We have updated the App ratings system in the App Directory to make feedback more trustworthy, harder to manipulate, and more useful for both creators and app developers.
This article covers:
- What’s changing
- New rules for leaving ratings and reviews
- Updated App Review Guidelines
- Developer responses to reviews
- FAQs
What’s changing
At a high level, the new ratings system adds:
- Eligibility rules for who can leave a rating/review (age verification, minimum app usage, and recent usage).
- More context on each review, including how long the creator has used the app.
- Recency-weighted scores, so the overall rating reflects the app’s current quality, not just its history.
- Clearer guidelines and enforcement against manipulation, spam, hate speech, and off‑topic content.
New rules for leaving ratings and reviews
To keep ratings meaningful and harder to game, we’re adding a few eligibility requirements for leaving or editing a review.
Who can leave a rating or review?
To submit a new rating or review for an app, you’ll need to:
- Be age-verified. Only age-verified accounts can submit or edit reviews.
- Have used the app while broadcasting. You’ll need to meet a minimum broadcast duration with the app active during a live show.
- Have used the app recently. You can still update your precious reviews even if you haven’t used the app recently.
- One review per app. Each user can have one review per app and can edit it at any time.
App Review Guidelines
Alongside the technical changes, we’re publishing clear public guidelines for what makes a good app review. The updated guidelines cover:
- No manipulation of ratings. This includes offering incentives (like tips, gifts, or other benefits) in exchange for ratings or reviews, and any attempt to “buy” 5-star reviews.
- No spam or repetitive content. Copy-pasted reviews, mass posting of nearly identical comments, or irrelevant text will be treated as spam.
- No hate speech or harassment. Reviews and developer responses must follow our existing community content guidelines. Hate speech, personal attacks, and harassment are never allowed.
- Stay on topic. Reviews should focus on the app’s behavior, performance, reliability, and user experience — not unrelated grievances.
Reviews or responses that violate these guidelines may be removed, and accounts or apps that significantly harm the ecosystem may face additional enforcement.
Developer responses to reviews
To encourage constructive conversation between creators and developers, developers can respond publicly to reviews of their apps.
Each developer can post one public reply per review, and developer responses follow the same content guidelines as reviews themselves.
Preventing fraudulent reviews
With these new guidelines, we’re preventing fake reviews in a few ways:
- Eligibility rules (age verification, minimum usage, recent usage) make it much harder to mass‑submit fake ratings.
- Clear guidelines explicitly prohibit manipulating ratings or offering incentives in exchange for reviews.
- Moderation tools allow us to remove abusive or fraudulent reviews and take action against accounts or apps that significantly harm the ecosystem.
If you have questions or feedback on the updated ratings system, please reach out to our support team — we’re here to help.