Building Community Through iOS Review Replies
Supporting iOS users through developer responses is increasing positive feedback and good vibes.
At the Heart of Airtime: Community
Airtime is a group video chat app for internet lovers. Our team is focused on building an exciting, welcoming, and safe space where people can internet together — whether that’s watching YouTube videos or listening to the best SoundCloud tracks out there.
The feedback our Community team receives about Airtime comes from far and wide. We pay attention to all of it. Here are just a few of the many ways our dedicated Community team gets input from users: customer support emails, text messages, tweets, and app reviews.
Replying to Reviews
When Apple announced it was releasing developer replies for iOS app reviews we were pretty excited. The team had already been replying to our Android app reviews with positive results. Check it out:
We don’t share too much data about our user base, but we don’t mind sharing this graph from Google Play for a little #humblebrag: 45% of our replies have resulted in a positive boost to the user’s original rating. Airtime is a mobile-only product that’s relatively new to the market, so this makes a meaningful impact on our growth.
Since the start of this summer, we have been replying to our iOS App Store reviews. Whether it’s positive or negative, thoughtful reviews tend to get a response. The review reply process doesn’t have the luxury of back-and-forths like an email thread does. It’s important, then, that we get a nice response out there in one stroke. (Often, that means requesting that a user reach out to our team with more information.) We don’t always get it right, but we’re working to perfect our messaging and that process over time.
A Good Vibes Generator
After an iOS review receives a reply, the reviewer receives the response as a push notification (if turned on) and an email. For everyone else, the Developer Response is visible as part of the review on the app’s product page. This makes it a particularly powerful tool.
Below is an example of a review that received a response and was later edited by the user (look for “Thank u for reviewing” toward the end). This user updated their previously negative review to five stars because we reassured them that we’re listening to their feature request.
We receive thank-yous like that one above outside of the App Store now, too. Here’s a recent private message we received on Facebook:
Since we started to reply to iOS reviews, we’ve been receiving DMs, texts, or emails along these lines at least once per month. It’s a display of the goodwill that our relatively minimal effort has already generated with our users.
We love hearing from users like Alexander! He took the time out of his day to write to our team to let us know how much he appreciated the reply. While I can’t say for sure, I have the sneaking feeling that he’ll be a prouder Airtime advocate in real life, too. Through user research, we’ve found that word of mouth is still one of our most effective marketing tactics.
Generating good vibes doesn’t just make our team feel good, it has a real effect on our overall download metrics, because it means users are more likely to tell their friends about us.
If you run a mobile-first Community team, try it out and let us know if it helps your app ratings! Leave a note here to share your experience with us.
— Heather Merrick, Airtime’s Director of Community
