Product teams spend a lot on research: interviews, surveys, analytics. Meanwhile, thousands of users write down exactly what they want — in public, for free — in app reviews. Here's how to turn them into feature ideas.
Why reviews are great product research
- Unprompted. Nobody asked the question; users volunteer what matters to them.
- Specific. "Let me export to CSV" is more actionable than a satisfaction score.
- Continuous. New input every day, and visible right after each release.
- Available for competitors too. Reviews are public on both stores.
Step 1: Collect reviews continuously
Reading reviews once a quarter misses the trend. Send every new review — of your app and of two or three competitors — to a channel with app review monitoring. For history, export reviews from the stores.
Step 2: Spot the requests
Feature requests hide in many forms:
- Direct: "Please add dark mode."
- Complaints: "No way to share lists with my partner, 2 stars."
- Comparisons: "Switched from X because it has a widget."
- Workarounds: "I take screenshots to keep a history" (→ export or history feature).
Step 3: Tag and count
Create a short list of request tags — "dark mode", "export", "widget", "sharing", "offline" — and tag every review that mentions one. A spreadsheet is fine. After a few weeks, sort by count.
Add two columns:
- Rating of the review — requests from one-star reviews are often deal-breakers.
- Source — your app or a competitor.
Step 4: Read competitors' reviews differently
Competitor reviews answer different questions:
- Their one-star reviews: what users hate about the alternative → your positioning and launch features.
- Their five-star reviews: what users love → the baseline you must match.
- "Switched from…" reviews: why people move between apps.
More on this in competitor app analysis and our older post on why you should monitor reviews of your competitors.
Step 5: Prioritize
Review counts are one input, not the roadmap. Weigh them with:
- effort,
- fit with your product strategy,
- impact on retention and churn (requests from people who left matter most),
- revenue impact for paying users.
Step 6: Close the loop
When you ship a requested feature:
- reply to the reviews that asked for it — users get notified and often update their rating,
- mention it in release notes and promotional text,
- use users' own words in your screenshots and store description.
Example
A habit-tracker team tags 600 reviews over two months — their own and three competitors'. "Apple Watch app" appears 48 times (mostly in four- and five-star reviews: "perfect, if only…"), "data lost after reinstall" 31 times (all one- and two-star reviews of a competitor). They build iCloud sync first — a deal-breaker for users leaving the competitor — and the Watch app second.
Start today
Pick two competitors and your own app, and send their new reviews to one channel. In a month, you'll have a ranked list of what users want. Try allstarsbot free for 7 days — it works with any public app.
