Only 1 out of 10 reviews get a response on Google Play

According to a new report by AppFollow, the response rate of apps in the App Store is 22%, compared to 10% in the Google Play Store, meaning that only 1 out of 10 reviews gets a response on the Play Store, while 2 out of 10 reviews get a response on Apple’s App Store.

The report says that customer support on the App Store, as a general average, takes much longer to respond to reviews, with a median of 2.4 days before one is published. For Google Play, support takes only 0.5 days. However, AppFollow says this data is impacted by the approval process by Apple for review responses, which can take 8-12 hours to update & 4-8 hours for the response to become visible.

App downloads and time spent in apps are increasing every year, even every quarter. According to a new report, users in the United States have reached a new high of 4.2 hours a day using mobile apps in Q3, up from 3.9 in the second quarter of 2021. In both the App Store and Google Play, app downloads reached 36.4 billion in the third quarter of 2021. 

App reviews are heavily taken into account when users decide whether to download any app or not. Research shows that 94% of consumers look at app reviews and ratings before making a decision. 70% of Apple users read at least one review before installing an app. Considering these figures, it is a fact that app developers should take reviews seriously and engage more with their audiences.

AppFollow’s data shows that apps that provide customer support to their users have 30% higher retention rate than those which don’t. 

The average response rate of apps in gaming, which is the most competitive category of both Google Play and the App Store, is 8%.  Gaming apps in Google Play also takes the longest time to respond to customer reviews, at 2.1 days on average before a response is provided. 

Shopping apps are lacking in review management across both stores. With evidence from the data, they have the lowest response rate recorded at 4% and take about a week to respond.

Finance apps, on the other hand,  have a higher response rate (25%) on average when compared to other categories.