Making Ratings and Reviews better for users and developers

Making Ratings and Reviews better for users and developers

Scores and critiques are necessary. They supply priceless quantitative and qualitative suggestions in your customers’ reported expertise of your app or recreation, and the broader service that you simply supply. That’s why they’re one of many indicators folks use when deciding what to obtain on Google Play.

 

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We’ve heard from each Play Retailer customers and builders that scores and critiques might be extra useful. That is very true when scores from one space unfairly influence one other — like when a bug that solely impacted a single nation negatively impacts the app’s score in every single place; or when constructive enhancements in a pill expertise are missed due to the variety of customers on telephones. So we’re beginning a multi-quarter program of enhancements to make scores extra customized and indicative of the expertise every particular person consumer can anticipate, and to make them simpler to navigate and use for builders:

  • From November 2021, customers on telephones will begin to see scores particular to their registered nation
  • Early in 2022 customers on different form-factors akin to tablets, Chromebooks, and wearables will begin to see scores particular to the gadget that they’re on

We perceive that many builders intently monitor the scores that their potential customers see, so we’re ensuring you will have loads of discover about these upcoming adjustments. We’ve additionally made enhancements to Play Console that can assist you perceive your scores and critiques – particularly throughout form-factors.

Adjustments to Google Play Console

Gadget kind insights

Increasing your help for various gadget varieties is likely one of the most necessary and impactful adjustments you may make to your consumer interfaces. Including tablet-optimized layouts or higher mouse and keyboard help for Chrome OS may end up in a step-change within the high quality of your customers’ expertise, which in flip influences their scores and critiques.

To make it simpler to identify alternatives throughout varied gadget varieties and observe the influence of enhanced experiences, we’ve added new Gadget Kind dimensions to the scores web page. We’ve additionally added a Gadget Kind filter to your critiques so you possibly can simply see how your pill customers are score you, or what your customers on Chrome OS say of their critiques.

Extra versatile date and interval choices

A lot of you will have informed us that you simply need to entry extra granular information than our selectors allowed. So, we’ve damaged down your segmentation choices and made them simpler to make use of. Now you can independently choose the time interval you need to plot (from the final 28 days by means of to your app’s full lifetime), and the way you need your scores information to be aggregated (day by day, weekly, or each 28 days). This lets you entry extra granular information over longer durations of time.

Obtain information simply

We’ve additionally enabled CSV downloads of your common information and score distributions. Mixed with the brand new information choice choices, you possibly can simply question and obtain way more of your information and carry out offline evaluation. For instance, you can obtain your complete historical past of day by day scores distributions and correlate it in a spreadsheet with customer support contacts.

Upcoming adjustments to scores in Google Play

Scores assist folks resolve which apps to obtain and they’re considered for that includes and placement on Play Retailer. However as a result of the app expertise can fluctuate relying on the consumer’s area and gadget kind, combination scores don’t all the time inform the entire story. That’s why, beginning in November 2021, we’re going to alter the scores that particular person customers see based mostly on the place they’re registered, and later within the 12 months what gadget they’re utilizing.

From November, because of this customers on telephones will see particular scores for the nation or area they’re based mostly in. So a consumer in Japan will see app scores generated from these submitted by different Japanese customers.

Early subsequent 12 months we’ll additional replace scores to replicate the gadget kind customers are searching Play on, whether or not it’s: tablets and foldables, Chrome OS, Put on, or Auto. It will give customers a greater impression of the expertise that they’ll anticipate for the gadget they’re utilizing. We suggest you check out your form-factor scores immediately – particularly for tablets the place development may be very robust – to see should you ought to put money into optimising your customers’ experiences.

We perceive that as a developer you’ll want to ensure you perceive and get forward of any main shifts in your user-visible scores. So no less than 10 weeks earlier than any change in Play Retailer, we’ll mechanically analyze the change your app can anticipate to see and attain out to any developer that can see a change of extra that 0.2 stars on any gadget kind in a key market (one with >5% of your retailer itemizing guests). This offers you time to plan if you wish to make key adjustments to your app.

These adjustments in Google Play will begin to roll out from November with nation or region-specific scores. Look out for messages about your scores in your Play Console Inbox in direction of the top of this 12 months, and don’t overlook that you would be able to get forward by checking your scores by nation and device-type immediately.