Abstract
Mobile applications (apps) on IOS and Android devices are mostly maintained and updated via Apple Appstore and Google Play, respectively, where the users are allowed to provide reviews regarding their satisfaction towards particular apps. Despite the importance of user reviews towards mobile app maintenance and evolution, it is time-consuming and ineffective to dissect each individual negative review. In addition, due to the different app update strategies, it is uncertain that each update can be accepted well by the users. This study aims to provide an approach to detect the particular days during the mobile app maintenance phase when the negative reviews require developers’ attention. Furthermore, the method shall facilitate the mapping of the identified abnormal days towards the updates that result in such negativity in reviews. The method’s purpose is to enable app developers to respond swiftly to significant flaws reflected by user reviews in order to prevent user churns.
Highlights
Contemporary mobile applications play an increasingly important role in people’s daily lives, which are directly influenced by the apps’ quality
We apply the previously presented method, that is, identifying abnormal days based on the distribution of negative sentiment changes and matching such abnormality to a particular update, on each review dataset of the given five mobile applications
We find that the best fitting distribution model is the exponential power distribution (EPD), with a p value of 0.968
Summary
Contemporary mobile applications (apps) play an increasingly important role in people’s daily lives, which are directly influenced by the apps’ quality. Via the dynamic way of distribution supported by the platforms e.g., Apple Appstore and Google Play, the release periods of mobile apps are largely shortened compared to those of traditional software products [1]. Due to the fiercely competitive mobile app market, the developers are obliged to constantly update their app products by fixing bugs, improving interfaces, adapting to system updates, and providing new features, in order to maintain the quality of the apps and to increase user retention and satisfaction [1,2]. There are various ways of getting access to users’ feedback for a particular app. Besides the dedicated in-app user feedback collecting tools, the online app stores contain a mechanism to allow users to provide text reviews and rating scores, which enhances their importance as a stakeholder [3]
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