Help article
What are the alternatives to placement in the app stores?
To answer a small selection of possible options and questions, we have compiled some questions / answers below. These relate, among other things, to your app no longer being listed in one of the stores or serve as a supplement to our popular blog article The Web is the New App Store - App Marketing 2.0.
Is my app still accessible to users now?
To the extent that users have already downloaded your app, it will still be available on their respective devices. In addition, your app has always been accessible anywhere on the Internet via the traditional Internet address. You can find this in the administration at the top left next to the operator logo from us. This usually ends with to.app or similar. Using this address and the contents of your app, it can also be found in Google, Bing and Co.
However, due to the progressive updates of the smartphone operating system, it can happen that an installation of the listed app is no longer possible for your users. See here the point "What does direct marketing via the Internet now mean for my app?".
My app is still listed in a store, what happens to it?
Depending on the store provider, an exclusion may occur later on. Apple has been automatically removing for some time if there are only a few downloads of the app or if the last content updates were made some time ago. Likewise, this happens with Apple as soon as you order an update through our accesses.
What do I have to do to get listed in the stores again?
Marketing an app of this type via the well-known app stores is proving to be less and less effective and in many cases a barrier to increasing reach.
Therefore, we strongly advise marketing the app as a modern progressive web app. That is, in the form of a meaningful app address.
We have put together a few videos on this:
Wasn't the placement in the stores part of the contract at the time of purchase?
The ordered service includes the provision of the app via the internet. This happens continuously and even without the entries in the stores. The additional placement at Google and Apple (i.e. the work for the first release) was only included in the package at the time. Due to the changed guidelines at Apple and Google, we are no longer allowed to do this through our own accesses. We already had to point out this circumstance in our terms of use and in the order when we released the publication. We are also not aware of any provider who promises the placement contractually, since this can not take a guaranteed influence on the store providers. Therefore, such contractual constellations would not be serious.
What does direct marketing via the Internet mean for my app?
Unfortunately, placement in the stores alone is not enough. Users do not automatically become aware of it. The new type of marketing without a store now runs much more elegantly according to the same principle as that of your website. Here you use your app address and distribute it through the different channels like Facebook as a post, Twitter as a tweet, on your invoice as a printable QR code or with the named address. Likewise, your content will be found in search engines, so most users who type your company name in the search bar on your devices will be taken directly there.
These so-called Progressive Web Apps, as your app is also called, have many other advantages.
Attention! Since recently there is a possibility to give your app address a personal, shorter name, which ends directly with ".app". So e.g. pizzeria-berlin.app or kfz-meier.app. Such addresses ending with ".app" are automatically ranked higher in Google in the medium term and are thus much easier for users to enter and thus quicker to find. This makes you vastly superior to the millions of irrelevant search results in the AppStore search.
Doesn't this type of app marketing have disadvantages or is too complicated for users?
On the contrary, because a sometimes unnecessary download of the app is thus no longer necessary. The app can be used immediately after finding it on Google or entering the address directly. Installation is optional. Even push notifications can now be activated simply when "walking by" without installation, depending on the device. The user has the choice to take only what he wants in terms of information. In the case of traditional downloads from the stores, it has been proven that many users did not even download the app in the first place and were thus lost to you right at the start.
So, as soon as the app appears on the user's device, there is a short notice on how to install it. This is now firmly anchored in many users' minds as an option and is used actively. Thus, do not be irritated by the first appearance.
Google and Apple are constantly working on further simplifying the installation process.
Will I still receive push notifications?
Yes and no. On Android and Apple (iOS) devices, push notifications can be activated and deactivated just as easily. With marketing via the Internet, even PCs and Macs will be able to install your app and become ready to receive push notifications.