iOS 11 ratings and reviews changes

Apple completely redesigned App Store in iOS 11, the way we used to review and ratings changed.

Ratings and reviews displayed now for all versions of an app not just for the last one like in iOS 10.

iOS 11 App Store Ratings&Reviews block

Summary rating is calculated starting from September 2017, not your app release date. You can reset average rating with your app release in iTunes Connect.

You can choose to reset ratings on App’s release

This will reset only summary rating. Your app’s reviews are forever with you. Rating will reset to Not Enough Rating state: 5 blank start on app’s page and no stars in search.

Instead of sending a user to your app’s AppStore page you can now send him directly to Write Review page, just add ?action=write-review to your iTunes link (Ex: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id447188370?action=write-review) This will boost your reviews count two times yay!

Another way of asking user’s feedback is SKStoreReviewController.

SKStoreReviewController

It was introduced in iOS 10.3. And asks rating right in your app, no leaving to App Store needed. This popup can increase rating rate up to 20 times.

SKStoreReviewController has some limitations: you can show it just three times per year per user and looks like it would not be shown if a user already sent rating or review for your app. Also, user can disable SKStoreReviewController for all apps in settings.

In addition, you can continue to include a persistent link in the settings or configuration screens of your app that deep-links to your App Store product page. To automatically open a page on which users can write a review in the App Store, append the query parameter action=write-review to your product URL.

Apple says that for asking for a review you should use only SKStoreReviewController. And SKStoreReviewController should not be called in response to a button tap. So it looks like end of Era of our favorite ’Do you like my app dialogs’ :(

Circa way for review asking

No app yet was rejected for this approach by Apple. So you can still call SKStoreReviewController if a user says that she like your app and send to feedback page otherwise.

But I believe sometime this day will come and you have to prepare. Start to collect data about users who rated your app positively. Later you can use some algorithm to show SKStoreReviewController only to users who similar to those who positively reviewed your app.

Conclusion

1. Ratings and Reviews are shown in App Store for all versions of your app.
2. You can reset Summary Rating for you app on release.
3. Add ?action=write-review to your review link to boost reviews x2.
4. Change review link to SKStoreReviewController to boost rating x20.
5. Start collecting data (profiles, event sequences before rating) you may need it later.