What do you want to know
- Google is introducing a new app review policy on the Play Store.
- The new policy will delay posting new reviews until 24 hours after they are posted.
- Google aims to ward off suspicious reviews and ratings with the new change.
Google wants to make app ratings and reviews on the Play Store as authentic as possible by introducing a new policy that will delay the publication of reviews and ratings.
The latest change will delay reviews and ratings submitted by users approximately 24 hours before they are made public, assuming they come from real people. Google is targeting the new policy to detect suspicious ratings and reviews on Android apps.
“To allow us to automatically detect suspicious rating or review activity, we are introducing a delay of approximately 24 hours between the time users submit ratings or reviews and the time those submissions are published,” a said Google in a notice, as reported by Mishaal Rahman (opens in a new tab). “During this period, you will still be able to help your users by viewing and responding to reviews, but these will not be immediately public.”
Google’s new Play Store policy should help reduce the spread of fake product reviews online. The UK Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into Google and Amazon last year to determine whether they “may not have done enough” to tackle fake reviews on their respective platforms.
Fake reviews and ratings have been a plague for many developers over the past few years, especially negative reviews that hurt the popularity of their apps. Google Ratings and Ratings Page (opens in a new tab) on the Play Store states that “reviews should reflect your experience with the content or service you are reviewing”. However, some user reviews on the Play Store may not be related to the app under review.
Additionally, Google warns against posting the same review multiple times, as well as reviews for the same content from multiple accounts. The most recent change should result in more honest reviews that better represent users’ actual experiences with a product.