I asked a relative to look for RealVNC on the Play Store and install it. Once they were done, I asked them to fulfill a basic task inside RealVNC and they were really confused by my instructions. I took a look at their phone, lo and behold, they had installed a different app. I asked them to repeat the install procedure while I watched. They punched in “realvnc” in the search box, two identically formatted results appeared. Their finger instinctively clicked the Install button on the top result. It was an ad. 🤦♂️🤦♀️🤦
This seems like a case of user error, considering the sponsored result is clearly not the application you asked them to install. However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer which is why I primarily use the Aurora Store even on non-deGoogled phones. Performing the same search in Aurora, that Zoho Assist app is not even in the first 20 results while RealVNC Viewer and RealVNC Server are the top two results.
Of course it’s user error. However a system makes it easier or harder to achieve a task or make errors. You say it’s clearly not the app that was asked for. I see two equally sized icons of nearly identical color, two equally sized Install buttons if the same color. The first one being the wrong one. And this is after looking for an exact app name. I think we don’t need a focus group to show this drives clicks away from the searched app and to the ad. In fact we can be reasonably sure Google’s research drove the decision to create this UX. In a slightly saner timeline I’d have expected the ad to not have an Install button on it or at the very least to not use the prominent button color. 😒 BTW I didn’t downvote.
Of course, as I said - the Play Store is trash and anti-consumer. However, that does not change the fact that the sponsored application is clearly not called “RealVNC”, nor does it have a logo which says or suggests it is RealVNC. If you are getting tricked by the colour of an application logo then you have problems closer to home you should be worrying about.
No, fuck that. The ads being listed before rhe first result are intended to cause people to misclick. That isn’t all on the user.
Don’t excuse predatory business practices.
Are you illiterate? My very next sentence was:
However, the Play Store is undoubtedly trash and anti-consumer which is why I primarily use the Aurora Store even on non-deGoogled phones.
If the practices are predatory, blaming the user is excusing the predatory practices. Bragging about how you use something else in that context is doubling down on blaming the user instead of the practices.
So no, I am not illiterate. You ahould have just left off the sentence blaming the victim.
A few months ago I needed to install Google home for something Chromecast related, so I quickly searched the play store and installed it. Loaded it up and I see an ad, what the hell. App opens and I realise it isn’t Google Home, it’s something made to trick me into thinking it was when I wasn’t paying attention.
Google is letting their ads steal their own users from them.
Now squint just a bit. That’s how everyone without perfect vision sees it, and that’s a huge proportion of people.
Also, this is how other results appear:
No Install buttons.
E: Not sure why this image doesn’t show but in any case, app results in lists don’t have Install buttons. Hm apparently it only doesn’t show on mobile.
Removing the Install button from the ad would eliminate this issue in most cases. There, I fixed stupid. I’ve done UX btw, some of it on Android.
As someone who’s seeing this Play Store search result page for the first time, I also find it massively confusing.
Frankly, it looks like just the description page of RealVNC with an info box for “Zoho Assist” at the top (which might be the team that develops RealVNC?), and for some reason there’s also two install-buttons.
You don’t have a chance to realize that it’s a list of search results, because there’s practically no repeating UI elements.
Aside from the sponsored app at the top (which I also don’t find clearly labeled; that “Sponsored” could just be a generic heading above everything), I don’t even assume malicious intent from Google here.
Presumably, they made the RealVNC entry big, because they don’t want you falling for scam apps. But it is absolutely not helpful in this case.
Not to say that your relative is at fault, but this might also be a good opportunity to teach them about the font scaling and other visual accessibility settings in Android.
Must have something to do with the setting on my phone, I have seen what you are showing before
They recently changed it so that the search bar no longer appears by default, and you have to go to the search tab just to get to it. Fuck heads.
