The changes will inherit effect starting November 2021.
Google is changing the way it shows ratings and reviews on the Play Store to form them more personal and insightful. For example, rather than showing the mixture rating of an app on the Play Store, Google will show localized ratings specific to your country and device type.
The changes will be unrolled over multiple quarters, thereby giving developers an ample amount of your time to regulate it.
Google Play to Show Country-Specific Ratings and Reviews
In its announcement on the Android Developers blog, Google says that beginning November 2021, it’ll only show app ratings on mobile from the country the user is so that they’re more relevant to them.
This will ensure that an app receiving negative reviews for a bug that only affects users in one country doesn’t impact its ratings and ranking in other countries. Additionally, it’ll help surface localized and more relevant Play Store reviews.
An app could be more useful in Western countries than Asian countries, so its reviews and ratings will reflect this alteration post. Unfortunately, this also means the Play Store ratings for an app will vary from country to country.
Starting early 2022, Google will show reviews and ratings counting on the device’s form factor. This suggests that if you access the Play Store using an Android tablet, you will only see the ratings and reviews submitted for the tablet version of the app. Similarly, on Chromebooks, the Play Store will show ratings and reviews submitted by other Chromebook users.
Again, this may help in surfacing more relevant reviews for a user, which will help them decide if they ought to install an app or not. You ought to always leave reviews on the Google Play Store because it benefits the whole ecosystem.
Google to Help Developers With the Transition
To help make the transition easier for developers, Google will analyze all existing apps on the Play Store 10 weeks before the changes go live. It’ll inform developers if their app rating suffers from quite 0.2 stars on any device type during a key market.
The company has also added new features to the Google Play Console, including Device Type dimensions within the rating page and, therefore, filter reviews by device type. Developers also can download rating distributions and average data in CSV format for extra analysis.
A Step in the Right Direction
The Play Store was initially available just for Android smartphones and tablets. However, over time, Google has expanded it to Chromebooks and devices with other varying sorts of form factors.
Thus, this alteration from Google to only surface ratings and reviews relevant to a user’s country and device type may be a step in the right direction. In addition, it’ll help offer a more personalized Play Store experience.
