Ratings and reviews: get more five-star reviews without breaking store rules

Your star rating sits next to your app in App Store search results and on its product page, so people judge it before they read your description. Here is how to get more app reviews on the App Store and Google Play without putting your developer account at risk: ask at the right moment through each store’s own prompt, reply to what people write and fix what they report.

The shortcuts (rewards, filtering out unhappy users, bought reviews) break Apple’s and Google’s rules, and bought or fake reviews also break UK and EU consumer law. Everything below reflects the stores’ documentation as of 19 October 2026. For the wider release plan, see my guide to launching a mobile app.

Why ratings matter for downloads and ranking

Apple shows a summary rating on your product page and in search results, and says ratings and reviews “can influence how your app ranks in App Store search”. A weak score costs you twice: fewer people find the app, and fewer of them install it.

Google Play does not publish how much ratings weigh in its search, but it says that crash and freeze rates above its Android vitals thresholds can reduce an app’s visibility: the bugs that annoy reviewers can also hide your app.

The words count as well as the stars. As of 19 October 2026, the App Store shows a summary of your reviews, generated by large language models, in the US and eight other English-language storefronts, including the UK. What many reviewers repeat is what that paragraph is likely to say. More on ranking in my beginner’s guide to ASO, and on the text around your rating in my guide to store listings.

How to get more app reviews: use the official prompts

Both stores provide a rating window that opens inside your app. Use it and nothing else: Apple’s guideline 5.6.1 tells developers to use the provided API and says Apple “will disallow custom review prompts”.

On iOS: the StoreKit review request

The current API is RequestReviewAction (the requestReview environment value in SwiftUI); SKStoreReviewController has been deprecated since iOS 18. Your app asks, and the system decides whether to show anything:

• If the person has not rated the app on that device, the request appears at most three times in 365 days.
• If they have, it only returns for a new version, more than 365 days after their last review.
• People can switch these requests off for every app.

Because the call may show nothing, Apple says not to make it in response to a button tap. For a permanent “Rate this app” line in your settings, link to your App Store page with action=write-review added to the URL.

On Android: the Play In-App Review API

Google’s review card works the same way, under a quota it does not disclose: launch the review flow more than once in a short period (Google’s example is less than a month) and nothing may show. Display the card as it is, with nothing on top, and never from a button; a settings link should open your Play Store page instead.

Neither API tells your app whether the prompt appeared or whether someone left a rating. You cannot reward a review you cannot see, which is just as well.

When to ask: right after a success moment

Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines say to ask only once people have shown engagement, such as completing a level or a significant task, and to avoid first launch and onboarding, when people may be more likely to leave negative feedback. Google says to wait until the person has used enough of the app to give useful feedback.

Space the requests out: Apple suggests at least a week or two between them. Its own sample code waits until someone has completed a task four times, has not been asked about the current version and has paused on the success screen for a few seconds. Apple calls the number four arbitrary: set your own threshold on a success moment every user reaches.

What both stores forbid: rewards, review gating and pressure

Rewards for ratings

Apple’s App Review Guidelines warn that developers who try to inflate their rankings with “paid, incentivized, filtered, or fake feedback” may be expelled from the Apple Developer Program. Google Play’s policy on user ratings, reviews and installs bans inflating ratings or reviews by illegitimate means such as incentives, and gives the example of a notification offering a discount for a high rating.

Review gating

Review gating means asking people whether they like your app first, then sending only the happy ones to the store. Google’s in-app review guidelines say your app shouldn’t ask any question before or while showing the rating card, and give “Do you like the app?” as an example. On Apple’s side, “filtered” feedback is in the list quoted above.

Pressure and look-alike prompts

Guideline 3.2.2(x) says apps must not force people to rate or review the app to use it or reach its content. A screen that stays blocked until someone rates is out, and so is a home-made pop-up that imitates the system prompt (guideline 5.6.1 again).

You can, however, make your support contact easy to find in the app and on your store page, as Apple recommends: open to everyone, it lets unhappy users reach you before the review form, without filtering anyone.

Fake reviews also break UK and EU consumer law

In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned fake reviews since 6 April 2025: Schedule 20, paragraph 13 covers submitting or commissioning a fake review or a review that hides an incentive, and offering services that help others do it. The CMA also treats hiding negative reviews or cherry-picking positive ones as misleading, and can now fine businesses directly, up to 10% of global turnover. Its fake reviews guidance (CMA208) includes a short guide for review publishers.

In the EU, the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2019/2161 added two practices to the list that the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive bans in all circumstances (Annex I, points 23b and 23c): claiming reviews come from real users without reasonable and proportionate checks, and submitting, commissioning or misrepresenting reviews. It also added Article 7(6): if you publish reviews, on your app’s website for example, whether and how you check them is material information that you must not leave out. These rules have applied since 28 May 2022; with users in the EU, treat them as yours wherever your company is based. The text is on EUR-Lex.

This is general information, not legal advice: before a tester programme, a referral scheme or an agency that promises reviews, check the plan with a consumer-law solicitor.

Reply to reviews on both stores

A reply does not change the stars, but on both stores the reviewer is notified and can update their review. Future users read it too.

In App Store Connect

Open Apps, choose your app, click Ratings and Reviews in the sidebar, pick the platform at the top right, click Reply next to the review, type your reply and click Submit. You need the Account Holder, Admin or Customer Support role. Replies can take up to 24 hours to appear, one reply per review is shown, and you can edit or delete it at any time.

In Play Console

Open your app, go to Ratings and reviews > Reviews, type your reply and select Publish reply. You need the “Reply to reviews” permission. Each review gets one public reply, the user receives a push notification and an email, and you can edit the reply later.

How I would write them

1. Start with the lowest ratings and bug reports on the current version, as Apple suggests when you cannot answer everything.
2. Thank the person, name the exact problem and say what you are doing about it. Do not ask for a better rating.
3. Give your support address, never personal details: guideline 5.6.1 also rules out spam and marketing in replies.
4. Send iOS download and billing problems to Apple Support, as Apple asks.

Thanks for reporting this, and sorry about the lost booking. The sync bug is
fixed in version 2.4, out today. If it happens again, write to
support@yourapp.com and we will look into it.

Turn bad reviews into fixes, then decide whether to reset

Low ratings are bug reports with an audience. Read them version by version: App Store Connect filters reviews by version and rating, and Play Console breaks ratings down by app version and device type. When a complaint keeps coming back, fix it, mention the fix in your release notes and reply to the reviews that raised it, as Apple recommends to win back unhappy users.

Google Play weights its public rating towards recent ratings, so a fix shows in the score as new ratings arrive. On the App Store, you can also reset the overview rating when you release a new version: select the version in the App Store Connect sidebar, select Reset rating when this version is released in the Reset Overview Rating section, then save. The reset applies to every country at once, written reviews stay, and once the version is out you cannot restore the old score. Until enough people rate the new version, your page says the rating was recently reset.

Apple recommends using this sparingly, because a page with few ratings can put people off. I would only reset when the old score comes from a problem the new version really fixes, and when you have enough active users to rebuild a score quickly.

Checklist before your next release

1. The review request is tied to one or two success moments, never to launch, onboarding, an error or a button, and nothing sits in front of it.
2. A “Rate this app” link in your settings opens the store page.
3. Your support contact is easy to find in the app and on both store pages.
4. Someone answers new reviews every week, lowest ratings first.
5. Your release notes name the fixes reviewers asked for, and those reviewers get a reply.
6. Work on your rating before you buy installs with Apple Ads: the ads lead to a product page that shows it.