As you already know, there have been regular questions and postings that people have mistakenly downloaded Anki’s copycat app.
One of the reasons for this is that there are fewer reviews of AnkiMobile in the Apple Store than there are of the copycat app. If a user who is not familiar with Anki does not know which is the official Anki, they may choose it based on the number of reviews it has.
The Apple Store seems to allow up to 3 review prompts per year. I think AnkiMobile should have more actual users than copycat app, so I thought enhancing AnkiMobile’s reviews would reduce the mistaken identity of newbie Anki users a bit.
However, I am not the app developer, so I don’t know how those actually work. (Maybe I just don’t know and that is already set up.)
Present your users with a request for an App Store review using RequestReviewAction to get feedback on your app. Be aware that the system displays the review prompt to a user a maximum of three times within a 365-day period. You can determine when and where your app displays the prompt to request a review. Consider the best places and conditions in your app to show the request, and when it might be appropriate to delay it. Here are some best practices:
I’ve been reluctant to do this in the past, because as a user, I don’t really enjoy being prompted to review an app, and I tend to prioritize functional changes over things like marketing.
I think the main explanation for the review disparity is the other apps are free to download, so they have a larger number of downloads.
Since Anki is mostly based on volunteer work, I too do not think there is a need for more marketing.
However if the number of Anki users increases, it will increase the number of shared decks, and make it easier to collaborate, so increasing the number of Anki users by app review would be beneficial to the AnkiMobile users, not to official Anki. In short, I expect the effect to be increased volunteers, not increased revenues.
Although I don’t know the actual number of users, I would expect AnkiMobile to have more active users than the other apps, even if they are $0. For example, other learning apps often require users to pay to use the app once they have a few hundred review cards.
Since this is a subscription fee, it is more expensive than the AnkiMobile price in a year. For long term learners, lifetime pricing AnkiMobile is the cheapest (because learning apps are usually subscriptions), plus it has more features and support. So I think the difference in review is that users simply forget about it.
If not, and if free is the reason for the different review, I think it will not be resolved unless AnkiMobile becomes free.
For example, if enough revenue is generated by the additional fees for heavy users mentioned in the Q&A, it might be possible that AnkiMobile could become free.
However, the users who already paid would be dissatisfied, so even if it were possible, it might not be possible.