AppESP Promises to Recommend you the Best Android Apps & Reviews
by Paul Wilks
Oct 7, 2011 4:52 PM –
Install
AppESP is an app-finding application that aims to keep you on the front-line of discovering new Android apps. It provides recommendations based on your downloaded apps and provides useful links to 3rd party reviews. This is in addition to daily recommendations and a raft of interesting features such as ‘XP’, ‘App Bucks’ and ‘Badges of Honor’ (which you build as you respond to the app).
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Provides direct links to app reviews!
- Smooth UI!
- Ambitious concept!
Cons
- Constant notifications.
- Pages frequently refuse to load.
- Recommendations are very inaccurate.
- Pop-ups.
- No AndroidTapp Android app reviews!
Features:
AppESP aims to help you find the latest and greatest apps available in the Android Market. It monitors the apps you download and use, and creates various recommendations based on its findings. Additionally it provides links to condensed 3rd party reviews so you can get a more objective view than the typical app information you read on the Android Market.
This concept is wrapped in a relatively plain, but also very smooth UI, which actually looks very good indeed. Flicking between screens is very fluid and it’s a nice experience- when it works. For some reason, every so often pages simply freeze up and refuse to load- frustrating if you were genuinely interested in the app you were reading up on, and it kinda puts you off. Unfortunately this happens quite frequently, and I found myself just looking the app up on Android Market separately.
I think the concept behind the app is terrific- 3rd party reviews, app recommendations and the ability to build up XP, etc. based on your usage seems like quite a novel idea and a great proposition. When it works, its great; nice to use and find new apps, read reviews and get recommendations. The framework is there, but sadly there’s plenty of niggles. 
The one that screams throughout your use of the app is the notifications. Start using an app for the first time and AppESP will give you a notification asking you to share it… every time. I couldn’t find any way of turning this off, so regular and intrusive notifications are always there while you have the app downloaded. Maybe because I’m an app reviewer and I download and play with a lot of apps I notice this more than most, but it’s highly irritating.
The app also recommends apps to you based on those which you have already downloaded. Now, weirdly I have literally no travel apps on my phone (I tend to download those kind of things when I’m actually travelling or on vacation). For some reason however, AppESP regularly recommended travel apps to me. Whatever system it is using to make such recommendations clearly isn’t doing a good job. Today it is recommending I download a pay-for PDF reading application, even though I rarely read PDFs on my phone and only have Adobe Reader installed. Massively unhelpful and unintuitive.
The app also promises to ‘Improve your recommendations’ by connecting to Facebook, although it doesn’t actually say how. It does however demand access to your Facebook information, the ability to send you emails, post to your wall and access your data at any time. I think I’ll give it a miss, thanks!
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AppESP – Recommendations
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AppESP – Reviews list
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AppESP – Review screen
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AppESP – App overview
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AppESP – Rating request screen
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AppESP – Welcome screen
Usefulness:
The concept behind this application is brilliant, but as it is, the app isn’t useful at all. The apps listed are not exactly ‘new’ eg. Shazam, it even recommend apps I have already downloaded. It just doesn’t make sense. Add to this the slow loading of some pages and you will happily quit the app and check out something like Chomp or AppBrain App Market. I just think AppESP tries too hard and gets it badly wrong. Also, everyone knows AndroidTapp write the best reviews, and we aren’t included among the reviews!!! 
I must stress, this ‘could’ be an absolutely essential app for finding new games and apps, and useful links to reviews, but as it is, it’s all wrong and far more irritating than it is useful. I sincerely hope this can be rectified, it could be epic.
Ease of Use:
The app is quite straight forward to use and there is a search feature to look apps up if you want to. The only thing that prevents easy use is fact that about 50% of the screens take an age to load properly. I found myself concluding it just wasn’t worth the bother.
Frequently Used:
The app is basically awake most of the time watching you download apps then popping up with a notification asking you to share it, etc… It stalks you. If this app was done right, it could be the go-to app for getting personal, accurate and up-to-date recommendations in addition to review links.
Interface:
The interface is smooth, bright and is buttery to use. The design is quite basic but the app feels rich and is nice to use. Sadly the pop-ups (you get the daily recommendation pop up EVERY time you open the app- until you have a look at it), pushy notifications and regular lag ruin it completely.