Sorry I had seen similar posts but didn’t really see a specific answer and didnt want to revive very old pots.
I was wondering what happens to your ratings/reviews when you update?
As far as I can see your rating count is set back to 0 on the app store (viewing on the iphone). Is this correct if so is there any way to keep the old ratings count or is it better just to strategically update your app so you have time to rebuild ratings count for a certain season. Also since rating count disappears I assume people who bought the old version rerate on new?
I know when I buy an app I am much more willing to buy an app with 100 ratings at 4 stars than I would be to buy an app with 4 ratings at 5 stars.
I don't know if something changed in the store but I've noticed recently that our app seems to keep it's reviews even after updating. But maybe there is a threshold that has to be reached in order for the review counter to reset and we just haven't reached it yet.
Last time I updated my game reviews and ratings got reset (they were still available through "all time" collection). What also happened is, first reviews of the new version were stuck on the first page in iTunes, always visible when people opened it there. iPhone displays the most recent reviews though.
In seems the more reviews or downloads an app has, the more reviews/rankings it takes for things to reset. One of our apps has 20+ reviews/rankings for an updated version but still retains the all versions ratings. All other apps have reset the rankings/reviews when 5 ranks are given. Maybe there is just a glitch in the system for that one app, or maybe apps with over a certain number of downloads, say 100K need more rankings on an update for things to reset.
Either way I don't think an update will hurt the credibility of your app. You will have the old rankings, then when the rankings hit 5 the count will reset, so you will always have at least 5 rankings assuming you had that many to begin with.
Ok, so the ratings just reset on the app with lots of downloads. I think that updated ratings don't count for setting the new rating. What counts is ratings from new users. The ratings don't seem to reset until you have 5 ratings from NEW users from what I can tell.
My analysis is based on the fact that the app had 499 ratings at the update, and didn't have the ratings reset until it hit 516 overall ratings. When the ratings reset, there were only 5. Essentially that would mean anyone who rates previous versions doesn't have their ratings count for the new version, or maybe not until the ratings reset, and then they rate will the new rating count. Mysterious! I think ratings should count for any user, new or user from previous update, because a 1 star can turn into a 5 star from the same user in an update and that should count for the new version.
Good news is overall rating is 3 stars but update rating is 4.5 stars.
Agreed, ranking or even search position is more important than rating.
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Originally Posted by RoryHarvey
Do you have any stats to back this up? I'd say the opposite is true and chart ranking is far more important to sales than rating.
I am just talking about from my standpoint sorry I should have stated that.
My app isn’t something that’s going to make it into the top of the charts any time soon. In most cases it is something you have to search for it is a baseball stats tracker.
When I buy specific niche apps I usually take a look on what’s on the list and who has the highest rating/a good number of reviews but thats just me.
I am just talking about from my standpoint sorry I should have stated that.
My app isn’t something that’s going to make it into the top of the charts any time soon. In most cases it is something you have to search for it is a baseball stats tracker.
When I buy specific niche apps I usually take a look on what’s on the list and who has the highest rating/a good number of reviews but thats just me.
OK, well its never a bad thing to have a good rating. Best thing you can do is make sure you are asking for ratings from your best, most frequent users from within the app itself.
App updates and ratings/reviews
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