The unloved application suddenly has almost five stars in the App Store after Apple introduced a rating dialog. Users apparently believe they are guessing podcasts.
Users arriving at the weekend the Calling up the App Store entry from Apple’s official podcasts application shouldn’t surprise you: the app had 4.7 out of 5 and even more stars for a short time. This was all the more surprising given that the tool, which gives access to the group’s popular range of audio programs, is otherwise rated rather poorly.
Users misunderstand the demand
The reasons are annoying usability and content issues. After Apple recently allowed the rating of integrated iOS apps in the App Store, the tool consequently received a 2 out of 5 stars. But how does it come to the wonderful rating improvements? According to a report by IT blog The Verge, partially confirmed by Apple, users seem to confuse reviews of the app itself with those of the podcasts. The result: The app benefits because the content is appreciated by most users.
According to Apple, there is actually an in-app prompt – as is also the case with many other apps – that users hear when listening to Podcasts to rate the app. However, this means that the respective podcast is actually often rated, like developer and app store critic Kosta Eleftheriou was the first to notice. And indeed, the rating of Apple’s podcasts app changed abruptly after the prompts had apparently appeared more frequently since the beginning of November. However, there was no update that users might appreciate.
Great podcast, annoying app
If you take a look at the rating entries, you will often notice that here Podcasts are rated and not Apple’s app itself. “I can’t get enough of this team,” writes one user, for example, or it says: “The best podcast of all time!!!”. “All the new positive reviews seem to be talking about a specific podcast and not the app,” said Eleftheriou.
It is unclear whether Apple will resolve the user confusion with different wording in its rating prompts in the future. The company only said that since iOS 15.1, Apple Podcasts has asked you to leave a rating and review – “just like most third-party apps”. To do this, use the standard “Ratings & Review” prompt available to all developers.
