ratings-mechanics

Explains App Store rating behavior across storefronts, resets, phased releases, and review replies.

696|66|Updated Oct 29, 2025
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills --skill ratings-mechanics
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: ratings-mechanics
Source: https://github.com/rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills/tree/main/skills/app-store/ratings-mechanics
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills --skill ratings-mechanics

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve?

App Store ratings behave in ways most developers learn the hard way: ratings are isolated per storefront, resets destroy rating counts permanently, and unphased releases can turn one bad build into a 1-star flood. This Skill provides the strategy layer for protecting and growing an app's rating.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Per-Storefront Rules: Explains why ratings never transfer between countries and how to plan prompting and review seeding when entering new markets.
  • Reset and Release Guidance: Details why the ratings summary reset is almost always a mistake, and how phased release plus manual release limit damage from bad builds.
  • Prompt-and-Reply Loop: Covers when to trigger requestReview, how replies convert updated 1-star reviews into higher scores, and how to audit ratings posture per storefront.
  • Use Case: You launch in Japan and see no rating despite 2,000 US ratings. Use this Skill to build a localized prompting and reply plan for that storefront instead of assuming social proof carried over.

Quick Start

Ask the assistant to audit my app's ratings posture per storefront and flag any reset considerations or unphased releases.

Frequently Asked Questions about ratings-mechanics

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
Why does my app show no rating in some countries on the App Store?

App Store ratings are per-storefront and never transfer between countries. Your US ratings do not appear on the Japanese storefront, so each new market starts from zero and needs its own prompting and review-seeding plan.

Should I reset my App Store rating when releasing a new version?

Resetting the ratings summary is almost always a mistake because it discards the rating count along with the average, and the count never recovers quickly. Replying to outdated negative reviews and using What's New copy is the better path.

How does phased release protect my App Store rating?

Phased release rolls a version out over 7 days from 1% to 100% of auto-update users, so a crashing build caught early has only reached a small fraction of users. Pausing stops new deliveries, limiting the 1-star flood while you ship a fix.

Can replying to App Store reviews change my rating?

Yes. When a user updates their review after a developer reply, the new score replaces the old one in the average. Replies are the only mechanism that converts existing 1-star ratings into higher scores.

When should I trigger requestReview in my iOS app?

Trigger requestReview at success moments, never at launch or mid-task, and cap the frequency. Weight prompts by storefront maturity, since a market with few ratings benefits more from prompting than an established one.