Matomo mobile app - only ask for rating on Google Play when the app is available

[enual]

Customer installed the mobile app from our website, however he received a prompt to rate the app from Google.

[Stan-vw]

Keen to better understand the exact request here. Simply detecting the install source doesn't change the user experience.

Is the request to specifically NOT ask for a rating in the Google app store when the app has been installed from our website, or is there further requirements?

[sgiehl]

This has actually nothing to do with Matomo itself, so I'll move this issue to the mobile app repo.

[Ryuno-Ki]

Hey @enual,

thanks for opening this issue. I'm the customer in question 👋

I'm using a Matomo instance on-premise and installed the app via the Matomo homepage, because I don't want to run Google services on my Fairphone with Android if I can avoid it.

I assume I'm in a minority here so I understood that the prompt to rate the app on Google Play Store can be safely ignored. They are a gatekeeper and I don't like it. However, Matomo isn't on F-Droid or other app stores either.

I reached out to the Matomo Mobile team via the address they provided and asked whether I could do something else to raise awareness on the solution.

So in my understanding you could derive two requirements:

• Don't prompt to rate the app on Google Play Store if not installed from there
• Optionally suggest other means to spread the word (blog? community engagement? meetups? Hashtag on Mastodon?)

[atom-box]

(There was an unsuccessful initiative to distribute Matomo Mobile 2 on F Droid in 2014 and it was decided unfeasible at that time based on how the code is built and its dependencies. That issue is open. Please follow and add updates to that issue at #5274)

[tsteur]

Thanks for this @Ryuno-Ki . I've updated the title and understood the issue. Possibly we can detect if the app store is available or not (need to check available APIs) and can adjust the app accordingly.

There should be the canOpenUrl method which we maybe need to check in https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo-mobile-2/blob/master/app/lib/Piwik/App/Rating.js#L238 before opening the URL