Asking users to “Rate this app!” got a whole lot better as of iOS 10.3, Apple released changes which enable users to rate apps without breaking flow and bouncing out to the AppStore.
You can now requestReview() from Apple, who may then display a generic prompt for users to rate & review in app.
Ratings and reviews help us build a better product. At Redbubble we get feedback on what’s working and what’s frustrating users. We use this feedback to better prioritize and understand whats important to our users.
Ratings and reviews also help user make decisions about the quality of an app before deciding to download (more below on this).
After adopting ratings & reviews in iOS 10.3 we saw three fundamental changes in user behaviour;
By prompting users after 30 minutes we got a significant lift in the number of reviews & ratings. This didn’t change the distribution of ratings – this continued to hold at 3.3 stars.
When users rated the app (with no review) we saw a shift from our 3.3 star average to 4.7 stars.
By the end of May we held a 5 star rating in the United States and 4.7 star average across all other territories.
How did going from 3 to 5 stars impact downloads? We saw a 48% lift in conversion of users viewing the Redbubble AppStore product page to installing the Redbubble app.
Requesting ratings, reviews and responses in iOS 10.3 surpasses previous best practices. Getting it right can have a material impact on the number of reviews, your star rating & download volume.
Remember though, there is no substitute for a great experience, focus on building a great experience which solves the problems you set out too and only then think about how you best ask your users to rate & review your app.
Thanks for reading! 👋