Google announced on Monday that it will customize android app ratings as per country and device type to make them more useful to users and developers. This is implied to give users a better impression of the experience that they can expect for the device they’re using.
Google’s blog post reads; “We’ve heard from both Play Store users and developers that ratings and reviews could be more helpful. This is especially true when ratings from one area unfairly impact another — like when a bug that only impacted a single country negatively affects the app’s rating everywhere; or when positive improvements in a tablet experience are overlooked because of the number of users on phones.”
The company further announced that they are initiating a multi-quarter program to improve the ratings. The users on smartphones will start seeing ratings specific to their registered country from November 2021. Early in 2022, users on other form-factors such as tablets, Chromebooks, and wearables will start seeing the ratings specific to the device that they’re using.
Read more: Google removes 9 Play Store apps that stole users’ Facebook credentials
Customize Android App Ratings and Device type insight
Google has added a new feature that will filter the reviews according to the device type. So, the user can easily see how tablet users are rating the app, or what Chrome OS users say in their reviews. As a result of this update, Google will be reaching out to Play Store developers on significant rating changes.
The company said; “We understand that as a developer you will want to make sure you understand and get ahead of any major shifts in your user-visible ratings. So at least 10 weeks before any change in Play Store, we’ll automatically analyze the change your app can expect to see and reach out to any developer that will see a change of more than 0.2 stars on any device type in a key market. This will give you time to plan if you want to make key changes to your app.”
Upcoming changes in Google Play
Google added flexibility to the rating data, any developer can now independently select the period he wants to plot. It can be plotted from the last 28 days through the app’s complete lifetime, and the developer can also choose how they want the rating data to be aggregated (daily, weekly, or every 28 days).
Google is also enabling CSV downloads of the average data and rating distributions, making it easier for the developer to perform offline analysis. While giving an example, the country said, the developer can download the entire history of daily rating distributions and correlate it in a spreadsheet with customer service contacts to spot potential trends.
