Unfortunately, seems that Alcatel (or TCL, to be more correct, as they're the ones using the Alcatel brand for mobiles) has crossed another line with its new approach in their Android apps. After replacing the default apps sold with their phones with adware-filled "alternatives", after adding those applications into a security update to force them onto the users, after adding a series of fake five star reviews... now comes the time for the forced five star ratings.

In their , Alcatel now forces the users to . Sometimes, I wonder if they simply try to come up with new ways to break their customers' trust just for the fun of it.

Updates

There are a few updates I'd like to make to the original post, based on some things that changed and comments on the thread.

• Regarding the comments that this is not an Alcatel application: this was the application that, up until it was removed, was replacing the stock calculator application in Alcatel phones when updating it (that's how I ran into it, as I have an Alcatel idol 4, and other Alcatel users already commented the same in the thread). Replacing the stock apps with these shady versions is something that Alcatel has been doing for a few months: , ). Unfortunately, this is really tied to Alcatel, even though there's a gmail email account as a support link - which also happens in .

• It seems that the unlock worked even if the users rated it with less than 5 stars (I didn't test unlocking it with a lower rating, but there are a few reports of this in the thread). However, since the unlock message clearly stated that 5 stars were required, the vast majority of users was rating it with 5 stars (while leaving comments saying that they were doing it only to unlock the features). This is still against the Play Store's ToS (and a very shady thing to do).

• The application seems to be gone from the Play Store. It is also no longer showing in my Idol 4 (as of this morning).

• In my Idol4, the update notification for the other Alcatel stock applications has disappeared. I'm not sure if there's any relation to this situation. Up until now, I had update requests for all the stock applications to turn into their "spam" alternatives, but now they're not even listed under my installed apps. Can other Alcatel users confirm if the same is happening to them?

• The developer seems to have a currently up. I'm not sure what's different or if it also has the rating demand. However, this second version doesn't seem to replace the stock app when updating OTA on Alcatel phones.

There are paid apps on the Play Store that are available for purchase even though they are abandoned by their developers.

For example, i have bought many RSS apps which are now extremely buggy due to that abandonment. But they are still available for purchase.

That's not right.

Edit: spelling

Edit2: Wow, this exploded. I wasn't talking about old apps that are rarely updated because they might don't need to. I was mainly referring to apps that need to be updated in order to keep working (because they are using some APIs that are changing, etc), but their development is abandoned, although they are still available for purchase. I'll call this a cash grab (edit: if it's done on purpose, i can't find any other reason. Some say that it's hard to unpublish an app. So this needs fixing too). For example, a paid app, with lots of reports for abandonment and bugs, that hasn't been updated for 12 months shouldn't be there.

Edit3: I think that some people still misunderstand what i have said. To sum it up: i do not want to force any developer to keep updating his app forever. But when a developer decides to abandon an app and this creation gets buggy due to that (or not working at all), it shouldn't be available for new purchases. Google Play could freeze new purchases until the developer decides to support his application further. Also, for those who say that this would end up being a way to troll devs, i can wrongly flag any app as inappropriate, anytime. I guess that's what Google is for, to examine on a case-by-case basis. Sorry, i can't respond to every comment separately, since many of you post the same thing (but i respect your opinions). But i do believe that many of you are developers with an app that hasn't been updated for a long time, still working though. Don't get offended by my comment, i'm not referring to your apps. Read edit2.

There are 5,500+ points (95% upvoted) right now for this thread. I guess the problem is much bigger than i thought.

Edit - 8:44pm ET: Apple said the issue is now fixed. This post is being locked now.

Seeing a lot of users having this issue right now. Leave a comment below if you are too

Edit:

Ok guys and gals, hear me out:

Is there any reason why Apple is not developing their version of a professional photo editing software? I've been thinking about this for quite a lot, and it really seems like a wasted opportunity.

I mean, we've got:

• Logic Pro X and Mainstage which cover the audio part

• Final Cut Pro X and Motion (and Compressor?) which deal with the video part

• where are my photo editing apps at???

I can only dream of Apple's "interpretation" of a Lightroom-like software, with their legendary level of polish (as we've seen in the latest updates of Logic and Final Cut).

Oh, and also I'd be willing to pay like $200 upfront only once instead of giving Adobe money every month, which is one of the main reasons why I've decided to stick with Apple's professional software suite for so long.

What do you think? Wouldn't it be amazing to have this piece of software on the M1 iPad Pro? Let me know in the comments, I'd really love to elaborate on this

made sure this complied with rule 8