How to Get More App Reviews Without Breaking Store Rules

Quick answer: To get more app reviews, ask at the right moment with the official prompts: StoreKit's review request on iOS, which Apple shows up to three times in 365 days, and the Play In-App Review API on Android. Trigger them after a success, never after an error. Solve problems through support, reply to reviews, and never offer rewards, filter users first or post fake reviews. Both stores ban that.

Your star rating and rating count appear in search results and at the top of your product page, right next to your screenshots. They are one of the first trust signals a new visitor sees. Apple also lists positive ratings and reviews among the product page factors its editors consider for featuring, and notes that having few ratings may discourage potential users from downloading.

Reviews are also free product research. The written ones tell you what people value, what confuses them and what they expect next. Our guide to App Store ratings explains how the summary rating is calculated and displayed.

Both stores want reviews that reflect real, unprompted opinions. Read this table before you write a line of code.

The pattern called review gating, where you ask users whether they are happy and only send the happy ones to the store, deserves a special warning. Google explicitly forbids asking opinion or predictive questions before the review card. On iOS, guideline 5.6.1 disallows custom review prompts. The safe approach on both platforms is to skip the pre-question and call the official prompt directly.

Apple's advice is to ask when people are most likely to feel satisfied, such as after completing an action, level or task, and not to interrupt them. Google says to wait until the user has experienced enough of the app to give useful feedback.

Good triggers depend on your app:

Bad moments: the first launch, during onboarding, in the middle of a task, after an error or crash, and during checkout. Add simple conditions, for example at least a few sessions over several days plus one success event, so you only ask people who know the app.

On iOS, use StoreKit. In SwiftUI, read the requestReview action from the environment and call it at your chosen moment; in UIKit, call AppStore.requestReview(in:) with the current window scene. The system decides whether to show the prompt, shows it at most three times in 365 days, and users can turn in-app rating requests off in Settings. In development builds the prompt always appears; in TestFlight it does not appear at all. Our iOS in-app review prompt guide covers the details.

For a permanent "Rate this app" button in settings, link to your App Store page with the action=write-review parameter instead of calling the prompt, because the system prompt may not show when the user taps.

On Android, use the Play In-App Review API from the Play Core libraries: request a review flow, then launch it. Google enforces a time-bound quota and does not tell you whether the user left a review. Google also says not to trigger the API from a button, since the quota may hide the card and leave a broken experience; send those users to your store listing instead. Show the card as it is, without overlays or changes. See our Google Play in-app review guide for setup and testing.

Many one-star reviews are support requests with nowhere else to go. Give unhappy users a better outlet, always available and never used as a filter in front of the review prompt.

1. Put a "Contact support" or "Send feedback" option in settings and on error screens.
2. Answer fast and in a human voice.
3. Fix the issue and tell the user when the fix ships.
4. Mention the fix in your release notes, which Apple specifically recommends when an update solves problems raised in older reviews.

Make sure your support contact is easy to find in the app and on your product page. People who get help often leave a better review on their own.

Both App Store Connect and Play Console let you reply publicly. On the App Store, the reviewer is notified and can update their review, and only your latest reply is shown.

• Prioritize the lowest ratings and reviews about bugs in the current version.
• Be specific: acknowledge the problem, say what you did or will do.
• Keep it respectful and free of personal information, marketing or spam.
• Do not ask for a higher rating in your reply. Google's guidance says so explicitly.
• Report abusive reviews instead of arguing, for example with Report a Concern in App Store Connect.

Our guide on how to respond to app reviews includes reply templates for common situations.

• Offer coins, features, discounts or contest entries in exchange for ratings or reviews.
• Buy reviews, use review exchanges or organize friends and employees to post reviews.
• Lock features until the user rates the app.
• Show your own star dialog or redesign the store's review card.
• Prompt on every launch or retry immediately after a dismissal.
• Reset your App Store summary rating with every update. Apple allows a reset with a new version but recommends using it sparingly.

Using real reviews in marketing is fine with the right permissions. Apple says customer reviews may appear in marketing materials only with the reviewer's permission, and your rating may be used if it reflects your current rating. The same care applies to social proof in your screenshots.