How app ratings work and how to raise yours

Open the top charts or the recommended sections of either store and you will see the same pattern: the apps people pick tend to sit at four stars and above.

That pattern tells you the rating matters for both visibility and trust. From what we have seen, the rating does influence where an app ranks in the store, though its weight is smaller than that of install volume and metadata. So if you want the app to climb in search and pick up more downloads, the rating is worth managing on purpose.

Ratings and reviews are two different things

A rating is a score from 1 to 5 stars, a fast number anyone can read at a glance. A review is that score plus a written comment.

Both shape how people see the app and how easily they find it, and the rating is usually the first thing a potential user notices.

How each store calculates the rating

Apple and Google average ratings differently and show reviews differently.

In both stores the rating appears right in search results, and the review count appears on the app page.

App Store

Apple averages every rating the app has collected since release, so each user's score counts toward the overall number.

There is one exception that matters. In App Store Connect a developer can reset the rating whenever they ship a new version. After a reset, the average is built only from ratings for the current version, while older reviews stay visible on the page. This helps an app that took a hit earlier, for example a wave of one-star reviews during a temporary outage.

The App Store page shows only a handful of reviews: six in the mobile app and ten in the browser. Apple picks them itself, usually the ones with the most likes, and they can be anything from a few days to a year old. Apple does not index the words in user reviews. For search it reads the title, subtitle, and the rest of the metadata.

Google Play

Google weights the average toward the ratings of the latest version. Apps that ship updates often gain from this, because the score of the current build is what mostly defines the number people see.

Google Play also indexes more text. On top of the title, short description, and full description, it reads the words in user reviews. A relevant keyword appearing in reviews can help search rankings a little, though far less than the same keyword in the title or description.

Reviews and ratings also get more space in Google Play: they show up in collections, rating-based categories, and suggestions. That exposure makes a high rating and positive reviews carry more weight there, since they affect both whether people find the app and whether they choose it.

How ratings change install rates

What the research says

Studies and real campaigns both point to a large effect of the rating on whether people install. One Alchemer study found that moving from 3 to 4 stars can lift conversion by 89%. In other words, the rating weighs heavily on whether an app gets installed and how it does in the stores.

The same report gives benchmarks for both stores: average star rating, average number of reviews, and average number of ratings.

Averages differ by category

Ratings also vary a lot between categories. On the App Store, Healthcare and Shopping have the highest averages, at 4.82 each. On Google Play the leader is Personal Services at 4.68. The spread reflects what users expect from each kind of app and how their experience with it tends to go.

Why Google Play averages run lower

Google Play averages are generally lower than App Store ones. The likely reason is the App Store's option to reset the rating with each new version.

A reset lets an iOS app shed old negative scores. Google Play has nothing like it, so iOS averages end up higher overall.

The section on how each store calculates the rating, above, covers the mechanics in more detail.

Case study: The North Face app

The North Face case published by AppTweak shows the effect on a real app.

Before the change the app was rated 3.64 in the App Store and 3.86 in Google Play. AppTweak suggested a pop-up that asks users for feedback, and the numbers moved. On the App Store the rating went to 4.23, up 14.96%. The change showed up in installs too: in the first three months with the pop-up, impression-to-install conversion grew by almost 60%.

On Google Play the rating rose to 4.54, up 22.25%, and after the pop-up went live the app collected 75% more ratings than in the period before.

Five common reasons for negative reviews

These are the usual causes of unhappy users, low scores, and angry reviews.

1. The app is hard to use A weak user experience is a problem on its own.

When people struggle to find their way around, wait for screens to respond, or dislike how the app looks, they tend to say so in a review.

Clear design and smooth behavior keep users around and earn better feedback.

2. Bugs and crashes Crashes, glitches, and errors annoy people, and the scores drop. Users expect an app to simply work, so careful testing and fast fixes are what protect its reputation.

Apps that go a long time without fixes usually collect low reviews.

3. Missing features or too little value People get disappointed when the app doesn't do what it promised or lacks something they consider basic.

They also compare it with competitors, and if yours looks like it offers less, a negative review follows.

Asking users for feedback on a regular basis shows which features they want and raises satisfaction overall.

4. Weak customer support When users hit a problem and support doesn't help, they often take it to the reviews.

Fast, useful support resolves the issue and changes how the person feels about the app.

Users who feel ignored are the ones most likely to vent publicly.

5. Marketing that overpromises If ads or store copy promise features or benefits the app doesn't have, users feel deceived and some of them write about it.

Describing the app honestly sets the right expectations and cuts down on negative feedback.

When to work on the rating

1. Clicks come in, installs don't If the click-through rate is high and the download conversion stays low, look at the rating first and work on it.

It weighs heavily on the install decision, especially in the countries where you are actively promoting the app. Keeping the rating in shape makes ad spend go further and improves the return on it.

For apps that live mostly on organic traffic, keyword promotion included, a high rating matters even more, because it affects how visible and trustworthy the app looks on the search results page.

With an app people haven't heard of, they lean on other users' experience, and ratings and reviews are where they find it.

2. The app is new and has no ratings yet A new app has no feedback to show, and that hurts both marketing results and conversion. It hurts most in categories where users hand over sensitive data, banking apps for example.

The fix is to prepare the store page before marketing starts. A page with good visuals and a few first ratings and reviews doesn't look abandoned, so it holds visitors better. Newsletters and in-app prompts that ask existing users for feedback help you collect real reviews.

3. A technical failure hit the rating Every app has technical problems at some point, and they bring bad reviews and lower scores. On the App Store you can reset the rating after an update and leave the old trouble behind. If the app already has a large number of reviews, though, a full reset may cost more than it gives.

Then the better route is to raise the rating by putting positive reviews forward and pointing to what has improved. Use the "What's New" section to list the fixes, which helps win back trust.

Replying to reviews, both the critical and the kind ones, shows that someone cares about the app and its users, and prospective users read it that way.

Worth remembering

Users who like your app often don't get around to rating it. Happy users rarely think of sharing, while unhappy ones are quick to complain. So ask happy users for a rating on purpose. A prompt right after a win, a completed level, or another good moment in the app makes it much more likely they respond.

Managing reviews and raising the rating

Keep ratings and reviews in balance

A high average isn't always enough when a lot of negative reviews sit next to it. To stay credible you also need positive reviews, which means working on the written feedback from real users as well as on the number.

Keywords in Google Play reviews

Google Play indexes reviews, so they count toward search optimization. Relevant keywords appearing in reviews can help visibility, as long as they appear naturally and honestly.

What a low rating costs you

A low rating gets in the way of both growth and visibility. Here is how.

The stores show the app less Both stores favour apps with higher ratings in search and in recommendations. A low score can push your app below competitors with higher ratings, so fewer people see it and find it.

Fewer downloads People read a low score as a sign of poor quality and a clumsy app, so they install less.

Most users skip apps rated under three stars, and downloads, then engagement, fall with it.

More negative reviews Low scores usually come with critical reviews, and those turn even more potential users away.

The two feed each other, and the loop makes new installs harder to win.

Less engagement Someone who installs a poorly rated app and has a bad time will use it less or delete it.

With fewer active users the app's performance metrics drop, and it gets harder both to bring in new people and to keep the ones you have.

A hit to the developer's name A rating that stays low for a long time hurts how people see both the app and the team behind it.

The damage can reach past the app, when you look for partners, raise money, or start the next project.

First impressions like these are slow to fade and weigh on the business for a long time.

How to raise the rating

Method 1. Ask users directly

Apple (StoreKit docs) and Google (in-app review docs) both offer a built-in prompt for asking users to rate the app, and it works well.

When it appears matters most. Show it when the user is likely to be pleased: after winning a round, collecting a reward, or getting done what they opened the app for.

Send users who may be unhappy to support instead, so you can find out what went wrong and fix it.

Method 2. Live installs with a rating (App Store only)

On the App Store you can also move and hold the rating with live installs that carry a rating. A real person installs the app for a reward and rates it. A steady flow of positive scores lifts the average and offsets the negative ones.

Apple watches closely for anything that looks like rating manipulation, so the ratings are delivered over several days and the volume is matched to how many ratings the app already gets. That keeps them close to what organic ratings look like.

On Rankforge the rating is an add-on to App Store live installs: you pay for it per install. An install generated automatically leaves no rating, and on Google Play ratings are not available.

• At the start, keep rewarded ratings below the number of organic ones. If the app already gets organic ratings every day, begin with a small volume and raise it step by step.
• Watch how many installs turn into ratings so the numbers keep looking real. If the app gets little traffic of its own, mix installs that carry a rating with installs that don't.
• Once the average reaches the level you want, cut the volume gradually so the drop doesn't look like manipulation either. For example, if you buy 20 ratings a day and the page already shows the target average, step down to 15, then 10, 5, and 2 over a week.

Two rules that always apply

• Early on, rewarded ratings shouldn't outnumber organic ones.
• Not every user who installs the app should leave a positive score.

How long it takes to move the rating

There is no fixed timeline. It depends on the task and the goal: how many ratings the app already has, how often organic ratings come in and how many of them are negative, and how many installs the app gets per day.

Say an app gets 100 installs a day and five of those users leave a rating. Then start with a comparable number of rewarded ratings and increase it gradually. A slow ramp makes the rise in the average look natural and believable.

In most cases the average moves within one to two weeks, and some cases take longer. Every app is different, so the pace is set per app. A customer care manager comes with every Rankforge account and helps you set up the campaign, then adjust the pace while it runs.

Next step

If you are not sure where to start, the manager on your account can look at your rating volume with you and help plan the pace for your app.