Products · Broad category
App stores
Raised as a usability problem by 23 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2011–2024), in 24 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Good apps can't be found; exact names are neededUnreviewed
20112026- Finding native apps in app stores gives worse results than finding websites2024-02-17
- Can't find good indie games because storefronts are flooded with corporate shovelware2022-11-23
- App store search and suggestions are poor, and wishlists are clunky and frustrating2021-10-20
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 24 complaints
- Subscriptions are impossible to cancel and renew silently, so users get charged without noticing2024-06-13
- Finding native apps in app stores gives worse results than finding websites2024-02-17
- Users will have to manage many app stores to find day-to-day apps2023-03-02
- Hard to find quality apps; reviews mix real feedback with noise2023-02-22
- Can't find good indie games because storefronts are flooded with corporate shovelware2022-11-23
- Must install and manage many separate app stores, logins and update tools to get software2022-07-21
- Search is controlled to maximize profit and cannot filter by ad labeling2022-02-03
- App store search and suggestions are poor, and wishlists are clunky and frustrating2021-10-20
- Good apps can't be found; search and ratings are useless, so exact names are needed2021-08-31
- Old devices are made inconvenient to use because incompatible apps aren't filtered out2021-05-02
- Too many similar-sounding apps to sift through before finding a working one2021-04-11
- Must download a game, then wade through permission and notification screens before playing2020-12-31
- Good mobile games are nearly impossible to find in app stores2020-10-15
- Third-party app stores that aren't preinstalled are crippled and give a bad experience2020-10-04
- Hard to discover games without already knowing their name2019-07-13
- Can't find apps without already knowing their name, so resorts to Google2019-03-13
- Too much low-value junk to sift through when looking for apps2016-10-05
- Installing an app takes many steps, so people skip downloading apps2016-09-18
- Installing an app takes many steps: searching, filtering, downloading, logging in, finding the icon2016-04-23
- Official app hard to pick out among spam lookalikes in search2014-07-28
- Duplicate junk in app store inventories makes them painful to use2014-03-31
- Wastes time figuring out what to look for amid cluttered app listings2014-03-03
- Can't filter out apps that have in-app purchases, so browsing is cluttered with not-actually-free apps2013-07-29
- Buggy, clunky, unintuitive publishing portal with vague stats and local-only reviews2011-11-14