With the launch of iOS 10.3, app developers can finally respond to reviews on the App Store.
Developers are now able to reply to all reviews of their app “no matter when they were written”.
They can do this by accessing the iTunes Connect dashboard, where they can browse through all their customer reviews.
Developers can filter the reviews by app version, territory, user rating and date posted.
And next to each review, Apple has now added a “Reply” button, but only those with a Legal, Admin, App Manager, or Marketer account can reply to the reviews.
After a review has been replied to, the customer will get an email notifying them of the response, and has the option to update their review.
If they do change their review, the developers will receive a notification.
In terms of visibility, any reply to a review will remain publicly visible, regardless of whether a customer edits their own review.
Developers can, however, edit or delete their reply “at any time”, and only one response per review will be displayed on the App Store listing.
As TechCrunch notes, the responses do seem to go through a review process, and emojis can be used in the replies.
Other important developments include that developers can now ask customers to rate their app while they are using it, without having to be directed to the App Store.
In addition to this, the promised review request limit has been implemented – app makers now only able to ask for reviews from customers three times a year.
One thing has changed from the original beta version, however – users are no longer able to completely opt out of receiving review prompts for all apps installed on their device.
According to TechCrunch, this feature will be added in due course.
With the release, Apple has published a guide about how to best reply to customer reviews, which to prioritise and how to time your replies.
Read more here.