It’s Valentine’s Day, and love is in the air. But maintaining healthy relationships with your loved ones requires ongoing effort and commitment; the same goes for retaining and engaging your app user base. The last thing you want is for your connection with users to go stale. So what can you do as an app marketer to make sure your users love you (or rather your app) back?
Improving your app’s retention is the key to long-term success and profitability. So, introducing strategies to strengthen your relationship with your users is necessary. Making sure your users feel like their opinions matter can be implemented through various user-centric strategies. In this post we will cover the strategies that will help you avoid having a toxic relationship with your users, and instead foster an engaged and positive sentiment around your app product and user experience.
A match made in UX heaven: How to find the perfect moment for app review management
The best way to ensure your in-app experience shines through in user reviews is by crafting a thoughtful trigger strategy for your review prompts. Instead of asking your users randomly to review your app, identify the key moments when they truly realise its value – this is when they’re most likely to leave a positive review.
So how do you begin? Start by mapping out your user journey and ask yourself: When does my app deliver its “aha” moment? This varies depending on your app’s purpose:
- For apps with infrequent but high-impact usage (e.g., travel booking apps), prompt users immediately after completing a key action, like booking a flight or hotel. Since many users may only make travel plans once or twice a year, waiting too long means missing your window for valuable feedback.
- For apps with daily engagement (e.g., fitness, meditation, or task management apps), consider triggering a review request after users have completed a milestone—such as finishing their 10th workout, meditating for five consecutive days, or successfully tracking a week’s worth of tasks. At this point, they’ve built a habit and are more likely to feel positively about their experience.
By aligning your review prompts with moments of success, you not only increase the likelihood of positive feedback but also reinforce your app’s value to users. Timing, just like in relationships, makes all the difference.
Not everyone has the same preferences: App Store and Google Play review prompt limits
While strategically timing your review prompts is essential, it’s just as important to stay within Apple’s and Google’s guidelines to avoid a negative user experience or even policy violations. Both platforms have set rules on how frequently you can prompt users for reviews within a given timeframe.
Apple’s review prompt limits (App Store)
Apple enforces strict limitations on how often you can ask users to leave a review using its official RequestReviewAction API:
- You can prompt a user only three times per year within your app.
- If a user has already left a review, they won’t be asked again until a new version of the app is released.
- You cannot manually reset or bypass this limit, as Apple manages the prompt frequency automatically.
Because of these restrictions, it’s crucial to be intentional with when and how you trigger a review request. Since you have a limited number of opportunities per user per year, make sure you time it around high-value moments where users are most likely to respond positively.
Google’s review prompt limits (Google Play Store)
Google has a slightly different approach with its in-app review API:
- A user can be prompted for a review only once every 12 months per app.
- Like Apple, Google does not guarantee that a review prompt will appear every time you call the API, as it uses internal logic to determine eligibility.
- If a user has already submitted a review, they won’t see another prompt unless they uninstall and reinstall the app or a significant app update occurs.
Because Google’s review prompt is even more restrictive than Apple’s, it’s even more important to trigger the prompt at the right time—when a user has fully experienced the value of your app and is likely to leave a positive review.
Since Apple and Google both impose limits on review requests, you should prioritise quality over quantity (as with your relationships, too). Rather than prompting users at random, focus on moments when they have achieved something meaningful within the app. A well-timed request ensures higher conversion rates, better ratings, and stronger user sentiment.
How to make your users feel heard: App review management
As with any relationship, communication is key. Your users want to feel heard, and engaging with their reviews—whether positive or negative—demonstrates that you value their feedback and are committed to continuously improving their experience. But responding to just a few reviews isn’t enough. To build a strong, long-term relationship with your audience, aim to acknowledge all reviews consistently.
The power of positive reviews
When users leave positive feedback, they’re already engaged and happy with your app. A well-crafted, personalised response not only reinforces their satisfaction but also strengthens their loyalty. Simple acknowledgements, like thanking them for their support or highlighting how their feedback influences future updates, can deepen their connection to your brand.
This engagement can also fuel organic growth! Encouraging satisfied users to share their experiences with friends, on social media, or in forums can drive more downloads and improve referral acquisition. Word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful marketing tools, and a little appreciation can go a long way in encouraging it.
Turning negative app experiences around
Negative reviews can feel discouraging, but they offer valuable insights into areas for improvement. More importantly, they provide an opportunity to win users back. A thoughtful and empathetic response can often turn a frustrated user into a loyal one.
Start by acknowledging their concerns—avoid generic replies and instead personalise your response based on their specific issue. If a solution is available, guide them through the fix with clear instructions. If the problem requires more time or development work, be transparent about the next steps, letting them know that their feedback is actively shaping improvements.
Follow-up is crucial. If the issue is resolved, check back with the user to ensure they’re satisfied. At this stage, you can politely ask if they’d consider updating their review to reflect their improved experience. Many users appreciate the effort and are willing to revise their feedback when they see that a company genuinely cares.
Building a reputation for user care
By maintaining an active and thoughtful app review management strategy, you not only improve individual user experiences but also enhance your app’s reputation in the store. App stores take review engagement into account, and consistently responding to feedback can positively influence your app’s ranking.
More importantly, fostering this two-way communication builds trust and loyalty, which are essential for long-term retention. Users who feel heard and valued are far more likely to stick around, recommend your app, and engage with future updates.
At the end of the day, responding to reviews isn’t just about damage control—it’s about cultivating lasting relationships that drive sustained app success.
Listening is key: How Tinder uses user feedback effectively
Tinder, for example, likes to respond to many of their negative and positive reviews with a personalised response, which is a great practice for effective app review management. Below is an example of a negative review around frustration with the verification process and the user asking for help. By responding to this review, Tinder improves the user’s experience by outlining how they can solve their problem. Going on even further, they can see that the verification process is a problem in general and work to resolve it in the future.
Since they started responding to reviews more frequently, you can see that since May of last year, their overall app rating has increased from 3.7 to 4.
To follow suit and improve your positive reviews, you can strategically implement review prompts within the user journey. We recommend doing this at specific points when sentiment is likely to be high, like after a successful purchase. Note that it is important not to bombard your users with requests to review, so make sure to have a clear app review management strategy (ARM) to help stage prompts.
Don’t just tell them, show them: Closing the feedback loop
You can build on the reviews you get to highlight which features of your app are most valuable to your users. Often, negative reviews point out bugs and features that need improving, which developers can use to close the feedback loop. Closing the feedback loop means that you take that user feedback and use it to improve the app and the overall user experience. This not only helps you to create a user-centric app but is also a sure-fire way to make your users feel heard and strengthen prospective retention and engagement rates.
You can close the feedback loop this in many ways, including evolving your feature roadmap in-line with customer reviews. A study done by PWC reported that 32% of customers would stop doing business with a brand they like after just one poor experience. By fixing the problems that your users have, you can reduce your customer churn and produce long-term app success metrics.
Overall, make sure that both of your positive and negative types of reviewers feel heard. Closing the feedback loop with positive reviewers is just as important as acknowledging and supporting your customers who provide negative feedback. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that everyone has a positive experience when they are using your app.
In conclusion: Put your users first
Maintaining a good relationship with your users is a lot like maintaining a good relationship in your personal life. Ensure your users feel appreciated and put relationship building at the heart of your strategy to increase your app’s long-term success. Making sure that your users feel heard and supported through app review management, as well as giving gifts or incentives, are great ways for your app to see further success. If you check in with your users regularly, like you would a partner, they will feel more encouraged to stay with your app.
In essence, a comprehensive approach that includes effective review management, gamification and CRM strategies is essential for fostering positive user experiences and ensuring long-term app success metrics. And in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, go out there and win over the hearts of your users.
