Anyone have an explanation for the discrepancy in GP client app ratings?

Recently nobody could find an app for micky's thread on how to get the phone
to beep when he's hiking and the phone suddenly loses cellular signal.

Most likely those trying to help were searching with Google Play, which I
also searched but Google Play Store search is horridly flawed, so I went to
the Aurora Store, which searches the exact same repo as does GP (AFAIK).

Once I figured out the right keywords, I found a few apps, this being one:
*Cellular Connection Monitor* by Pavel Borzenkov (free & ad free)
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simple.axanor.simpleconnectivitymonitor>

I installed it even as Aurora showed it has a 0 rating, and then micky
noticed when he installed it from Google Play that it has a 4.0 rating.

Huh?
Looking again, I see now there's a disparity between the ratings that the
Google Play client shows versus what the Aurora Store client shows.
<https://i.postimg.cc/x1Y5Tv6L/lostsignal02.jpg>

Knowing that the Aurora google play client strives to provide better
searches than the Google google play client does, I don't immediately
suspect that to be a bug, but perhaps (maybe?) a different algorithm?

It matters a lot by the way, since my searches are normally for apps that
have a 4+ rating and 100K+ downloads, where the downloads matched between
the Google and Aurora google play client, but not the rating.

Are the ratings client specific?
a. Could it be that the Aurora GP client ratings are from Aurora users?
b. And the Google GP client ratings are from Google users?

Or, could it be that the ratings are reset in the Aurora GP client when the
version number changes?

Anyone have an explanation for the discrepancy in GP client app ratings?

On 2/25/2022 11:40 AM, Andy Burnelli wrote:

> Anyone have an explanation for the discrepancy in GP client app ratings?
>
> Recently nobody could find an app for micky's thread on how to get the phone
> to beep when he's hiking and the phone suddenly loses cellular signal.
>
> Most likely those trying to help were searching with Google Play, which I
> also searched but Google Play Store search is horridly flawed, so I went to
> the Aurora Store, which searches the exact same repo as does GP (AFAIK).
>
> Once I figured out the right keywords, I found a few apps, this being one:
> *Cellular Connection Monitor* by Pavel Borzenkov (free & ad free)
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simple.axanor.simpleconnectivitymonitor>
>
> I installed it even as Aurora showed it has a 0 rating, and then micky
> noticed when he installed it from Google Play that it has a 4.0 rating.
>
> Huh?
> Looking again, I see now there's a disparity between the ratings that the
> Google Play client shows versus what the Aurora Store client shows.
> <https://i.postimg.cc/x1Y5Tv6L/lostsignal02.jpg>
>
> Knowing that the Aurora google play client strives to provide better
> searches than the Google google play client does, I don't immediately
> suspect that to be a bug, but perhaps (maybe?) a different algorithm?
>
> It matters a lot by the way, since my searches are normally for apps that
> have a 4+ rating and 100K+ downloads, where the downloads matched between
> the Google and Aurora google play client, but not the rating.
>
> Are the ratings client specific?
> a. Could it be that the Aurora GP client ratings are from Aurora users?
> b. And the Google GP client ratings are from Google users?
>
> Or, could it be that the ratings are reset in the Aurora GP client when the
> version number changes?
>
> Anyone have an explanation for the discrepancy in GP client app ratings?

Maybe each app counts the score from people who rate it from their app?
--
Ken Hart
kwhart1@frontier.com