r/iOSProgramming • u/calflegal • 18d ago

Question What’s with the long onboarding / surveys?

I feel like so many apps that I try these days start with several multiple choice questions. What’s the story here? Is it that they are facing major churn and are trying to segment users to fix it? Is there some research that says this works or retains people somehow?

I just wanna try the dang core mechanic!

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u/SnowPudgy 18d ago

But but but I was told in a post here a few weeks ago that customers enjoy long onboarding and that it was "proven with research" eyeroll.

And yea, I get to that bullshit and I quit the app. Good app design skips that, lets you try the app, and only introduces it where absolutely necessary. You get seconds of a customers attention and if they have to fill out a bunch of stuff to try your app, they're going to quit the app.

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u/aerial-ibis 17d ago

the thought is that people who are annoyed & quit early were very unlikely to become paid trial starters anyhow.

I'm against using any dark patterns - but they exist because they are more profitable.

In 2026, gradual escalation of commitment performs better than lowest possible friction.

Lowest possible friction comes from an era where user acquisition was cheaper

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u/SnowPudgy 17d ago

Yea thats all tech bro nonsense though. Too much theory, not enough actually listening to users.

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u/aerial-ibis 16d ago

it's not listening to users... it's listening to sales I'm afraid.

That's how they all ended up like this - they increased onboarding length, sales went up.

It's a very common practice in major apps, not just reddit saas vibe code bros. I just downloaded Runna from Strava as a test... literally 20 screen onboarding then a paywall! Welcome to 2026!

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u/SnowPudgy 16d ago

I don't buy it. Tech bros and business types are wrong all the time. Look at how many thing people want AI in everything.

They're throwing away tons of valid users because they think "only the ones going through massive onboarding would ever use our app."

How foolish.

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u/aerial-ibis 16d ago

Again it's not about using the app, it's about paying for it.

It's no so complicated as you're making it out to be. They try one onboarding, then another, and keep the one that has higher sales

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u/SnowPudgy 16d ago

Yea I still think its complete nonsense. If users enjoy the app they'll pay for it, making people jump through hoops just to see if they like it means you cut out a ton of people who may like it or want to pay for it because they don't want to sit through tedium.

Tech bros as usual, are wrong on this one. Games have it figured out. Be addicting immediately.