Comment by I_dream_of_Geni 7 days ago
You write that "reporting bugs is usually a terrible experience". I find bugs ALL THE TIME, and yet, when I even try to find a way to contact ANYONE, let alone a developer, they leave no door open at all. No method, no form, no contact name, no nothing. I (along with many, I presume), actually want those companies to excel. I WANT to let them know what to fix. But, they just don't want to hear about it. Really sad I think.
Wait... Isn't that what AI is for? To do that for "free" and removing the time an actual person has to spend on it? Separating the spam and duplicates, etc?
I develop for iOS and Android. All my apps have a Send Feedback button which opens an email in the user's default email client with my address in the To field, pre-filled subject line and some diagnostic info in the body (things like version number, device type, iOS version etc). I get all my bug reports and feedback that way and respond to them via a reply email when I have released the update to fix it.
In my experience it's because the companies have not hired any persons whose job is to triage bug reports. People do find bugs all the time, and making it super frictionless to report bugs will result in a deluge of reports. Some reports will be outright spam, some could be mistaking a feature for a bug, some could be duplicates. Someone needs to do the triage and try to reproduce before the issue is forwarded to developers. Few companies have the role of Quality Test Engineer (QTE) to do this job; most don't so they have no means to triage the bug reports.
The only exception is indie apps I pay for on the App Store. There is usually only one or perhaps two people behind it, so by definition that person is SWE, QTE, PM and several jobs rolled into one. And this is unsustainable unless the app is paid.