninstalling it quickly (after 1 try), those ads in apps are really
annoying for the user.

It's not the developers fault, but the ad system on either Android or iOS are
really annoying, even if the app has all the features, for me the ads kill it.

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pjc50
It's kind of a crowded category. If users try five different apps and then
pick one, most of the apps will have very high uninstall rates.

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tallanvor
In that field I'd say your problem isn't really about your app, it's just hard
for people to get into the habit of using an app, so a high uninstall app once
people give up should be expected.

One thing that I haven't seen yet (and I haven't tried yours) is a way to add
a task through the notification screen. I don't want a widget on my screen,
and having to flip to the right screen to load the app is enough work that I
just don't do it.

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heroic
Are you asking them to give them their email ids, etc to you? If yes, then why
don't you email users who haven't used the app in a long time, about news
features, etc and also include a feedback link there. You might get some
responses.

Also, try to find the uninstall rates for other todo apps. I personally in a
moment of self realization decide to make todos, but the very next day I get
fed up and uninstall the app, maybe thats common across a lot of users?

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aurizon
App evolution is purely Darwinian. There is no $$ lock-in, so as soon as the
user finds what he feels is a better one, yours is killed off. As to what is a
better one, it might be that it has more functions, less crashing, easier to
use, lower CPU burden, better marketing BS and so on - nothing stands still.
So you have to fine tune your ap to make it evolve faster than the others into
a better thing.

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babo
Do you have a definition for an active user? If so how the active vs. passive
user rate?

Arrange user tests, ask people who are unfamiliar to your product to download
and try. You could learn a ton from that experience watching people using your
baby.

Another option is to record user actions in an anonymised way, upload that
metrics and analyse, compare it to installation where they haven't removed it.

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peterjs
Is there a way to find for how long they use the app before deleting it? Can
you track the activity of the user, e.g. number of tasks added per day? Or, in
other words, are you losing long-term users or the ones that are trying out 5
different todo/reminder apps just to pick the one they like the most?

------
CmonDev
It's not free. Also an app with in-app purchases is not free. I think in a
crowded category at least one app is going to be genuinely free without ads or
freemium.

PS: I believe apps should be paid for.

~~~
dotnick
The app is fully functional without a purchase.

~~~
tired_man
Hmmm... I just took a look at the app. It is not bad. Contrariwise, there's
nothing extraordinary, either.

Looking at the comments, I saw one complaint about the notification alarm,
which is always the phone, not the app, and one asking for a note field.

Seems to me there's a note field now, and the app generates a notification at
the set time - I'm on lollipop and it sounded just like my other notifications
as I expected.

IMHO, the reason is that like myself, people searching for task specific
utility applications install handfuls of them to try them out and see what
features they offer.

Take that behavior into account and go forth!

I like your app. I may not keep it since I don't actually need one, though.
But it's not hurting anything and it can live there until I need space.

Edit: DotNick: It's 9am and my 10am reminder just soudned off....

~~~
dotnick
Any way I can get in touch?

~~~
tired_man
I emailed you

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mw67
try to see how users behave on your app by with usertesting.com or equivalent
service

~~~
dotnick
Thanks, I'll have a look at usertesting.com

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somberi
Please consider that in developing countries, most of the phones (Android,
most of them) have precious little memory, users often have to delete apps, in
order, to say, take an extra photo.

~~~
moftz
Most of the really cheap androids already offer an SD card slot. Plus, the
cheap androids dont have _that_ little bit of memory; this isn't the age of
flip phones and crappy java apps anymore (although I guess android is java).

~~~
toast0
Not all apps install to SD. Not all users have an SD card installed. Updates
to pre installed apps (including google services), take up a lot of room.

