[Android Apps and Games] Skyica:
Comparison of the result lists with screenshots

The following information seems to be very important to have in the result list (in addition to name, developer, category, rating, number of downloads, price, icon):

Number of ratings (to evaluate the reliability of the rating, especially in case of few ratings)

In-app purchases

Ads

Last update date

Short description

Scrollable screenshots

The following table compares the tools that have the most of this information.

App Finder paid	App Finder free	Playsearch*	AppAgg	AppBrain	SlideMe
Max. number of results	unlimited	unlimited	250	1000	300	unlimited
Display of result count	yes	yes	-	yes	up to 300	-
Numbering of results	yes	yes	yes	pg	pg	pg
User rating	yes 2d	yes	yes	aa	yes	yes
• global if local is not available	yes	yes	-	-	-	-
• global in addition to local	yes	-	-	-	-	-
• List of all local ratings	yes tp	-	-	-	-	-
Rating distribution	yes	yes	-	-	-	-
Number of ratings	yes	yes	yes h	yes p	-	yes
Number of downloads	yes	-	yes	-	yes	yes
In-app purchases	yes	yes	yes	yes **	-	-
• In-app price range	yes	yes	-	-	-	-
Ads	yes	yes	yes	yes **	-	-
Age rating	yes	yes	-	-	-	-
Date updated	yes	yes	yes	yes	-	yes
Date released	yes	-	-	-	-	-
Size	-	-	-	-	-	-
Required Android	yes	-	yes	-	-	-
Target API	yes	-	-	-	-	-
Permission count	-	-	yes	-	-	-
Short description	yes	yes	yes	yes sh	yes ex	yes
• Keyword highlight	yes	yes	-	-	yes	-
Screenshots	yes	yes	-	one ni	yes	-
• scrollable	yes	yes	-	-	-	-
• scalable	yes	-	-	-	-	-
Feature graphic	yes fl	yes	-	-	yes	-

2d Two decimals for ratings >4.5

fl before the screenshots, after the first 1/2, or after all

pg pages are numbered

* on displays <~1330px, one must scroll sideways to see all information

tp displayed after tapping the rating

aa Rating from AppAgg users, which is only available for very few apps, and then from very few users

h on mouse hover

p "ponts", which is a sum of the rating count on Google Play and "AppAgg points"

** as a little star

sh Very short beginning of the full description (nut summary) that cannot be expected to summarize the app

ex Excerpt of description with keywords highlighted. While this can be very useful, it does not summarize the app

ni if screenshot is shown, icon is not shown

Analysis

Only App Finder shows all the most important data in the result list (and this already in the free version).

Even tools dedicated to app discovery fail to show essential information:

AppAgg does not show the rating from Google Play that is often based on the optionion of thousand or millions of users, but its own rating from 1 or 2 users for the most popular apps. Further, it shows only a very short beginning of the description, only one screenshot, and no icon if the screenshot is shown

AppBrain does not show the number of ratings, does not indicate in-app purchases or ads, and the screenshots are ne scrollable.

Playsearch does not show screenshots, shows the number of ratings only on mouse hover, and on small screens much horizontal scrolling is necessary.

A highly important unique feature of App Finder (also already in the free version) is the display of global ratings for apps without local rating. These are available for about 2.8 times more apps than local ratings in the US, and for about 21 times more apps than local ratings in New Zealand!

Not only is this important for users to find less popular apps, but also for independent developers of high quality apps so that their apps can gain popularity, which is of course in turn again an advantage for users and for the whole Android ecosystem.

12 further unique features:

A high-resolution visualization of the rating distribution (which gives a complete overview of the ratings at once glance, as it also indicates the total number of ratings, the sum of the star areas is proportional to the logarithm of the rating count)

Display of both local and global rating

Lists of all up to 89 local ratings and rating distributions (shown after tapping the rating)

Two decimals for high ratings

Display of the download count with 2 significant digits (rounded very coarsely in nearly all other tools)

In-app price range

Age rating

Release date

Scalable screenshots

Result list customization

Automatic result list adaption to device width and selected screen zoom

Display of the query and filters, result list, and details view besides each other on tablets.

One important information that is missing in App Finder is the app size. Of the other tools, only Aurora Store and Huawei AppGallery show this in the result list. We will implement this as soon as possible.

Screenshots of some important tools

Note the lucid and space-saving layout in App Finder. While it now looks quite obvious, it took a long time to arrive at it.

Play Store

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Aptoide

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Amazon Appstore

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Samsung Galaxy Store

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SlideMe

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F-Droid

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Aurora Store

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Playsearch

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AppBrain app

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AppBrain website

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AppAgg

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App Finder (free)

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App Finder (paid)

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App Finder (paid, on tablet / phone in landscape)

Display of all optional information is enabled. Note that this information can individually be enabled / disabled on both phones and tablets.

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