How to analyze app reviews for your product roadmap
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App reviews are unprompted bug reports and feature requests. Turning them into roadmap input takes four steps: collect, tag, slice, rank.
1. Collect the reviews
- App Store: the App Store Connect API lists your app's reviews with rating, title, body, reviewer nickname, created date and territory. You can also list reviews for one App Store version (App Store Connect API: Customer Reviews).
- Google Play: Play Console lets you download reviews as CSV, and monthly review reports are available in Google Cloud Storage (Play Console Help: View and analyze your app's ratings and reviews). The API returns only reviews created or modified in the last week (Google Play Developer API: Reply to Reviews).
- Or use the free review export for public reviews of any app.
2. Tag every review
Use a short, fixed list of themes so counts stay comparable from week to week. Revunda uses: bugs, crashes / freezes, performance, UX / design, pricing / subscription, ads and feature requests. One review can carry several themes.
Play Console's Reviews analysis offers its own topics for benchmarks: design, privacy, profile, resource usage, speed, stability, uninstalls, update and usability, plus English review summaries (Play Console Help: View and analyze your app's ratings and reviews).
3. Slice it
- By version: a theme that appears with one release is a regression, not a roadmap item.
- By country and device: Play Console breaks ratings down by country, language, app version, Android version, device and more (Play Console Help: View and analyze your app's ratings and reviews). App Store reviews carry a territory (App Store Connect API: Customer Reviews).
4. Rank
For each theme, look at how many reviews mention it, how severe it is for the user (blocked, annoyed, or suggesting), and whether it is growing. Write each item as a fix ("restore offline mode on iPad"), not as a theme ("bugs").
Close the loop
When you ship a fix, say so in the release notes and reply to the reviews that reported it; Apple recommends both (Apple Developer: Ratings, reviews, and responses). Play Console's "Updated ratings" view shows how ratings changed for reviews you replied to (Play Console Help: View and analyze your app's ratings and reviews).
Sources
- App Store Connect API: Customer Reviews
- Play Console Help: View and analyze your app's ratings and reviews
- Google Play Developer API: Reply to Reviews
- Apple Developer: Ratings, reviews, and responses
Related guides
- App store review sentiment analysis: a practical method
- How to find competitor app complaints on the App Store and Google Play
- ASO from app reviews: turn user words into keywords and copy
- All app developer guides
Questions
Where can I download all my Google Play reviews?
Play Console lets you download reviews as a CSV file, and monthly review reports are stored in Google Cloud Storage. The API only returns reviews from the last week.
Can I get App Store reviews for one version?
Yes. The App Store Connect API has an endpoint that lists customer reviews for a specific App Store version.
How many themes should I track?
A short fixed list, around seven to ten, keeps weekly counts comparable. Add a theme only when a new kind of complaint keeps appearing.