Protect from fake reviews on Google Play

Question

I published my Android app to Google Play and everything was fine. I got about 5000 user reviews with an average 4.6 mark. But at some moment I started getting lowest mark with an insane speed. Several hundred 1 marks during 5 days. So my rating fell to 4.3. There were no complains from users, no comments, just a huge number of lowest marks. I suspect these were fake reviews. Probably paid by competitors. Is there any way to identify that? To prevent that? Does Google protect us from fake reviews in any way?

Solution 1

I think the best thing to do is contact Google and make them aware of the issue.

There is a contact form on the google play site

Its also worth checking that there's not a bug in your app that stops it from opening in certain phones/devices (which may or may not be your fault, could be firmware issues). But you'll generally see users select 1 star rather than writing reviews. Remember users are lazy :)

As @64BitsPerMinute suggested in his comment, there may be some frameworks that could help detect crashes. Have a look at ACRA, or for a more managed service have a look at HockeyKit with the HockeyApp plugin. These services allow you to get crash + stack reports from your users when thins go wrong. Even if the users don't report it back to you they can click one button and send instant crash results.

Solution 2

Fight fire with fire. Pay some folks on vworker.com for 5 stars.

The better answer from my comment below:

... you might consider just spending the money on advertising. If your app is good enough to garner 5000 5s, then it will happen again soon on its own. Good luck!

Solution 3

As others have said, there may be an issue you're not aware of. You could use the Developer console to check if there's an unusually high number of reviews coming from a particular device or OS version.

Solution 4

have you tried google analytics ? maybe it could give you more clues if there are any bugs or features that do not work as you'd expect. also , this could help to verify your theory of fake responses - if the number of unique users that run the app is much lower than those that have installed it , some haven't tried it after installation.

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Comments

[Fedor]

Have just posted a feedback, thanks! We'll see if it works.

[John Mitchell]

@Fedor just wondering if you ever got any feedback on this ?

[Fedor]

Here's the reply from google support: "Thank you for your note. It is possible that we've detected and removed comments or ratings that have violated our terms of use. You can see our Developer-facing comment policies outlined in our Content Policy". As fake rates are still not removed it means they won't be. Bad for me.

[John Mitchell]

It sounds like they have removed one or two of them, they arn't normally allowed to comment on actions by other accounts (i.e fake accounts) so that'll be as close an answer as you'll get. The rest have probably been passed as legit :|

[Fedor]

We use our custom solution that does pretty much the same that ACRA does. So all our crash reports are under control, they can't be a reason.

[Fedor]

Google support was not able to help so I'm awarding this answer with bounty. It seems to be the only real option. But I don't want to use it. Will not feel good after doing it this way. Prefer being on Light side of the Force.

[John Mitchell]

The problem with this approach is the opposite may happen, if your caught faking the numbers your app could be removed from the market :|

[John Mitchell]

@Fedor I understand, I would like to leave the comment in though, in-case other users stumble upon this question, so that it may help "future generations" rather than just one user :D

[QED]

Thanks for the extra puntos. In a strictly moral sense I would agree that you really shouldn't do this - two wrongs don't make a right. But a few hundred 5s against a few hundred 1s do make a higher average. Just be sure that, if you take this route, you name five or ten different apps in your request, so that it's hard to trace, and for God's sake use a pseudonym. Lastly, you might consider just spending the money on advertising. If your app is good enough to garner 5000 5s, then it will happen again soon on its own. Good luck!

[furkan]

The most effective way to report an inappropriate review is to send an email from Google Play Developer Console > Help (at the top right) > Contact us > Email. In my case they removed the review in 10hrs. That is the case if the review violates these: play.google.com/about/comment-posting-policy.html support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/…