Ask for a rating right after a clear success moment, such as completing a task, reaching a milestone, or receiving a result, and never during errors or onboarding friction. Use the platform review prompt, respect its frequency limits, and track rating quality and volume together.
Find your success moments
Look for events where the user has just gained value: finishing a workout, booking a trip, exporting a document, or reaching a streak. Satisfaction is highest immediately after.
Use analytics to find the events strongly correlated with retention.
Avoid bad moments
Do not prompt after errors, during payment, or on first launch before value is delivered. Interrupting a task increases dismissals and negative responses.
Suppress prompts for users with open support issues.
Use the platform prompt
Both platforms provide native review prompts that limit how often they appear. Use them instead of custom dialogs that gate reviews by sentiment, which policies prohibit.
Do not offer rewards for ratings.
Measure and adjust
Track prompt shown, dismissal, and review submission rates, and watch rating averages over time. Test different trigger events and minimum usage thresholds.
Combine with a feedback channel for unhappy users that does not block public reviews.
Common mistakes with in-app rating prompt
Asking at launch, after an error, or in the middle of a task are the common mistakes. Showing a custom happy-or-not screen that sends only happy users to the store breaks policy. Offering rewards for ratings is another violation.
Teams also forget to suppress prompts for users with open support issues.
In-app rating prompt: a worked example
A running app triggers the prompt after a user completes a third run and views the summary, but not if a crash occurred during the last session. It tracks prompt shown, dismissed, and rating results.
After a month it tests requiring five runs instead of three and compares rating quality.
How to do it, step by step
- List success eventsIdentify moments such as finishing a run or exporting a file.
- Set thresholdsRequire a few sessions and a recent success.
- Exclude bad momentsSuppress prompts after crashes or open support tickets.
- Use the native promptDo not build sentiment-gated dialogs.
- Track resultsMeasure shown, dismissed, and submitted.
Before and after examples
Illustrative examples written for a generic app in this category, not client results. Swap in your own product, audience, and data.
On first launch
After a user completes their third run and views the summary
Why it works: Value has been delivered.
Do you like the app? Yes goes to the store, no goes to feedback
Use the system prompt and offer a separate feedback link
Why it works: Sentiment gating breaks policy.
Prompt after a crash
Skip if a crash happened in the last session
Why it works: Do not ask after a bad experience.
Action plan
- List success moments
- Avoid errors and payment steps
- Use the native prompt
- Do not gate by sentiment
- Do not reward ratings
- Test triggers and thresholds
Metrics to monitor
- Prompt to review rate
- Average rating of prompted reviewers
- Dismissal rate
- Rating trend over time
Record the baseline, release date, audience, markets, and external changes before interpreting movement. Rankings and conversion are useful signals, but a decision is stronger when activation, retention, and business value confirm that the page attracted the right users.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask users to rate only if they are happy?
Filtering who sees the public prompt by sentiment violates policies; offer separate feedback channels instead.
How often can I prompt?
Platforms limit frequency, so check current guidance.
Should I reward ratings?
No; incentivized reviews break policies.
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