Some of the less observant amongst you may be asking why we’re reviewing an app that rates people’s properties. I’m sure there’s an app for that, but this one ain’t it (sorry). This one is called Ratepop. So, it’s about rating your dad, then? No, not that either. Rate how well you burst balloons? Well…close. Actually, no. Not close at all. Let me explain–it’ll be quicker than guessing.
Here’s the elevator pitch: Ratepop is an app (available on iOS first, and now on on Android too) that lets you rate just about anything and everything, just as long as it’s an image (no porn though, unless it’s food- or car-related). It’s in the same vein as a Facebook like or a Twitter heart but with a numeric value between 1 to 10 attached. Because it sees anything lower than 5 as “negative”, it probably helps to think of it as a score between -5 and 5.
The Android version, which I’m reviewing here, is free. In the Android ecosystem, free usually means “ad-supported” with some sort of flashing ad graphic at the bottom of the app, or random breakouts to affiliated sites. It’s refreshing to see that Ratepop doesn’t have any of that. It also doesn’t require an emigrant boatload of permissions like other socially connected apps; Ratepop merely requires access to the gallery. A note however that their privacy policy allows them to share your data with affiliates, and there’s this:
You grant us a transferable, sub licensable, worldwide license to use any media you upload.
So be wary of uploading your beautifully filtered Instagram photos or tasteful …clothing-optional art, unless you’re OK with the company possibly selling your work on and profiting from it.
Right, with the pre-amble out the way, let’s get stuck in. After you’re welcomed by the app, you need to create an account, accept the terms, and create a profile. It’s here where you can choose from a set of 12 preset interests, such as beauty, big business, games, sports, world news, lifestyle to mention a few. Your choices doesn’t seem to matter because when the app launches into its main tab, you see the complete list of interests anyway, without any priorities applied to the ones you picked.
The Discover tab.
Here’s a quick tour: you land on the Discover tab that is populated with ratings of things created by other users of the app. The Discover tab also lets you browse through the userbase and follow certain people. Should you feel inclined, you can follow me: @Qwerty123.
Next is the News tab, which is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not news as classically defined the dictionary, but a list of the things that the users you’ve followed have rated. The Notifications tab lets you know who’s followed you, and the Profile tab lets you edit your details. Simple enough.
With the Create tab, you can add ratings of your own. Because this is a picture-based app, you can either take a photo of whatever it is you want rated, select a suitably tasteful image from your phone’s gallery, or search for the relevant image on the Internet. Once you have selected an image, add a title and a description and click Post. Once again, the learning curve is not steep.
ISIS. Boo.
Onto the meat and bones now. When you find something you want to rate, you simply use a slider at the bottom of the app to register your rating. You’ll see here that ISIS/ISIL are currently rated at 0, and I’m sure if the app had a way of pushing the score lower, it’d be somewhere in the region of negative eight and negative ten trillion and fifty three. They’re not very popular among Ratepop users. Or anyone with half a brain, but that’s not what we’re reviewing here. Ratepop also lets you know what ratings the people you follow gave it, see a list of everyone who rated it and what their scores were, and it includes a Sentiment meter, which is a really fancy term for a graph showing the percentage of likes versus dislikes.
And that’s about it, really. At one point during my time with the app, I was reminded of Drew Carey’s game show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” where he starts the show by saying that the points don’t matter, like the sports in the Sports Illustrated Swimwear Edition. Or like common sense in politics.
For the Ratepop end user, I can’t see how the ratings provide you with much actionable info, and that’s really my issue with the app. What *need* (or perceived want) is this app really addressing? When I got my first Android phone in 2010, I downloaded apps with gay abandon, I was voracious for content. The older I’ve gotten, my focus has turned towards the utilitarian. These days, I need my Gmail app, I need a calendar, I need a GTD app, a currency converter, and a remote control for my media player. They serve a purpose in my life. I am struggling to find a need for Ratepop. Which then got me thinking about my age. I’m not saying I am old but let’s just say that I have a thorough understanding of how to use Windows 3.1, and I often used a ballpoint pen to rewind my audio cassettes (oh god, I *am* OLD). Perhaps I am not Ratepop’s intended audience. Maybe it’s for the millennials whose attention is divided into so many fractured pieces that merely rating a picture is seen as enough of an opinion.
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the workings of this app. Sure, it doesn’t use Google’s material design so the presentation is not as clean and refined as I would have liked, but that’s neither here nor there. Apps on the Google Playstore are rated out of 5, and I’d give Ratepopp a 3. To all intents, constructions, and purposes, the app looks fine and does what it says on the tin. I can’t find a use for it but you young people just might.
Disclaimer: Even though this is a promoted post for Webfluential, the opinions expressed in this post are mine. I have not been asked to endorse this product, merely to use the app and document my experiences.
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