{"id":337028,"date":"2017-03-29T01:39:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T17:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1469771"},"modified":"2017-03-29T01:39:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T17:39:23","slug":"developers-can-finally-respond-to-app-store-reviews-heres-how-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/developers-can-finally-respond-to-app-store-reviews-heres-how-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Developers can finally respond to App Store reviews \u2013 here\u2019s how it works"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

With yesterday\u2019s release<\/a> of iOS 10.3\u00a0and macOS 10.12.4, Apple has made a significant change to how its App Stores operate. At long last, developers now have the\u00a0ability to respond to user reviews in order to offer support, ask follow-up questions, say thanks, or otherwise interact with their app\u2019s customers. The change has been a long time coming \u2013 the feature has been standard in Google Play since 2013<\/a>, and a huge headache for Apple\u2019s developer community over the years.<\/p>\n

Not only was the prior system a sore spot for developers, it was bad for consumers, too.<\/p>\n

If an\u00a0app crashed on you or had some sort of weird bug, you might head over the App Store to leave a\u00a0complaint. This was often easier than trying to track down the developer\u2019s contact information, especially because many publishers\u00a0don\u2019t include an email address or support information in their App Store description.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Those complaints could help developers identify new bugs or other previously unknown glitches, yet there was no way to reach out to the user to ask follow-up questions that could help them address the situation and create a fix.<\/p>\n

Some developers would even try various tactics to try to identify the user in question, simply to be able to ask more for information \u2013 like reverse engineering a\u00a0UserID to figure out which email was associated with the user\u2019s\u00a0account, for example.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

@Cocoanetics<\/a> @siracusa<\/a> Finally! I use to have to reverse engineer their UserID to determine email for comments a crash in our app that we were desperate to debug<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tim Schallberger 🚴 (@tschallb) March 28, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n

In addition, the lack of a review response system also prevented developers from fostering a sense of community around their apps. They couldn\u2019t respond to feedback about feature requests to explain their thinking, talk about where that feature was on the roadmap, nor could they thank users who shared kind words.<\/p>\n

Being proactive by responding to issues that need addressing\u00a0isn\u2019t just about developing better software \u2013 it can also impact the developer\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n

When users feel the developer is paying attention and being helpful, they\u2019ll likely rate the app higher. Better rated apps will see more downloads, and then move up the charts on the App Store.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What\u2019s New For Developers<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the launch of the new feature, Apple offers a series of suggestions about how developers should respond to reviews<\/a>. It explains\u00a0that timely, clear and concise answers are best, and they should reflect the tone of the brand \u2013 even if multiple people write the responses. The company also suggests that developers should prioritize those reviews with lower star ratings, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0users\u2019 reviews appear\u00a0iTunes Connect, the\u00a0dashboard where developers\u00a0manage the apps they offer for download on the App Store. A page will display the incoming reviews, allowing developers to now respond or report them. (Under App \u2013> Activity \u2013> Ratings and Reviews).<\/p>\n

There are also filters for finding reviews from users in different countries, which can be helpful for triangulating reviews for\u00a0versions just rolled out to new markets.<\/p>\n

Developer responses\u00a0appear to go through a process of their own, MacStories<\/a> discovered. (See below tweet). Some developers are\u00a0seeing responses marked as \u2018Pending,\u2019 for instance.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s New for Users\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For consumers, the process of leaving a review hasn\u2019t changed, if in the App Store itself.<\/p>\n

However, developers have gained a new option for soliciting reviews in the app itself. By using the\u00a0SKStoreReviewController<\/a> API, developers can ask you\u00a0to rate or review an\u00a0app while you\u2019re actively\u00a0using it, without being redirected\u00a0to the App Store.<\/p>\n

This will have a bigger impact in terms of collecting ratings and reviews from a larger audience, as many people dismiss the nagging review prompts today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even better, the API restricts developers from asking for reviews more than three times per year<\/a>, which will have a huge impact on user experience. Some apps (Tinder\u00a0comes to mind), literally ask\u00a0their\u00a0users for a rating\u00a0at some point during every single use. And once reviewed, the prompts can\u2019t reappear.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the option to completely disable review prompts for all installed apps, as promised<\/a> is not appearing in the updated version of iOS, as it had in the beta.<\/a><\/p>\n

We understand that this feature was actually pulled out early on in the developer betas, however, and will likely return in time.<\/p>\n

The idea here is that Apple wants to give developers a grace period to implement the new API, so until that period wraps,\u00a0the user-facing \u201cdisable\u201d setting will not be available.<\/p>\n

Another new feature for\u00a0users are email alerts that arrive if\u00a0a developer responds to your review.\u00a0Following the answer from the developer, the\u00a0email includes further prompts with links: \u201cDo you want to update your review?\u201d<\/em> and\u00a0\u201cYou can also contact the developer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In the App Store itself, the responses are clearly labeled with arrows and the heading \u201cDeveloper Response,\u201d eliminating any confusion.<\/p>\n

The reviews and responses are also timestamped, which is another means of seeing how quick the developer is handling incoming complaints. Only one response can be associated with any review, but developers are able to edit their answers, Apple notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plus, users can now use 3DTouch on a review to mark it as Helpful or Not Helpful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One minor complaint is that the links a developer might provide \u2013 like to a support page or FAQ, for example \u2013 are\u00a0not functioning URLs. (See screenshot below).<\/p>\n

This could make replies more time-consuming for developers who now have to type out instructions that are already on their site, and users won\u2019t be able to click the links directly.<\/p>\n

Developers are thankfully forbidden from manipulating reviews or incentivizing feedback, per Apple\u2019s App Store Review Guidelines<\/a>. The\u00a0company clearly tells developers<\/a> not to \u201coffer users an incentive to change their review ratings in your responses,\u201d as a means of keeping the review system honest.<\/p>\n

Certainly some developers will try to skirt this system, so it should be interesting to track how Apple handles those in violation.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Apple released new versions<\/a> of its operating systems and an updated version of iTunes.\u00a0You\u2019ll only see these changes if you\u2019ve upgraded your Apple software to the latest version.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Bryce Durbin\/TechCrunch<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" With yesterday’s release of iOS 10.3\u00a0and macOS 10.12.4, Apple has made a significant change to how its App Stores operate. At long last, developers now have the\u00a0ability to respond to user reviews in order to offer support, ask follow-up questions, say thanks, or otherwise interact with their app’s customers. The change has been a long time coming – the feature has been… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-337028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}