Patrick Balestra

How to ask for App Store reviews

In this post I want to explain how easy it is to get positive reviews for your App Store app. The method I started using with my customers brought my app more positive reviews than before so I am confident that other developers could find this explanation useful.

Let’s first say that there is (still) not a way to contact users who leave a review on the App Store. Most of the times, users download an app and they expect it to work immediately and perfectly. If this is the case (and we all hope it is), then users will enjoy the app. The problem is that very few people will remember to go back in the App Store and write a nice review.

There are many ways to ask users for a review which are for example showing an alert to the user after the app was opened 10 times or sending a push notification. I find none of this methods appropriate and I started experimenting a few weeks ago how I could get a nice reviews for my app Notes for Watch.

When I shipped the first version, a bug occurred when users were using both the Apple Watch and the iPhone at the same time. This resulted in a really low rating as you can see.

Please note the last review: “if it worked as advertised it would get 6 stars”. I fixed the issue in the next version and no, I never received 6 stars.

To avoid receiving more negative reviews, I made sure to add more support options in the app. The FAQ section is easily reachable in the settings view (it’s just one tap away from the main view) and the contact button offers support via email or via Twitter. This is how the settings view looks like in Notes for Watch.

Notes for Watch started getting more and more users which translated into more support emails. When I’m not asleep, I usually have a pretty fast replying time (sometimes I’m even able to reply to a customer support request in less than 15 minutes). This is positive for customers which are always surprised by the quick response and they immediately thank me for the fast reply. Here there are a few examples.

Awesome, now customers know that there is a real person behind the app and it’s actively supported and improved. When users have issues or they simply want to send feedback about future features, it’s good to reply as soon as possible. When the problem is fixed and I’m sure that users are enjoying the app, I add a post scriptum to my email like this:

P.s: If you’re enjoying the app, please take a very short moment to leave a quick review in the App Store. It helps continuing the development of the app :)

In this moment, users are happy because they know the app is working properly, they quickly received support and they can trust the developer for other issues in the future. They are most likely in spending a few minutes of their day in writing a positive review for your app now. The results are positive and as you can see, I’ve received three 5 stars reviews since I added the previous sentence to my last support email I send to customers.

If I didn’t explicitly ask for a review, I would’t have received those 3 positive reviews.

Let me know your opinion on Twitter. Thanks for reading.

Thanks to Max Bäumle for proofreading this post.

Apple Watch Thoughts and Improvemements

I am an owner of an Apple Watch Sport 42mm with a white band since a week and I decided to write my thoughts and what I would like to see improved in the next software updates from an user perspective.

Spring Forward Event

On March 9th the Spring Forward Event took place in San Francisco. Apple announced a new Macbook and revealed some more information about the Apple Watch. The “most personal device” will be preorderable starting April 10th and will finally be available in the stores on the 28th of the same month. 

I’d like to talk about a single slide that Tim Cook showed during the presentation. The exact moment is at the minute 80.10 in the video:

Tim Cook was talking about the new Apple Watch companion app that shipped with iOS 8.2. Tim Cook said:

“This is the app where you see, browse and download apps.”

My reaction looked something like this:

YES. This is awesome and exactly what I was hoping for. Users will be able to check and download apps directly from the Apple Watch app. This feature prevents users from switching to the main App Store app and look for a specific category or use the already broken search engine to look for an Apple Watch app. Apple Watch owners are going to download more apps because they are just one tap away the store. New apps made specifically for the watch will be easier to discover.

Another positive point of this approach is that, as a developer, you don’t need to waste your 100 words keywords with generic terms like “apple watch”. 

If an app contains a WatchKit extension, it will show up in both the App Store and the Apple Watch App Store. The app will be used to manage all the settings and apps too. There will be also how-to videos.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the icon can be different. The documentation says that the icon can be different from the containing app and you’ll upload it in iTunes Connect. You can’t submit WatchKit apps at this moment and it’s not clear when submissions will open yet.

Pretty cool stuff!