How to Get More App Store Reviews and Ratings (Without Breaking the Rules)

Why ratings are an ASO multiplier

Your summary rating appears in search results next to your icon and screenshots, and on your product page. According to Apple's ratings and reviews page, that summary rating is specific to each territory. For shoppers, ratings are one of the fastest trust signals on the page; a great screenshot set paired with a weak or empty rating often underperforms.

Ratings volume is also a recency signal: a steady flow of new ratings tells shoppers the app is alive and maintained. The good news is that most apps under-ask—or ask at the wrong moment—so there's usually room to improve without any tricks.

The rules first

Apple

• Use the system API—SKStoreReviewController (or the newer SwiftUI/StoreKit request review APIs)—to ask for ratings. The App Review Guidelines (5.6.1) require using the provided API and disallow custom review prompts.
• Apple says you can prompt for ratings up to three times in a 365-day period. The system decides whether the prompt actually displays.
• Users can rate and write a review without leaving your app.
• Don't incentivize ratings or reviews with rewards, and don't manipulate them—this is grounds for rejection or worse.

Google Play

The In-App Review API documentation gives clear guidance:

• Trigger the flow after the user has experienced enough of your app to give useful feedback.
• Don't prompt excessively; the API has quotas and may not show the card every time.
• Don't ask questions before or while showing the card, including "Do you like the app?" or "Would you rate this 5 stars?"
• Show the card as-is, without modifying its design.

That last Google rule matters: the classic "Enjoying the app? Yes → review, No → feedback form" pre-prompt pattern conflicts with Google's guidance. On iOS, Apple's custom-prompt rule also limits these flows. The safest pattern on both platforms is: pick a good moment, call the system API, and offer a separate, always-available feedback channel elsewhere in the app.

Step 1: Choose the right moment

Apple recommends asking when users are likely to feel satisfied—after completing an action, level, or task—and not interrupting their activity. Good triggers:

Bad moments: at launch, during onboarding, mid-task, right after an error, or right after a paywall.

Add simple eligibility rules

Combine a moment with conditions so you only ask engaged users:

• Used the app on at least several separate days
• Completed the core action a few times
• No crash or error in the current session
• Not asked in this app version yet

Because the system limits how often the prompt appears, using your few chances on your happiest users has an outsized effect.

Step 2: Make feedback easy elsewhere

Unhappy users will find a way to be heard. Give them a better one than a one-star review:

• A clearly visible "Send feedback" or "Contact support" item in settings.
• Support contact info on your product page—Apple recommends making it easy to find.
• Fast replies. A user whose problem you solve often updates their review on their own.

Step 3: Reply to reviews

Both App Store Connect and Play Console let you respond publicly to reviews. Responses are visible to other shoppers, so they're part of your product page.

Good reply habits:

• Respond to specific problems with a concrete next step or fix version.
• Thank people for useful feature requests and tell them when it ships.
• Keep it short and human. No copy-pasted corporate replies.
• Never argue. Shoppers read the exchange, not just the review.
• Follow up after fixes. On iOS, a reviewer can be notified of your response, and some will update their rating.

Step 4: Use rating resets sparingly

Apple lets you reset your summary rating when you release a new version. Apple also recommends using it sparingly: a reset can make the rating reflect your current version, but having few ratings may discourage downloads.

Consider a reset only when a major update genuinely fixes the problems behind old low ratings and you're confident you can rebuild volume quickly with a well-timed prompt. Otherwise, keep your history.

Google Play's displayed rating is calculated differently and weights recent ratings, so there's no equivalent reset; consistent quality improvements show up over time.

Step 5: Turn reviews into ASO insight

Reviews are free user research:

• Mine for keywords. The words users use to describe your app are often the words new users search. Feed them into your keyword research and test them with the ASO keyword combiner.
• Find your real value proposition. If many five-star reviews praise one feature, that feature probably deserves screenshot #1.
• Spot objections. Repeated complaints about pricing or login may be answerable on the product page—e.g., "No account required" as a caption.

Showing ratings in screenshots

A strong rating or real press recognition can be a powerful trust frame, but be careful:

• Don't fabricate or round up. Only show ratings and counts you actually have, and keep them current.
• Avoid unverifiable claims like "#1" or "best"—these conflict with Apple's Guideline 2.3.7 and Google's metadata policy, which specifically prohibits store-ranking claims and anonymous testimonials in descriptions.
• Attribute quotes. If you show a review or press quote, attribute it to a real source.
• Put it late in the set. Ratings support the decision; your first frames should still show the app in use.

Make the trust frame in the screenshot editor alongside your feature frames, and use How to Make App Store Screenshots That Convert for frame ordering.

Implementation notes for developers

• iOS: request a review through StoreKit's review request API at your chosen moment. Don't call it from a button tap expecting it to always appear—the system may not show it. For a "Rate us" button in settings, link to your App Store page with the write-review action instead.
• Android: use the Play Core in-app review library; request a ReviewInfo object ahead of time and launch the flow at the right moment. Your app flow should continue normally whether or not the card was shown.
• Log your triggers (not the user's rating, which you can't see) so you can learn which moments correlate with rating volume over time.

Checklist

• Use only the system review APIs on both platforms
• Ask after a success moment, never at launch or mid-task
• Gate prompts behind engagement rules
• No incentives, no "Do you like the app?" pre-prompts
• Visible in-app feedback and support contact
• Reply to reviews regularly and briefly
• Reset ratings only after a genuinely major fix
• Mine reviews for keywords and screenshot priorities
• Ratings in screenshots are real, current, and attributed

Bottom line

More ratings come from asking the right users at the right moment through the official APIs—not from tricks. Combine well-timed system prompts with easy feedback channels and thoughtful replies, and use what reviews teach you to sharpen your keywords and screenshots.