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Managing App Reviews with Appfigures

Using Appfigures, you can easily manage and reply to your app reviews in one place. Reply to and delete responses, create and use templates, and take steps to flag reviews for removal with Apple and Google. Everything you need to stay on top of your reviews is right here.


Replying to a Review

Deleting an Existing Response

Getting Permission to Reply in Appfigures

Creating and Using Reply Templates

Flagging a Review with Apple and Google

Noteworthy


Replying To a Review


  1. Find the review you'd like to respond to in the Reviews report
  2. Click on "Reply", a pop-up will open showing the original review + any existing responses
  3. Type your response or update the existing response and click on "Save". Responses can use any character, including emojis.


Deleting an existing response


  1. Find the review you'd like to respond to in the Reviews report.
  2. Click "Respond", a new tab will open showing the review as well as the existing response and whether it's published or pending.
  3. Click "remove this response" to delete the response from the App Store. Published responses will be deleted with Apple's standard 24-hour delay.


Note: Apple and Google impose a 24-hour delay on new responses as well as updates and deletions. You will see the status of the response if you open this tab again.


Getting Permission To Reply in Appfigures


If you are the account owner, you'll be able to reply to reviews right away. If you are a sub user (admins included), however, you will need to request permission first.


When you go to reply to a review but don't have the necessary permission you'll be presented with an option to request it directly from the owner.


When you submit the request, the owner, as well as any other admin who has the permission, will get an email and have the ability to grant you the permission with a single click. You'll get an email once you're granted access, and will be able to reply right away.


Using and Creating Reply to Reviews Templates


Templates are available with the Optimize plan and above


You can create as many templates as you'd like, and also share them with your team for a consistent brand voice.


Reply templates are created inline, meaning as you reply to a review you can save that reply as a template.


Before you hit the "Reply" button, check the "Save this reply as a template" box, then:


  1. Give a name to the template. This is how you'll pick the template later, when you want to use it.
  2. Choose whether to share this template with other users in the account - owners and admins can share a template. They will not be able to make any changes to the template, just use it.


If you intend to have a large selection of template across several apps click the "More options" button to reveal:


Products - Select the app or apps this reply applies to. When you open the template selector this template will jump to the top of the list for those apps.


Rating Group - Select the star-rating this reply applies to. When you open the template selector this template will jump to the top of the list for reviews with that star-rating.


That's it. Once you reply the template will be saved.


Using Reply Templates:


To use a template open the reply popup and select the template from the list. Once a template is selected the text will be inserted automatically into the reply area where you can modify it to fit the specific review.


Changes to the reply will not overwrite your template.


Flagging a review for removal with Apple and Google


As a developer, you might come across a review for your app or game that looks like, feels like, and sounds like spam. It could be a bot, an unhappy competitor, or just a mistake by a user.

Thankfully, you can do something about it! Apple and Google let you flag reviews for removal.

Here's how to do that.


Reporting a Review Through App Store Connect:


  1. Log into App Store Connect
  2. Go to the "My Apps" section
  3. Select the app you want to flag a review for
  4. Select "Ratings and Reviews" from the menu on the left
  5. Find the review you want to report
  6. Click "Report a Concern"
  7. A popup will open for you to select a concern and submit additional details. This is an important step.
  8. First, select the most relevant reason:
  • It Contains Offensive Content - Things that shouldn't be said in public fall into this category.
  • It Looks Like Spam - Reviews that promote something irrelevant tend to fall into this category.
  • It's Off-Topic - Choose this concern if the review has absolutely nothing to do with the app. This is the case for bot reviews.
  • Something Else - If your concern isn't covered by any other topic choose this one. But it's best to choose a defined topic if possible.
  1. Enter your reasoning for why this should be removed in the comments field. Don't skip this part and be as direct and concise as you can.
  2. Click "Submit"


Note: This process will flag the review for Apple but will not immediately remove it from the App Store. If Apple chooses to take action then it will be removed, but flagging alone isn't a guarantee for removal.


Flagging a Review through the Google Play Developer Console:


  1. Log into the Google Play Developer Console
  2. Select the app you'd like to report a review for
  3. Navigate to the Reviews page by selecting Quality → Ratings and reviews → Reviews
  4. Find the review you want to flag
  5. Click the flag icon next to the review
  6. Click "Report"


Note: This process will flag the review for Google but will not immediately remove it from Google Play. If Google chooses to take action then it will be removed, but flagging alone isn't a guarantee for removal.


Noteworthy


To enable replying to reviews through Apple and Google Play, you'll need to enable the role within each developer account.



Q: What plan do I need to reply to reviews? 

A: Connect and above


Q: Are there any limitations?

A: Google imposes limits on the Reply To Reviews API.

Yes - The limit that's most likely to be hit is the limit for GET requests, which is 60/hour. Each response ends up using two GET requests under the scenes, which means that you will only be able to reply to 30 reviews an hour. If you exceed these limits you'll get notified by Appfigures and will need to wait an hour until the quota resets.


Q: Can you reply to reviews through the API? 

A: This route is available on select plans, starting with Grow and above.


Q: Can you enable review alerts? 

A: Yes! You can enable new review alerts to email and slack -> A: Yes! You can enable new review alerts to email and slack

Updated on: 04/12/2025