Help How to post anonymous app reviews?

[MoodyBlues]

Back in the day, Play Store app reviews showed the reviewer's name as "A Google user." Then, after...some event in Android/Google history, reviews were shown with the author's [presumably] real name.

Fast forward to today: there are many brand new, current reviews whose authors are shown as "A Google user." Others are shown with names like "I Just Made This Up"--in other words, clearly fake.

How can you post a review and have it show "A Google user" instead of your real name?

Of course, some obvious answers are make a fake account, or don't make an account, or...some other thing that doesn't make sense. For example, if you create a fake account, not only would it show your fake 'real' name, as opposed to "A Google user," but you couldn't review any of the apps you installed under your real account.

I *WANT* to post anonymously, i.e., as "A Google user," or with a nom de plume like on Amazon's reviews. But after searching every setting I can find, I'm coming up blank. How is it done?

 

[Deleted User]

I did this a few days ago after starting to comment (politely) on some You Tube reviews, and hated seeing my full name there and on many Google Maps changes / contributions (whkch I deleted, and Google never fact check them properly...).

If I remember, you have to lose your first name and last name to have just a username, you have limited changes before you have to leave it be for I think around 90 days. (Too old to care).
I had my first name + new username initially but decided on just a username. I don't think it affects Gmail.

ADDED : In fact if you send from Gmail it shows as from "Username" and your regular xxx@Gmail.com, so there's that!

 

[MoodyBlues]

Thanks for the info, @Tmadd59.

Unfortunately, when I edit my name, it won't accept empty fields; I believe it's just the last name that's a mandatory field. I suppose I can just make something up there. Oh! Is that where you put your nickname, instead of in the nickname field? I'm doing it...

...and I'm back. It would not let me leave either field (first and last names) blank. So I made something up, got a warning that I can only change my name 3 times in 90 days, and saved it.

So I'm happy with that, but I still don't know how/why some current reviews show "A Google user" as the author.

 

[Deleted User]

Me neither.

Though I don't use Gmail much for any personal stuff, having the recipient see an email from your username (who?) is probably a deal breaker, so hopefully there's a way to fix that.

Welcome to Google, shifting one solution to another problem.

 

[JAy3001]

This change occurred with the intergration of Google+ a number of years ago. Have you tried changing your details at the below link @MoodyBlues ?

https://aboutme.google.com/u/0/?referer=gplus

 

[MoodyBlues]

Me neither.

Though I don't use Gmail much for any personal stuff, having the recipient see an email from your username (who?) is probably a deal breaker, so hopefully there's a way to fix that.

Welcome to Google, shifting one solution to another problem.

I don't use Gmail AT ALL, except for Google-generated mail. Literally no one has my G address. Plus, I use my e-mail client to send/receive Gmail--not their online system--so my name shows up on outgoing mail as I set it, not Google. My mail is stored on my hard drives, not theirs. You get the idea.

 

[MoodyBlues]

This change occurred with the intergration of Google+ a number of years ago. Have you tried changing your details at the below link @MoodyBlues ?

https://aboutme.google.com/u/0/?referer=gplus

Yes, thanks Jay, I had previously gone there when someone told me that adding a nickname would solve my problem. It didn't. Instead of showing ONLY my nickname on my reviews, it showed it like this: First "Nickname" Last. I kid you not!

And there, too, I couldn't just leave the name fields blank.

Although my issue is resolved--not ideally, but resolved--I still want to know how so many other people's reviews show "A Google user" as the author, damn it!

 

[Deleted User]

I know what you mean, but if you have any tries left, I managed to get just the username by putting it in the first name (or maybe it was the last name) field and left the rest blank, but that was my three goes.

Sorry I can't experiment to be sure, to be sure!

I'm gonna try to fix ny Gmail name later, but that's unlikely if it's all tied in.
At least we both have exciting plans for 90 days time.

 

[MoodyBlues]

You know what I did? I put "A Google" in the first name field, and "user" in the last. Now it'll match the real ones!

If you can't beat 'em, might as well join 'em.

 

[Deleted User]

You're cleverer than I am, although that's not saying an awful lot. I thought you were stuck with part of your name.

Off topic but very coincidentally just now, I had a coffee and a bite in a new branch of a sandwich chain (opened today). There was no call or data signal so I connected to their wifi.
I may be going mad but they have a new log in where you have to manually put your date of birth in, even though it recognised me and I never gave a DOB and wouldn't ideally want to..
... that's all fine.... but as I turned 60 in June the only way to put any date in was to tap back on the month from August 2019.

That would mean 722 taps to correctly enter my date. I kid you not. The kid who did this.... well, there was no way to go to the year. Utterly silly.

 

[MoodyBlues]

You're cleverer than I am, although that's not saying an awful lot. I thought you were stuck with part of your name.

Off topic but very coincidentally just now, I had a coffee and a bite in a new branch of a sandwich chain (opened today). There was no call or data signal so I connected to their wifi.
I may be going mad but they have a new log in where you have to manually put your date of birth in, even though it recognised me and I never gave a DOB and wouldn't ideally want to..
... that's all fine.... but as I turned 60 in June the only way to put any date in was to tap back on the month from August 2019.

That would mean 722 taps to correctly enter my date. I kid you not. The kid who did this.... well, there was no way to go to the year. Utterly silly.


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That's beyond ridiculous! If they need to verify that you're an adult, they can do that with a simple yes/no question. Why on earth should they need your whole birthdate? Let's say they have a 'birthday club' where you get free dessert or something on your birthday. They don't need anything but MM/DD.

As for the non-user friendly programming, it's just plain stupid not to allow manual entry of your birth year. Did you try pressing on the year? I'm just shaking my head...

 

[Deleted User]

I tried holding the back button, and everything and every where else. As it's new since yesterday I'm hoping they have made an error and it's not me, so I'll email them about it now I'm out of there with data. I don't expect much but if enough people do the same....

On Edit : You know, the only thing is maybe I didn't flick the whole month to the right and start a fast scroll, although I think I would have tried.... I think I'll try it another time though before I make more of a fool of myself. People my age shouldn't be allowed out in the evening really.

 

[JAy3001]

Don`t you just tap the August 2019 title which then allows you to jump year by year @Tmadd59 ?

Glad you got it sorted @MoodyBlues you will have to see if everything else you might use google for now shows you as "a google user".

 

[Deleted User]

The title bar thing does nothing, thanks.
I would have thought this was an off the shelf calendar system but it doesn't seem to work here. I just emailed them. D**** I forgot screenshots but let's see what their CS is like for customers below the IQ threshold

Sorry to derail @MoodyBlues

 

[MoodyBlues]

People my age shouldn't be allowed out in the evening really.

*nods head in knowing agreement*

 

[MoodyBlues]

Sorry to derail @MoodyBlues

NO problem! Personally, I like thread drift. It's like real life, you know?

 

[Deleted User]

NO problem! Personally, I like thread drift. It's like real life, you know?

Well then, so there I was last Saturday, minding my ......



......

 

[MoodyBlues]

I just wanted to post an update, in case a search brings someone here thinking they've found a solution to the anonymity issue. Not exactly.

While I'd changed my name to "A Google user," I posted a review of a business on Google Maps. Yay!, I thought, this is great. But then, logged out of Google so I could see what others see, I clicked my name or picture--and it linked to everything I'd ever posted on Google-related sites. They all showed the fake name.

After changing back to my real name, I again checked my reviews--they all showed my real name, including the one I'd posted with the fake name. Ugh.

So if you're looking for a way to anonymously post one review--and I can see many reasons one might want to do that--and then change back to your real name, this isn't it.

PS I wonder what happened to/with @Tmadd59. I was enjoying interacting with him, and having another old geezer around here, and then he's just...gone...