Apps Interview with Air Push

[dfreeman]

Hi Guys,

We just had the opportunity to interview the boys over at Air Push, you might notice from all the adsense ads recently they are growing huge and we're pleased to be able to get some inside info on the product and how developers can make more money.

Check it out : air push interview

 

[TheCompBoy]

Realy intresting.. I like this!

 

[alostpacket]

The real question is: How do users react?

Pushing an ad to a functionally sacred area such as the notifications drop down is audacious to put it kindly. And it's hardly less intrusive than an in-app ad.

I'd imagine if a user figured out an app had starting putting ads in his drop down he'd not only rate it badly, but possibly mark it as malicious (from his perspective).

If this catches on we're going to need a new "show notifications" permission.

 

[airpush]

Hi alostpacket, with all due respect -- in-app ads earn abysmal CPM's of sub $.50, which has made it virtually impossible for developers to sustain an ad-supported business model. Something's got to give -- either less free apps, or more novel ad units such as Airpush which give real CPM's to developers.

The status quo of tiny in-app ad units is simply unacceptable and unsustainable from the developer's perspective. Do you disagree? Developers have been turning to more aggressive in-app ad units like full-page interstitials and offer walls. We think that's the wrong direction...

 

[mjschmidt]

I am not a developer, I am an end user and I am here to tell AirPush, and Developers, that if I download an app that serves ads via AirPush, I will 1. Uninstall the app. 2. Give it a bad review. 3. Flag it as Malware, and 4. NEVER buy that app or install apps from that developer again.

To be clear I COMPLETELY support the right of devs to make money either by selling their apps, or by having ads IN the app.

I have many free apps with ads in the app, which doesn't bother me. I have also purchased apps, some of them after trying the free version.

The thing you devs don't seem to consider is that your app might not bug people... "Hey, it's just one ad in your notification tray", but if many devs start doing this, the tray will be full of ads!

NO WAY.

You can see what happened to APNDroid, it can happen to you too.

APNdroid is suspended on the Android Market - Martin Adamek

AirPush Sends Ads to Your Notification Pane (And Why I Think It’s Horrible)

Airpush happy to support developers who deceive their users (xpost from /r/technology) : Android

I, as a developer, HATE the idea of AirPush. Lets make a list of apps that use it. : Android

 

[andyglasser]

Here's the thing. I don't like airpush. Disclosing which app uses it isn't only right, but it is also in the interest of the applications developers. Because I want to get rid of air push, and I would do that one of two ways 1) Uninstall the app that uses it, or 2) pay for the version without adds.

But if I don't know which app does it how can I exercise those options. I'm not mad, but its not worth it to me to have a free app that is buzzing my phone all the time to find me singles in my area. If I like the app enough, I'll just have to pay for it. But I don't want to upgrade all of my apps hoping I luck onto the right one.

Is there anywhere yet where we have a list of apps that use it?

 

[AndroidSPCS]

From another user:

Just found AirPush Detector by Dan Bjorge for free on the market. Not connected to AirPush and it showed me the app that's using it--totally not the one I was thinking it would be!

I would boycott any developer who uses AirPush ads. This is completely unacceptable to me.

 

[mrtomcat]

There is a Do Not Call list, Airpush is posting to our Phones, which is against the law last I checked if you're on that list. I have been getting these damn spam messages in the middle of the night for the past few weeks and today I finally found out it's from Airpush who forcces you to install there app in order to "opt out" I never opted in, as a matter of fact I need to refer you back to the Do Not Call List. If a developer wants to make more money with their app they are free to charge more for their app...THERE IS NO ONE IN THE WORLD PREVENTING THEM FROM THAT. Btw I am a developer and I would never do that to my customers or potential customers. Especially the intrusiveness by triggering an alert on the phone in the middle of the night. If I catch any app responsible using airpush or a company like them they get immediately removed. On top of this I had regular apps stop functioning ever time after I receive one of these spam message so that instead of going to the app it's opening up a browser to go to the ad....that is the very definition of a virus and needs to stop. SHAME ON GOOGLE AND SHAME ON VERIZON for allowing this. This is reason enough to drop the android platform alltogether if this continues.

 

[mrtomcat]

addendum, I just installed the airpush detector and the app that stopped working is the app using airpush....kinda funny that the spammer caused his own app to fail with his spam... Anyway app removed, developer banned for life...sadly I really liked that app a lot but I rather live without it then supporting spammers

 

[alostpacket]

There is a Do Not Call list, Airpush is posting to our Phones, which is against the law last I checked if you're on that list. I have been getting these damn spam messages in the middle of the night for the past few weeks and today I finally found out it's from Airpush who forcces you to install there app in order to "opt out" I never opted in, as a matter of fact I need to refer you back to the Do Not Call List. If a developer wants to make more money with their app they are free to charge more for their app...THERE IS NO ONE IN THE WORLD PREVENTING THEM FROM THAT. Btw I am a developer and I would never do that to my customers or potential customers. Especially the intrusiveness by triggering an alert on the phone in the middle of the night. If I catch any app responsible using airpush or a company like them they get immediately removed. On top of this I had regular apps stop functioning ever time after I receive one of these spam message so that instead of going to the app it's opening up a browser to go to the ad....that is the very definition of a virus and needs to stop. SHAME ON GOOGLE AND SHAME ON VERIZON for allowing this. This is reason enough to drop the android platform alltogether if this continues.

"Do not call only" applies to Landlines. When Do Not Call was made into law it was already illegal to call cell phones with advertising messages (and still is).

This doesnt include advertising/data/smartphones however. Just voice calls and SMS (I think).

Also, welcome to AF

 

[mikedt]

Seems they are trying to push their product now...

...just seen this in my Google.cn music player.

 

[cleareyes]

We are coming out with a new game (Memory Master) in the next few weeks and we were considering using AirPush to support the game but after thinking about it this is a bad idea. Not from a developers perspective, in that case it's a great idea because you can actually make some money but at what cost to the end user? From a users perspective this is an awful idea.

Let's ignore for a moment the fact that this is a breach of the trust that the end user gives you as a developer. Not everyone has free data and can afford ads being pushed to their devices every x hours/days or whatever the case may be.

I agree that developers need to earn a living too but it should be from creating innovation, fun etc. Not from annoying people; I understand that opt out code is required but this still comes far to close to being spam for my liking.

 

[mattuhh]

I just had to install an airpush detector program from the market onto my gf's sgs2 to find out which app was sending her these adverts. I had never heard of Airpush before and she was really worried because she thought she had a virus on her phone.
airpush is a very sneaky and horrible way to advertise as no user seems to be told when it will be installed with an app.
it may seem like a good way to advertise for programmers in the short term but as more users are made aware of what's happening I think it will go downhill fast.

 

[karandpr]

This is a total Lose-Lose situation for developers according to me.
If they opt for Air push ,they get higher revenue rate but public apathy comes along .Their apps will be marked malware and be rated less and soon another dev will adopt his idea and earn the support
If he starts a paid version of the app ,the people annoyed by the free/trial version wont pay and probably leave a string of bad reviews.
If he doesnt go for air push ,his revenue rate will be low and he may feel that the compensation is not enough for his work .

On top of that "I will certainly pay for your hard work but keep it ad free " people are few .

80 p.c. are "Oh ,the app has a paid version ,lets download it from 4shared for free ".

giving rise to security vulnerabilities themselves for which they were against air push .Of course they will blame the original developer if something does happen .
Eventually a developer may just give up in frustration .Too much cynical I guess

 

[jonbonazza]

As a developer, user, and a business owner, here is my 2 cents:
Frome a developer's stand point: Airpush is not wrong in their intentions. CPMs for traditional ad systems are not very good. With the advent of the many apps that disable adds entirely (without the dev's permission), things get even worse. While many high profile apps and games, such as Angry Birds, will thrive with traditional means, lower profile apps/games, or "indie" apps/games as I like to call them, are S.O.L. We do need a new method of ad dispatching.

Frome an End User's Stand Point: Many users, including myself, find AirPush intrusive, or even malicious. With that said, it is not appropriate to assume that everyone shares this opinion. It is more probable that there are users out there who simply do not care. A few, more tech savy users classifying the technology as malicious on behalf of an entire user base is simply wrong.

Conclusion:
The idea of a new ad dispatching system is not farfetched. In fact, it IS something that is needed. While, personally, I don't believe AirPush is the one-size-fits-all answer, neither do I believe there ever WILL be a one-size-fits-all answer. The more systems we have, the better, as everyone will have their own opinions on what system(s) is best. As tech advocates in the android community, we should not criticize someone for trying to innovate, nor should we assume that just because some of us don't like the idea, there more likely than not are users out there who are perfectly fine with the technology.

Furthermore, I think many more developers need to take a page from AirPush's book and look into different methods of in-app advertising. In such a new market, innovation is key. This is something Google realized and was likely one of the reaons for their open source decisions. We have the power, as developers, to create the standards that will be used for in-app ads and provide better ad placements to end users. With all of that said, I also believe that every add system should have an opt-in procedure. The problem with the opt-in idea is that it would be possible for users to have no adds and completely defeat the purpose of ad-supported, free apps. The solution to this is the creation of many different ad-systems and have the user selected at least one.

 

[alostpacket]

Alrighty, I've had my fill of this thread. It has become unproductive and as such I am going to lock it.


Please feel free to PM me if you feel it should be re-opened, my door is always, re-opened

Cheers,
-alp