Google Play Store ratings are used for the primary reasons:
- As an indication of how users perceive and respond to the quality of your app
- As a contributing factor to your app’s overall ranking and discoverability
- As a way to promote your app if rated positively
It’s important to understand that app ratings influence app rankings differently on different app store platforms and that apps in specific categories are more prone to receiving lower ratings.
Firstly, a major key difference between the App Store and Play Store is that the Google Play Store only counts the user ratings given to the latest version of the app, instead of a cumulative lifetime value of ratings.
As a result, more weight is given to more recent ratings, and emphasis is placed on app owners and developers to continually release app updates.
App owners and developers who may have initially released a poorly related app but have continually implemented improvements and software updates as a result of consumer comments and feedback will be able to see their hard work and effort better reflected through this app rating system.
Conversely, this also means that apps that might have once been highly rated but have failed to make adjustments or bug fixes will see a decline in their rating value.
In addition, unlike Apple’s App Store, the Google Play Store does not give app owners and developers the option to reset their app ratings.
It is also important to note that each app category in the Google Play Store is prone to receiving more negative/positive ratings for reasons that supersede just the quality of the app.
For example, according to Apptentive, 18% of all Android apps that fall under the Media category have an app rating of one star, largely contributed by users who have a negative experience with the content such as the topic of news coverage rather than the app itself.
This accentuates the importance of recognizing rating biases that may occur to your app based on its category and remedying that issue with Teleapp’s rating service.