[Zubersoft]

I normally try not to ask too much of MobileSheets users, but I'm hoping some of you might be willing to help me out with something. MobileSheetsFree on the Google Play store has a pretty bad overall rating at the moment, mostly because the only people that leave reviews are people that encountered problems or didn't like the app for some reason. Some of the reviews are gibberish. Satisfied users usually switch to MobileSheetsPro and then leave a positive review (which I'm extremely grateful for). I'm worried that some potential users may see the poor reviews of MobileSheetsFree and decide not to try it out (especially if they don't see the positive reviews for the paid version). If any of you have some free time and would be willing to help leave a positive review of MobileSheetsFree (assuming you are happy with the product), I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Mike

[GraemeJ]

I'm wondering if it might be more beneficial to your business to drop the free version altogether and replace it with a time limited full version?  That way, potential customers will be able to exactly what they will get for their money.

[jagny42]

I normally try not to ask too much of MobileSheets users, but I'm hoping some of you might be willing to help me out with something. MobileSheetsFree on the Google Play store has a pretty bad overall rating at the moment, mostly because the only people that leave reviews are people that encountered problems or didn't like the app for some reason. Some of the reviews are gibberish. Satisfied users usually switch to MobileSheetsPro and then leave a positive review (which I'm extremely grateful for). I'm worried that some potential users may see the poor reviews of MobileSheetsFree and decide not to try it out (especially if they don't see the positive reviews for the paid version). If any of you have some free time and would be willing to help leave a positive review of MobileSheetsFree (assuming you are happy with the product), I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Mike

MobilesheetsPro is the greatest.  Over a period of time I've convinced 7 others in our 9 person group to utilize MS (the only holdout being an Apple person).  I tried to leave a review on the Free app but it looks like you have to install it to do that.

[Zubersoft]

The problem is that most of the licensing solutions (Google, Amazon, Galaxy App Store) don't support a concept of a trial. You are either a paid customer or you are not. So I would have to implement a lot of logic to determine how long it has been since the user downloaded the app to see if they need to buy it. The problem with this model is the user could just uninstall and reinstall, and I would have no way of stopping them from using all of the functionality without paying. So I'm just trying to protect myself. Additionally, if I had the kind of users of the free version leaving reviews for the paid version, that would just hurt the ratings on that version. At least this way it kind of filters out the people that really don't seem to have any intention of using the app anyways.

Mike

[Geoff Bacon]

Could you put some sort of message on the free version page download page saying that the reviews on the paid version are more applicable?

Could the free version display something along the lines that although it is a full version, the restricted number of songs means that users may not fully realise the capabilities of the full version and that they should take this into mind when leaving reviews?

A more than satisfied customer.

Geoff

[Skip]

It may ease your mind if you could track purchases generated by the use of the free version.

Some brainstorming;
You could remove the backup capability [Warning in caps, 'CANNOT BACK UP FREE VERSION'] or put some kind of token [removed when purchase made] in it to track usage. Keep the song number limit.  
A popup at the initial loading reiterating the restriction[s]?
A quick start guide pop up when first loaded and, maybe, a link to the forum in [free/paid] apps might help [in the help folder]?

You would still get complaints though, trolls, fanboys, newbies, non-readers, and some authentically dis-satisfied folks.

Maybe you should put 'THIS IS NOT A PLAYER' in the description.

[BRX]

Maybe you should label it not MS "Free" but MS "Test".

People expect a free sheets viewer and probably are disappointed with the limitations. 

If you label it as a test version and write explicitely that there are restrictions and it should only give an impression of the
capabilities for the PRO version (and encourage to read the reviews there) maybe it would work better?

[Geoff Bacon]

And if you renamed it and stopped using the current name, you could perhaps distance it from the existing reviews


Geoff

[Skip]

Android version
MobileSheets Music Reader? Then hammer on the fact it's a full featured evaluation version with restrictions. In CAPS and/or bright colors. The app itself should re-state it's status as a full featured evaluation version of a sheet music reader/manager, maybe each time it's opened. Anything done will draw negative comments from someone of course.

Windows version has a trial period which I didn't use.

[Zubersoft]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll have to spend some time thinking about all this to figure out what I want to do to reduce the negative feedback. I think changing the name to something like "MobileSheetsTrial" or "MobileSheetsTest" might be a good first step. I don't want to limit too much functionality beyond the 8 song limit. Users need a way to be able to back up their library and quickly transfer it to the paid version (one of the negatives of having two separate versions).  I think based on reading some of the reviews, there will always be some unhappy people.

Thanks,
Mike

[sciurius]

There will always be unhappy people, mostly people that do not even try to sort things out. For this reason, I prominently emphasised the forums support in my review.

[jeffn1]

Done!

[AndyL]

Many apps seem to be moving to in-app purchases to unlock extra features. Maybe you could do something like limit the number of songs in the database to something like 20. Then have an in-app purchase to unlock this and allow unlimited songs.

Regards

Andy

[sciurius]

Why do you think in-app purchases will attract more users than the current trial/pro method?

Personally, I strongly dislike this "in-app purchases" trend. With a trial (test, lite, ...) version there is a clear situation: the trial is gratis but limited in (...enumerate...). For a couple of $$ everything is unlimited.

When an app shows "in-app purchases" it is often unclear. What is limited? What not? Is there just a single unlock purchase or are there several? What do they cost? Of course this could (no, should) all be documented but usually it isn't.

And I have one app that requires internet connection every time it is started, to validate the purchases I paid for. It's a pain.

[lionking]

From AquaMail i know, that they have a free App.
If you want all functions, you need to buy an extra App.
This extra App is nothing like the license for the main App.
Maybe this is a way how you could solve this problem?

Edit: Added a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review at the PlayStore.