How to reply to 1-star App Store reviews

A public reply to a 1-star review is read by every future user who scrolls past it. We looked at 16,363 complaining reviews (out of 36,800 recent App Store reviews of 112 apps) to see what they are actually about, then wrote one reply pattern for each complaint type.

Got a pile of 1-star reviews to answer? We pick your 20 most recent unanswered 1–2★ reviews and write a specific reply to each, in the reviewer's language, ready to paste into App Store Connect. Usually within 24 h.
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The rules that matter

Reply in App Store Connect (Ratings and Reviews, or the App Store Connect app). Each review can have one public developer response, which you can edit later.
The reviewer is notified and can update their rating, so a useful reply can turn a 1★ into a 4★.
Answer the newest and the most severe first. Old reviews about bugs you fixed long ago matter less than this week's.
One next step, one channel. "Update to 5.2" or "email support@…", not a list.
Never ask for personal data in public, never blame the user, never argue about price.
Keep it short: 2–4 sentences, signed by a person or the team.

What negative (1–3★) App Store reviews are about

Share of complaining reviews that mention each theme (a review can mention several). Severity 0–3 is the AI's estimate of how bad the problem is for the user, averaged across apps.

Theme	Reviews	Share of complaints	Avg severity
Bugs	8,616	53%	2.3
Pricing / subscription	6,637	41%	2.3
Feature requests	5,116	31%	2.1
UX / design	3,356	21%	2.1
Performance	2,391	15%	2.3
Crashes / freezes	1,545	9%	2.6
Ads	1,386	8%	2.1

A reply for each complaint type

Replace the {placeholders}. The quotes are real 1–2★ reviews from our app reports.

Bugs (53% of complaints)

Real example from the Hulu report (1★): “Watching live tv is difficult. It randomly glitches and closes every other hour. Don’t even think about rewinding. Entire app will freeze”

Sorry, that should not happen. We have logged it for the team. If you can, tell us your device and iOS version at {contact}; we reply within one working day and will let you know when the fix is out.

Ask for one concrete detail (device, iOS version, steps), give one channel, and promise a follow-up you can keep.

Pricing / subscription (41% of complaints)

Real example from the MyFitnessPal report (2★): “Cronometer is way better barcode scan is not locked behind a paywall ads are short then you can skip you can see your nutrition stats without paying once I stopped paying for premium I went looking for another app”

Thanks for being straight with us about the price. The subscription includes {what paid users get}, and you can cancel any time in Settings → your name → Subscriptions. If you were charged after cancelling, Apple handles App Store refunds at reportaproblem.apple.com, and we are happy to help at {contact}.

Never argue that the price is fair. Explain what the user gets, how to cancel, and where refunds go.

Feature requests (31% of complaints)

Real example from the Microsoft Copilot report (1★): “Please bring back the option for the AI to read its message aloud to you on mobile apps.”

Great suggestion, thank you. {feature} is on our list; we will post in the release notes when it ships.

Only say "on our list" if it is. Otherwise thank them and explain the alternative.

UX / design (21% of complaints)

Real example from the Bank of America report (1★): “This is the worst banking App I ever used. The interface is not organized in an understandable and manageable way. I cannot even find the rewards I already got. Probably they try to hide it lol”

Thanks for the honest feedback on the new design. You can {workaround}. We read every review like yours while we adjust it.

Give a workaround if one exists; do not defend the redesign.

Performance (15% of complaints)

Real example from the Fly Delta report (1★): “Can’t check in using the app,also very slow to load and navigate”

Thanks for flagging the slowness. We are working on load times in the next update. If you share your device model at {contact}, we can check whether it is a known issue.

Be specific about what you are changing; vague "we are always improving" replies read as dismissive.

Crashes / freezes (9% of complaints)

Real example from the Afterpay report (1★): “The app freezes and crashes quite a bit with certain retailers (Wal-Mart especially). Probably going to stop using as I've had problems in the past. Good concept but poor execution.”

Sorry about the crashes. Version {version} includes stability fixes, so please update and let us know at {contact} if it still happens; a short description of what you were doing helps us find it fast.

Name the fix version if there is one. Do not ask the user to reinstall unless you know it helps.

Ads (8% of complaints)

Real example from the Disney+ report (1★): “first we had the plan with no ads, now the plan has increased in price and includes ads. now i can’t even download stuff to watch offline without paying even more. just disappointing and money hungry.”

Thanks for telling us the ads got in the way. {ad-free option, e.g. Premium removes all ads}. We have also {what you changed, e.g. capped video ads to one per session}.

Do not pretend ads are not there; give the ad-free route and one concrete change.

Category-specific templates: reply templates for 14 app categories · how to reply to negative app reviews.

Rather not write them yourself? Send your App Store or Google Play link at checkout. We write replies to your 20 most recent unanswered 1–2★ reviews, specific to what each one says, delivered by email as PDF + text.
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Questions

Can you reply to App Store reviews?

Yes. Developers can post one public response per review in App Store Connect and edit it later. The reviewer is notified and may update the review.

Should I reply to every 1-star review?

Prioritise recent and severe ones, and any review that describes a problem you have fixed. A short, specific reply beats a copy-paste one.

What do most 1-star app reviews complain about?

In 16,363 complaining App Store reviews of 112 apps, the most frequent theme was bugs (53% of complaints).