Apple will let developers reply to reviews in the App Store

Benjamin Mayo, writting for 9to5mac:

Apple has announced that it will soon let developers reply to reviews on the iPhone, iPad and Mac App Stores. As part of the iOS 10.3 release notes, the company says that by the time iOS 10.3 is available to customers, developers will be able to respond to customer reviews on the App Store.

This is a major breakthrough enhancement as developers have been asking Apple for better ways to interact with customers for a long time.

I see a lot of pushback from the developers community this morning along the lines of: “the App Store will now be your public support channel”.

It might be a problem but I see at least two reasons that it may be a good thing overall:

• Good and empathetic support will reflect positively on your app (of course, if you provide no support, that might be a problem). I know it seems naive but I really think it will go a long way with the core users of your apps, the ones that buy already knowing what it does and want it to work rather than bash the dev for making them pay a few bucks.

• If you want Apple to listen to us and (hopefully) implement more substantive changes to the store we really ought to have a constructive attitude to the changes they’re making right now. Sure, many implementation details will probably suck at first but we have to show Apple that they’re right to not be content of the status quo.