3 Reasons Why You Should Leave Reviews on the Google Play Store

Published 15 hours ago

Do you always rate your favorite Android apps on the Play Store? It's a good habit to get into. Let us explain why.

Picture this: it’s a lazy Saturday afternoon, you’re bored and you decide to install a game on your phone to pass some time. You open the Google Play Store app and type in a keyword. You see a plethora of relevant game options, all neatly ranked for you to browse. If you're like most people, you usually find your desired app within the top ten results.

Scroll down a little further and you start to see apps with lower ratings and shady-looking UI so you stay away from them. This is why reviews are important. They help mark desired apps relevant to you and inform you of potentially malicious apps. Let's take a closer look at the benefits of reviews for you, the app developers, and the Play Store itself.

The Benefits of Reviews for Users

Taking two minutes of your time to leave a genuine well-written review may seem like an unnecessary effort, but it proves to be a big time-saver for the next person browsing the app. In the same way, the reviews left by other people help you navigate an app better and be relieved that it is safe to download and won't cause you problems.

When you like an app, leaving a positive review encourages other users to download that app as well and ensures them of the app's credibility and quality. When you don’t like an app, leaving a negative review warns them of the app's potential downsides.

Maybe the app is too slow, has a bad user interface, has too many pop-up ads, lags often, or is simply not that useful. Worst of all, it might be trying to ask for private information that's irrelevant or unnecessary to enjoy the benefits that the app promotes to offer. All of these are red flags that are exposed via user reviews.

The Benefits of Reviews for App Developers

As beneficial as reviews and ratings are for users, they are just as important for app developers. The primary goal of a developer is to increase the app’s revenue which is directly proportional to the number of downloads it has. The more the downloads, the more the ad revenue and opportunity to get the user to make in-app purchases.

According to Apptentive, 79% of people read at least one review before installing an app. This means that the higher the number of reviews and ratings of an app, the more likely it is to incur more downloads. Secondly, another important advantage for developers is the rise in the app’s community.

Through reviews, the developers get direct feedback from users about the app's performance and the services or benefits it provides. A positive review tells them what's working and should be kept. A negative review tells them what isn't working and should be improved or fixed. This interaction helps in updating the app to satisfy the users’ needs.

The Benefits of Reviews for the Google Play Store

Leaving reviews for an app not only helps the users and the developers, but also the Google Play Store itself. The Play Store's goal as an app platform is to show you fast, accurate, and personalized results when you search for your desired app and keep spam apps away.

To make that happen, it needs information on the app's performance—which is displayed via user reviews. An app that has a 4.5-star rating is most probably safer and more relevant than an app with a 2-star rating of the same genre.

This information helps Google's algorithm better rank the apps on the Play Store and bring you high-quality app results that you are most likely to download and have a good experience with. The more favorable an app's rating and reviews, the more the number of people downloading that app and using Play Store's services.

Find Your Favorite Apps Faster

Leaving reviews on the Google Play Store is an ideal practice that shouldn’t be ignored. Whenever a user puts out an honest review, the creator of the application gets valuable feedback and so do all its potential users.

Hence, leaving reviews is a highly effective practice that makes the digital world clearer for users and creators and also gives a chance to Google Play Store to improve its services and serve customers better.