What counts as an app review
An app review is a star rating from 1 to 5 plus written text that a user posts on an app's store page. On both stores, users can also rate without writing anything; that is a rating, not a review. Most apps have far more ratings than reviews, which makes each written review more valuable: it tells you why.
A review usually contains:
- the star rating,
- a title (App Store) and the review text,
- the date, and in the Play Console also the app version and device the user had,
- on the App Store, the country storefront it was written in.
Why app reviews matter
Reviews affect three things at once:
- Downloads. People read the most recent reviews before they install. A page full of fresh one-star complaints lowers the app store conversion rate.
- Visibility. Ratings and review volume are signals in app store ranking and part of app store optimization.
- Product decisions. Reviews surface bugs, crashes and feature requests, often before your own analytics do, and in the user's own words.
Where app reviews live and who sees them
- Apple App Store: reviews are kept per country storefront. A user in Germany sees German-store reviews by default. Developers read and answer them in App Store Connect.
- Google Play: reviews are shown to users based on their language and region, and ratings can differ by country and device type. Developers manage them in the Google Play Console.
For an app available in 30 countries, that means 30 separate review feeds on iOS alone. This is why teams use app review monitoring, for example App Store reviews in Slack or Google Play reviews in Slack.
Replying to app reviews
Both stores let developers post one public reply per review, a developer response. The user is notified and can update their review, and a reply to an old complaint shows future readers that the problem was fixed. Replies work best when they are fast, specific and offer a next step. See how to respond to App Store reviews for templates and how to handle negative app reviews for the hard cases. For a first draft, try the free app review reply generator.
How to read reviews for insight
Reading reviews one by one tells you stories; counting them tells you priorities.
- Tag each review with a theme: bug, crash, feature request, price, UX, praise.
- Note the version and country, so you can tie a spike to a release or a market.
- Count themes per month. Your top three complaints, with numbers, are a better roadmap input than any single angry review.
- Read your competitors' reviews too. Their one-star reviews are a list of problems you can solve. See competitor monitoring for apps.
At larger volumes, review sentiment analysis automates part of the tagging.
How to get more app reviews
Most happy users never write a review unless asked. The in-app review prompt lets you ask at a good moment, inside the app, without sending users to the store. Timing matters more than wording: ask right after a success, not on first launch. More in how to get more app reviews. To see how many new ratings it takes to lift your average, use the app rating calculator.
"App review" vs. "App Review"
The term has a second meaning on iOS: App Review is Apple's approval process, in which Apple checks every new app and update against its App Store Review Guidelines before release. This page is about the other meaning: the reviews users write after they download your app.
Example
A two-star review in German saying "crashes on launch since the update" is a bug report, a support ticket and a ranking risk at the same time. Seeing it the same day lets you ship a fix, post a developer response and ask the user to update their rating once the fix is live.