Browsing the store is a nightmare

[GTriderXC]

First: I think it would be great to be able to know what are we installing: is it an app or is it a shortcut/webinterface. There are more and more scopes as well as web interfaces and apps. A few hundred more and there will be a huge mess. So please do something to let us know if the "endomondo" that we see in a store is an app as we have on Android that counts our activity with GPS or is it only an Internet interface that opens us an Endomondo webpage. There are plenty examples like this. Perhaps reorganize the icons into groups or give them some different colour background/a letter/a symbol... whatever that tells us WThell are we're gonna waste our time on.

Second thing... and You may say Android ain't any better. So let Ubuntu be the better system and let Ubuntu make the difference. What I mean now is a description! A short description as we have in Ubuntu Software Center on a PC. You can say there is no place to put a description string. I'll answer there are plenty possibilities of putting a short desription. Example? I wanted to check if I can make any use of a FM radio of my bq under ubuntu. What was I expected to write? FM? Radio? Try it!
ALL IN ALL You can think what I'm writing is not a bug. Yes it is. It is not a store that we nowadays have ladies and gentelmen! It is an app with 500 buttons that say the users nothing! There is something to improve here! Something really importatnt!
Proposition? Let for example a longer touch of the icon displays a short text above/below whatever! But if a user is looking for a... for example radio, he/she may not be given just 142567 search results with... perhaps a FM radio interface, or perhaps an Internet radio. We can not click every of 10-20-30 icons just to check if this "radio" is a plugin, online streamplayer or an analog FM radio.
Word "perhaps" is the bug in Ubuntu shop.

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to report a bug.

For the first issue our design currently does not distinguish between those types,
because there is nothing inherent in the mechanism that means that one is worse
than the other.

The second issue seems to be with the display of search results on the phone,
so I am reassigning the bug to the component responsible for that.

Thanks,

James

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

That's pretty sad with the first issue. It is a bit like making a fool out of people. I installed Endomondo and was expected to get an app that will let me do the same as an Android app. All I got was an Endomondo webpage.
And You know... I'm not the only one:
https://youtu.be/a0oQy7jgH_w?t=10m46s

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." - Abraham Lincoln

So either the filtering has to be improved or all we're gonna have in a few months (though I think it is already happening) will be not different to a terminal command:
apt list

Best regards

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

A screenshot which shows that I was right reporting this bug

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

Another problem which i think i reported already as another bug or wrote about it on the mailing list but are directly related to this nightmare bug: the only language developers can use in the shop is English. If one day it will be possible to translate app descriptions as it was under ubuntu desktop in Ubuntu Software Center, translators will not be able to work! We are creating a huge mess! If Software Store still goes this way, we will have to know what we are looking for, we will not be able to search through key words.
If Ubuntu Touch wants to be one day what Android or Apple is today, we have to start it correctly! Android would never mean on the market what it means today without Google Play Store. Browsing Google Store with key words doesn't work well either but it doesn't mean Ubuntu have to go the same way.

[JJ (j-wood8827)]

I think in the long run these webapps will slowly disappear as they are really no different from a browser bookmark if they offer no functionality. So as UT gains traction and popularity eventually you will have 'pure' apps and scopes as the only types in the store.

I think the description point you make has some merit, not sure how it would be implemented. I imagine the store to be functional and aesthetic also so descriptions may unbalance that?

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

One of my teacher at school used to teach me that we use words to give some information. The next step is a question if the information given at the moment is the one we are looking for? Again, with full respect to all developers, the developer's name is the last thing I wanna see. It is important also for security reasons to know who developed an app but not in the very first view. I understand a description is a pretty complicated thema for a small screen (I have the E4.5 myself) but an icon can not be the only information about... yes and now the question: an app? A web interface? I think the description of the bug tells everything: it is a nighmare. It is quite the same as if we had to apt-get install in a terminal-user have to know what he/she is looking for. Otherwise the only clue about an app is an icon. In case of some icons we get no, weak or mistaken information. And now what make us angry the most: description in a foreign language. It should be not allowed especially for the most important apps as Torch. I bet everyone uses a torch but not everyone is able to read my mother's tongue (Polish). If we already click an app we should be able to read either a translated description or description in English. The icon should tell us something about an app (what most developers do for their own good) but instead of developers name I'd provide some more usefull information as "app", "web app", radio, browser, game (unfortunatelly categories of the search engine don't do the job), etc. just one till three words that would give us a clue. Otherwise we can use apt-get install in a terminal.
I know it is not easy but perhaps there is something that could be done. Today You really need an external guide to find out what Software Store has to offer

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

"description". And now imagine there will be 10 new position in the store every month and we are gonna drawn. Ubuntu Software Center had something like 3000-5000 programs. We're gonna drawn the way it goes today. There should be some rules for everyone who adds a new position to the store.

[Ben (ben-mueller1998)]

I wouldn't have an issue with Canonical working with the people over at uApp Explorer. Sure, it isn't perfect, but integrating uApp Explorer could get us a lot closer to where we want to be with some not too major work it seems.

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

As I wrote it is not only about changing anything, it is more about some rules: clear description, one language etc.
A next example: whatsapp. Two options, identical icons in the store. Which one should I choose? What's gonna happen if next 5 what's app icons appear in a store? I installed both. Now I do not know which one is which so I can't even give a rating to help anyone. Let's make at least some rules for the developers who add a new app to the store.

Today I make perhaps a big deal out of nothing. But in a month someone at Canonical will try again to bring Ubuntu Phone to the market. And then my mother, friend and sister will get an Ubuntu device into his/her hands. I can bet already today that their reaction will be just as mine at the moment.

The only thing today that tells the user which whatsapp/facebook app to choose is rating. If the app has a Polish description and there will be more 5-star rating frmom Polish users, rating is a very unreliable thing. Rating can also be added for an older version of an app. How is it then reliable?

Ubuntu Store is for me some kind of apt-get in a terminal. If You're 100% sure what You want to install, You will succeed. Otherwise the installation will be a road through the darkness. Even apt-get would be better cause I'd be 100% sure that i'm installing the program i really want to install.

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

As I have HUGE problems with a music app (it freezes, crashes- simply doesn't work), I decided to try to reinstall it. I read all the one/two star comments sharing my problems, describing freezing and crashing. The problem now is what I mentioned above. All these negative comments are gonna stay after the next update that perhaps will repair all the problems. My proposition is to reset the opinion counter always whenever a new version is available. I know it is an unacceptable idea but otherwise the rating doesn't make sense at all.

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

I just read some last comments for uRadio - best working app in a shop. This app is great, works perfectly and deserve 5 Stars without a doubt. Most comments are 5 star ratings. Two or three of them are 2-3 star commentars from trolls who suggest that "app doesn't work on M10" or "doesn't work since two weeks" while the app wasn't updated since a few months (I use it on M10 with no problems).
 I'd suggest there should be an admin for ubuntu store, a person who would have a power to delete inproper comments. We see the same on Android. An app get never 5-star rating even if it deserve 5. I suggest any developper should have the ability to report a not honest comment or low rating without a comment explaining low rating. Such a report should be checked through an Ubuntu Store admin/moderator and erased if the rating is unfair or tries to be a bug report.

Rating and description in a shop should be a helpful message to the community which programs are the best choice and their developers shouldn't be punished because of someones technical problems, for example with the Internet connection.