Definition
Review bombing is a sudden flood of bad reviews, often about something other than how well the app works.
Review bombs are often set off by a price change, a new paywall, a policy, or news about the company. Sometimes a popular post sends a crowd to leave 1-star reviews. The reviews tend to be short, angry and very alike.
A review bomb is different from a wave of bad reviews after a buggy update. In that case, the app really is broken, and a fix is the answer. With a review bomb, the problem is often a decision, not a bug.
How to respond
You can't delete reviews. Stay calm, and explain your decision once, in plain words. Look for any fair point hidden in the anger. Keep asking happy users for ratings at good moments, so new reviews slowly balance out the wave.
Example
A photo app moves a popular filter behind a paywall. Within a day, hundreds of 1-star reviews say "greedy" and "deleted it." Few of them mention bugs. That points to a review bomb about price, not quality.
Related terms
- App Store rating An App Store rating is the 1 to 5 star score people give an app, shown as one overall score per country.
- Rating reset A rating reset clears your app's overall App Store star rating, so it starts fresh with a new version.
- Developer response A developer response is the public reply an app maker posts under a user's App Store review.
- Review sentiment analysis Review sentiment analysis sorts reviews by the mood they show, such as good, bad or mixed.
Learn more
Updated by the Synthiya team. See all terms.