The app stores moderate all app ratings and reviews to ensure a safe, trustworthy and positive user experience for everyone. Ratings and reviews are initially moderated before they are published in the app stores, however they can also be moderated again at a later date. They use a mix of automated moderation systems and manual reviews.
The app stores moderate app ratings and reviews for:
- Inappropriate Content: This includes offensive language, hate speech and personal attacks.
- Spam and Fake Reviews: They remove fake ratings and reviews that intend to increase or decrease an app’s rating.
- User Privacy: Remove reviews that contain personal information such as email addresses.
- Other: Reviews that do comply with the app store guidelines including due to misleading or illegal activity.
If you believe an app review violates the app store’s guidelines you can report it to the app stores for manual review. The developer replies to reviews are also subject to moderation by the app stores to ensure they adhere to the guidelines. Users can report review replies from within the app stores.
For Google apps, if you have connected the Google Play Console you will be able to access the reviews before the moderation process is complete. Apple do not release any app reviews until after the moderation process.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or check out our FAQ section here.
