In a report from Business Insider, Jonathan Kay, chief operating officer of app analytics firm Apptopia goes into several of the ways that app developers use to get people hooked on using them. The article is incredibly detailed, going from Instagram's push notifications, to Twitter using the spinning wheel for loading in the same way as used in slot machines.
Fascinating stuff for sure. We have seen for years how companies use subliminal messages in ads and the like, so seeing how it's implimented in apps is new territory. I'm also happy to say I have exactly zero of the apps mentioned in the article on any of my devices, dirty sneaky devs can't trick me.
For another, app makers are using deliberate techniques to attract your attention. They aren't simply relying on you to come to them whenever you have downtime. "I think people want to be sucked in," Kay said. "Then it becomes a game of who can be more clever at grabbing that attention."
Fascinating stuff for sure. We have seen for years how companies use subliminal messages in ads and the like, so seeing how it's implimented in apps is new territory. I'm also happy to say I have exactly zero of the apps mentioned in the article on any of my devices, dirty sneaky devs can't trick me.
For another, app makers are using deliberate techniques to attract your attention. They aren't simply relying on you to come to them whenever you have downtime. "I think people want to be sucked in," Kay said. "Then it becomes a game of who can be more clever at grabbing that attention."