885047 - Users should be able to remove apps from My Apps

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Marketplace Graveyard :: Consumer Pages, defect, P3)

Description

[Matt Basta [:basta]]

If a user uninstalls an app because it's junky or embarrassing, they should be able to remove it from their My Apps page. Currently, all apps on the My Apps page are there permanently and forever.

Comment 2

[Maureen Hanratty]

Ordering the "My Apps" list from newest to oldest app installed should make deleting apps less necessary. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=982854

Comment 3

[Fabricio Campos Zuardi]

Less necessary is still different than not necessary, what's the problem in giving the users the ability to remove stuff they don't want listed from **their** list?

Comment 4

[Fabricio Campos Zuardi]

If the problem is: we don't have resources for implementing this at the moment, or, we have more important issues to track, then ok, just state that in the wontfix comment. (the fact that we want to remove items from our bugzilla plates while denying our users the ability to do the same with their items is a little ironic, but ok)

Marking this bug as wontfix because maybe the reason we are receiving reports is a consequence of the list order and not because this is a valid bug, to me equals saying that no one actually wants to delete apps, and that keeping all the apps you have touched the install button, even if accidentally stored as long as the Firefox Marketplace exists is actually a feature, something desirable and that we should keep it like that by design.

Please consider reopening.

Comment 5

[Maureen Hanratty]

Sorry, I should have better explained my reasoning for closing this bug. There are a few issues why I don't want to add this feature:

• What does "remove app" mean. Should it remove it from your list on all devices? 
• Finality of deleting. What if I change my mind? What if I paid for an app, it was crappy so I removed it and then suddenly there is an update which makes the app amazing? Do I have to pay for the app again?
• It's hard to fit in the UI elegantly. We don't have a swipe to delete pattern on Firefox OS. I mocked up adding a "delete" button/icon on the listing but it is really close to the install button and I am afraid with the Firefox OS hardware there is a high probability that the user will touch the wrong button.

I explored several options for adding this feature and consulted a designer on the Firefox OS team to get his input. I believe that fixing the order of the "My Apps" will greatly reduce requests for deleting apps. I'm also concerned about the finality of deleting. I know this is a user requested feature but it doesn't mean it is the right decision to add it to the product. 

If we continue to get requests for this we can reopen this bug and re-evaluate.

Comment 6

[Maureen Hanratty]

Discussed with Tony Santos and reopening.

Comment 7

[Rob Hudson [:robhudson]]

My hopes are that bug 968458 would help with the "remove" feature.

Comment 8

[David Bialer [:dbialer]]

I went through our app feedback forms and we have quite a few complaints about this issue.  There are 2 issues really:
1. users can't figure out how to 'remove' an app and when they do remove it from the homescreen, the behavior is not as expected as they still see it in "My Apps" when they expect it to be gone.
2. users want to delete junk apps from their My Apps tab.   They tried it, didn't like it, and never want to see it again.  They are done with it.

A possible solutions:
1. Have a distinction between apps on the device "Remove from Device" and deleting apps in their Library or  Cloud or Archive or Backup(whatever it is called).  Removing from a device is different than deleting it. Removing from a device is accomplished from the home screen - where it would be removed but be available in the library.  Deleting can warn the user and ask for a confirm/cancel.  Apps in a library can be re-installed or deleted. 

But to answer the question, we get several complaints or requests for help a month.  I think it is the right decision to give the user the option with fair warning on consequences.

Comment 9

[Maureen Hanratty]

Question: would deleting the app from "My Apps" remove it from the device? If no this would introduce a new problem where the user expects deleting from "My Apps" will remove the app from the device when in reality it will not. 

Assuming we can we know when a user has uninstalled an app from their device I propose that we list the uninstalled apps at the end of the "My Apps" list as "Removed from device." In that sublist we can allow the user to individually delete the apps on the "Removed from device" list and also allow them to batch delete all the apps listed in "Removed from device." Let me know what you guys think.

PROPOSAL:

Marketplace > My Apps
Installed Apps
• App
• App
• App

Removed from this device (delete all)
• App (delete)
• App (delete)
• App (delete)

Comment 10

[Rob Hudson [:robhudson]]

(In reply to Maureen Hanratty from comment #9)
> Question: would deleting the app from "My Apps" remove it from the device?
> If no this would introduce a new problem where the user expects deleting
> from "My Apps" will remove the app from the device when in reality it will
> not. 

No, removing an app from "My Apps" would not remove the app from the device. I checked the docs (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Apps.mgmt) and also don't see a way that we could do this in the future either.

We also have no way of knowing the app was uninstalled from the device. The platform has no "pingback" when an app is uninstalled.

Comment 11

[Tony Santos [:tsmuse]]

I think if we are clear about the massaging on the device "Remove from My Apps" instead of a more generic "Remove" we will avoid the edge case of people expecting to remove an app on the home grid from a list inside the Marketplace. I also don't think this will be a problem outside FFOS, as that's simply not the paradigm for app deletion on Android or Win/OSX/Linux. 

The issue with a "removed" list is that it doesn't solve the problem of having a honkin' (that's a technical term) list of apps to deal with, making the My Apps tab less useful overall. People should be able to remove things from that list. 

The one question I have is around paid apps, and it's mostly a clarification. As I understand it, even if we allow someone to remove an app they've paid for from their My Apps list, we have a receipt so they won't be forced to buy it again if they should decide, for whatever reason, that they want to install it again. I know this is an edge case, but it's a concern that has been voiced. Is my understanding of paid apps correct?

Comment 12

[Rob Hudson [:robhudson]]

Pulling in Andy for comment #11.

Comment 13

[Andy McKay]

(In reply to Tony Santos [:tsmuse] from comment #11)
> The one question I have is around paid apps, and it's mostly a
> clarification. As I understand it, even if we allow someone to remove an app
> they've paid for from their My Apps list, we have a receipt so they won't be
> forced to buy it again if they should decide, for whatever reason, that they
> want to install it again. I know this is an edge case, but it's a concern
> that has been voiced. Is my understanding of paid apps correct?

Correct. As long as the payment records and transactions in addon_purchase etc are not removed, then the user can reinstall the app without buying, because we have their purchase history.

Comment 14

[Tony Santos [:tsmuse]]

Based on our triage session this morning, the agreed upon solution for this case is to add a red "remove from my list" button to each entry in the My Apps list, below the existing Install/Open button that is currently shown. Space ~ 1/2 the height of the button should be added between the two to help avoid accidental removals. A confirmation message of "Are you sure you would like to remove {app name} from your My Apps list?" displayed in the standard Marketplace style for these kinds of messages should be shown on click. This action would simply remove the item from the list we have on the server. See the Marketplace Style Guide for button and error message standards as needed: http://pwalm.github.io/marketplace-style-guides/index.html

Comment 15

[Mathieu Pillard [:mat]]

I started working on it, and have a working implementation locally.

But I ran into an interesting problem : it allows users to remove from "my apps" apps that are still installed on the OS. If they do that, the app will never show up in that list again, but still be installed, and the only way for them to add it back to "my apps" is to uninstall the app (*) and then install it again.

I could check that the app is not currently installed and only show the button to remove from the list in that particular case. Or we could decide that issue is not relevant and always show the button. Thoughts ?


(*) And uninstalling can *not* be done from Marketplace, it has to be done using the OS uninstall system, on all platforms.

Comment 16

[David Bialer [:dbialer]]

I think this problem is a problem.  I think this is OK for now, but not the behavior I would expect and don't think it would quite right.

From what I've seen, the expectation is that removing an app means remove from my device, as opposed to delete from My Apps list.  However there is a strong use case for "delete this app because I never want to see it again", which would mean both remove from my device and delete it from my apps list.

Unfortunately there is no window.navigator.mozApps.remove call.  It would be great if we can have to options "remove from my device" and "delete this app from my library" (which could also be installed your other devices).

Do we need an app remove API where installs_allowed_from could also mean removes_allowed_from in the manifest?    Should we request this API from platform?

Comment 17

[Rob Hudson [:robhudson]]

What if the "My Apps" list is simply the list of apps returned by `getInstalled`? If you remove an app from your device it will not show up on this list any longer.

The downside is you won't see apps you've installed on other devices.

Do we need a "My Apps" page? The only reason I use this on android is to check for updates. But we're not showing updates on this page for FxOS. I'm curious what the use-case is for this page?

Comment 18

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

imo, we should separate/differentiate installed on this device now v.s. installed at some point on some device.  Either by showing them at the top of the list or indicating in list somehow. 

So removing an app from the list while having it installed doesn't fully remove from the page, because it would still be in the 'installed' section.  I guess we'd have to warn the user if they remove an app from the list it won't uninstall it.

Comment 19

[Mathieu Pillard [:mat]]

Maybe we could even have separate pages ? One listing apps installed on the current device (*) and one listing across all devices ? And only showing the remove button in the second one ?

Setting productwanted before proceeding any further ; we need to answer this question and the ones in comment 17 and comment 18 as it's really not clear what's the best thing to do here.