Feature-based evaluation of competing apps

Abstract

App marketplaces, i.e. Google Play Store and Apple AppStore,comprise many competing apps offering a fair set of similar features. Users of competing apps can submit feedback in the form of ratings and textual comments. The feedback is useful for app developers to get a better understanding of where their app stands in the competition. However, app ratings don’t provide concrete information regarding users’ perceptions about an app’s features compared to similar apps. Studies have shown that users express sentiments on app features in app reviews. Therefore, user reviews are a valuable information source to compare competing apps based on users' sentiments regarding features. So far, researchers have analyzed app reviews to summarize the users’ sentiments on app features but the existing approaches have not been used for the comparison of competing apps. In this direction, we analyze app reviews of 25 apps to extract app features, determine competing apps based on feature commonality, and then compare competing apps based on users’ sentiments regarding features. We developed a tool prototype that helps app developers in identifying features which have been perceived negatively by its users. The tool prototype is also useful to find a set of features loved by users in other similar apps but missing in one’s app. We demonstrate the usefulness of the tool prototype and give pointers to future work.