Replying to User Reviews on Google Play

[This post is by Trevor Johns from the Android team — Tim Bray]

User reviews on Google Play are great for helping people discover quality apps and give feedback to developers and other potential app users. But what about when developers want to give feedback to their users? Sometimes a user just needs a helping hand, or perhaps a new feature has been added and the developer wants to share the good news.

Thats why were adding the ability for Google Play developers to respond to reviews from the Google Play Android Developer Console. Developers can gather additional information, provide guidance, and  perhaps most importantly  let users know when their feature requests have been implemented.

Well also notify the user who wrote the review via email that the developer has responded. Users can then contact the developer directly if additional followup is needed or update their review.

Were releasing this feature today to those with a Top Developer badge (). And based on feedback from users and developers, we will offer it to additional Google Play developers in the future.

Conversations are meant to be two-sided, and facilitating discussion between developers and users will ultimately yield better apps, to the benefit of everyone.