Why and how to reply to App Store reviews

An App Store reply is public. You’re answering one user, but you’re really talking to everyone hovering over the install button.

Only one developer response per review is shown on the product page, sitting directly under the original comment. That makes every reply part of your storefront, not just a support exchange. If you later ship a fix or realize the wording can be clearer, you can edit or delete your response.

When you reply, the reviewer gets notified and can update their rating or text, which is why a calm, useful answer sometimes does more for your rating than a full release note. The goal isn’t to win an argument—it’s to show that the app is alive, supported, and run by people who pay attention.

This doesn’t happen often, but timing matters. When a reply comes quickly and actually addresses the issue, users sometimes update a negative score—or at least soften the review. It’s not something you can rely on, but it’s another reason speed and tone matter.

Ratings don’t just reflect how users feel—they directly shape visibility, trust, and decisions on the store. Want the geeky details on how ratings work across stores? We covered it in our article Why app rating matters and how to manage it. 

Not every review deserves the same amount of attention. If you try to answer everything in order, you’ll either burn time on low-impact comments—or miss the ones that actually influence installs.

Here’s how to prioritize without overthinking it.

Crashes, login issues, broken features, subscription problems—these are the reviews future users read first. They’re specific, emotional, and persuasive in the worst possible way. A clear response here does two things at once: it reassures the reviewer and signals to everyone else that the issue is known and handled.

If a review says “doesn’t work” with no context, still reply—but your goal is to pull the conversation toward something actionable, not to guess.

Fresh reviews shape the current perception of your app. A thoughtful reply posted within a day or two looks like active support. A reply three months later looks like archaeology. If you’re short on time, always work from newest to oldest.

When review volume grows, replying manually stops scaling fast.

In that case, review management tools can help teams track new feedback, group similar issues, and draft consistent replies—without losing sight of what actually needs attention. The point isn’t automation for its own sake, but staying responsive when volume increases.

A five-star review that ends with “but onboarding is confusing” is quietly valuable. It tells potential users what to expect and gives you a chance to clarify, set expectations, or mention an upcoming improvement—without damage control mode.

You don’t need to write a poem. A short, human thank-you is enough to show presence. Overdoing it feels automated; underdoing it feels cold. One or two sentences, max.

Spam, emojis only, or reviews with zero signal don’t need a response. Silence here doesn’t hurt you—and replying can actually make the page noisier.

In short: reply where your answer helps the next reader decide. That’s the bar.

Every app has that one reply we’ve all seen: “Thank you for your feedback! We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

It technically answers the review. It also tells users absolutely nothing.

Reviews aren’t support tickets. They’re public mood swings that live next to your install button. And the way you reply quietly tells people whether the app is cared for—or just maintained.

Users don’t need perfection, empathy paragraphs, or corporate apologies. They need signs that someone is awake on the other side.

Here’s what actually helps you reply in a way that feels human, useful, and calm—even when the review isn’t.

Nothing kills trust faster than a reply that ignores the actual problem. If the user mentions login, subscriptions, or a specific feature—acknowledge it directly. Not with a summary, not with a vague apology, but with a short signal: yes, we saw this exact thing.

You don’t need to solve everything in public. You just need to show you’re not guessing.

Long replies don’t look thoughtful—they look defensive. The best replies fit in three beats: acknowledgment, direction, exit. Anything beyond that belongs in support, not on your product page.

If you feel the urge to explain “why it works this way,” stop. Explanations rarely calm people down in public.

When a review is vague, pick the single detail that unlocks the issue. Device model. iOS version. The step where it breaks. One question signals competence. Three questions signal panic.

And if the user never answers—that’s fine. The reply still did its job for everyone else reading.

“We’ll fix this in the next update” sounds great—until the next update slips. Public replies age badly when they include timelines you can’t guarantee. Say what’s true now: investigating, already fixed in the latest version, or escalated to the team.

Future promises belong in release notes.

Because sometimes it will be.

Your tone should survive context collapse: different countries, different moods, different expectations. Calm, neutral, and human always age better than clever or defensive.

If a reply still reads well six months later, it’s probably a good one.

Some bad replies don’t look bad at first glance. They’re polite, clean, and technically correct.

They also quietly undo trust, one review at a time.

These are the replies users skim past, feel uneasy about, and mentally file under “this app probably won’t help me.” No drama, no outrage—just a slow leak in confidence right next to your install button.

Here are the mistakes that cause that leak—and why they matter more than teams think.

Changing one word in a template doesn’t make it personal. Users recognize patterns fast. If three different reviews get the same structure, same rhythm, same ending, it stops sounding like support and starts sounding like automation pretending to care.

Templates are fine as scaffolding. Publishing them as-is is not.

Sorry, Paramount+, but this reply stays polite while neatly sidestepping the actual problems the user listed. It acknowledges the review, yet never engages with the specific issues that triggered the frustration.

Sometimes replies don’t argue at all—but they still overwhelm. The response to Water Sort Puzzle shows how this plays out. 

The review is straightforward: ads feel deceptive, skip buttons don’t work, redirects are annoying. The reply, meanwhile, covers everything at once—ad balance, internal cleanups, partner discussions, paid options, future improvements.

All of that may be true. It’s just more than anyone scanning reviews needs.

This is where replies quietly turn into TED Talks. A bit of explaining turns into comparisons, comparisons turn into business logic, and suddenly the reply is less about the user’s frustration and more about defending the product. 

In the case of Financielle: Budget Planner, that shift shows up through analogies with fitness and calorie tracking apps, explanations of why subscriptions exist, and a rundown of what free users still get. 

None of it is wrong. It’s just happening in the wrong place. On a product page, this kind of justification doesn’t settle things—it turns the reply into a debate nobody came here for.

“We’ll fix this in the next update” is tempting. It’s also dangerous. If the update slips, the reply ages badly and quietly damages credibility. 

The Secret Super App shows what happens when a reply arrives late, confused, and aimed at the wrong problem. A detailed review describing bugs, lost data, device specifics, and weeks of silence from support sat unanswered for months. 
When the reply finally appeared, it skipped the substance entirely and defaulted to “we’ve updated the app” and “we’d love to earn 5 stars.”

At that point, the reply doesn’t rebuild trust. It highlights how disconnected the response is from the actual issue—and how risky it is to promise fixes you don’t control.

Some replies don’t fail because they’re careless. They fail because they try to be helpful everywhere at once. 

You can see this pattern in Lensa AI replies.

The reply reads the feedback, explains pricing, lists issues, invites the user to email support, and politely asks for another chance—all in one go.

The problem is simple: this isn’t email. It’s the App Store. Replies live next to the install button and get skimmed in seconds. Long explanations don’t feel thorough there—they feel nervous. 

Public replies work best when they acknowledge the issue and set expectations. 

Replies posted weeks later look less like support and more like backlog cleanup. Even a simple acknowledgment, posted early, does more than a perfect reply posted too late.

Speed matters more than polish.

Panels Wallpapers is a good example of how unanswered reviews quietly erode trust. Detailed criticism piles up. Without replies, potential users are left guessing whether the issues are known—or ignored.

There’s one more detail that often gets overlooked: silence after a five-star review can send a mixed signal. It makes your page feel reactive instead of present—like you only show up when something breaks. A short “thank-you” keeps the tone balanced and shows consistency.

If you avoid these mistakes, your replies won’t just sound better—they’ll age better. And that’s what most teams underestimate.

You don’t need perfect wording to reply well. You need the right intent—and a bit of restraint. The difference between a good reply and a bad one is rarely tone alone. 

It’s what it helps the reader understand.

Bad reply #1

“Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Please contact support.”

Why it fails: It says nothing. No acknowledgment of the issue, no signal that the review was read, no reason to believe support will help this time.

Better reply: “Thanks for flagging this. Login issues like this often depend on iOS version or network state—our support team can help if you’re able to share a few details.”

Why it works: It shows awareness, asks for one concrete detail, and feels actionable without overpromising.

Bad reply #2

“We’ll fix this in the next update.”

Why it fails: If that update slips, the reply instantly becomes outdated—and everyone can see it.

Better reply: “This shouldn’t be happening. We’re investigating it now and will update once we have a fix.”

Why it works: It’s honest, current, and doesn’t lock you into a timeline you don’t control.

Bad reply #3

“Glad you love the app!”

Why it fails: It’s not wrong—but it’s forgettable. It could belong to any app.

Better reply: “Glad it’s been useful—thanks for calling out the reminders feature! That’s one we’ve spent a lot of time refining.”

Why it works: It feels specific and reinforces the value of the product without selling.

Good replies don’t try to impress—they reassure. Bad ones don’t usually offend—they just fail to convince.

If someone scrolling your page can read the reply and think “ok, these people seem on it”, the reply did its job. 

One more detail worth clearing up: on the App Store, adding keywords to review replies doesn’t help with search or visibility. Replies aren’t indexed there, so stuffing them with keywords only makes them harder to read.

On Play Market, review text can be indexed, which is why some teams experiment with keywords over time—but even there, readability matters more than keyword density.

Will most users read your replies closely? You already know the answer.

They’ll skim a couple of reviews, glance at one response, and decide whether the app feels safe to install.

That decision takes seconds.

Replies won’t fix broken features or weak UX. But they do show what happens when something goes wrong. Calm replies suggest control. Clear replies suggest competence. Human replies suggest there’s an actual team behind the app.
Silence—or a generic template—does the opposite.

You don’t need to reply to everything. You don’t need perfect wording. You just need replies that don’t make people think, “yeah… this looks messy.”

LoveMobile doesn’t manage replies on your behalf or run review operations. What we do help with is understanding how replies affect perception on the product page—and when they’re worth the effort.

Based on real user reviews, we give teams practical guidance on replying to feedback, with a strong focus on negative reviews that potential users read first. That includes tone, timing, and knowing when a response helps—and when it’s better to stay quiet.

The goal isn’t to reply to everything. It’s to avoid replies that quietly damage trust, and to handle visible criticism in a way that feels calm, human, and intentional.

If you want your eye on reviews to be as sharp as your eye on installs, screenshots, and metadata—let’s talk.