Why you can’t trust reviews on Apple’s AppStore

Developers are exploiting Apple’s app review system to force users into giving their apps high reviews, it has emerged.

When choosing an app to download, we often check its reviews on the app store. After all, if other people were pleased with the app, there’s a good chance we would be as well. In fact, checking reviews is one of several steps we’d always recommend before downloading anything to make sure you’re never the victim of a scam.

But it’s not foolproof. And reviews should definitely not be relied on when deciding whether an app is worth your time. Apple’s review system is open to exploitation. ‘AppStore critic’ Kosta Eleftheriou has highlighted a number of flaws in Apple’s app eco-system, most notably one that effectively forces users of a particular app to give it a high star review before even being allowed to use the app.

App developers on Apple devices can prompt users to give their app a review by bringing up Apple’s review dialog box inside the app. However, spammy developers have worked out that this can be exploited, and they can prevent anyone from clicking “Not Now” or any low-star reviews. If a user attempts to tap anything other than a high-star score the dialog box just stays on the screen, apparently frozen. See Eleftheriou’s video below –

While there may be tricks to remove the dialog box, the developers are betting that most users will just end up giving a high review in order to remove it and carry on using the app. These reviews get published on the Apple app store, thus making the app appear to have a good score rating.

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While Apple has since removed the developer in Eleftheriou’s video from their platform, it’s unclear if Apple are working on how to prevent developers using this exploit going forward.

This flaw is particularly dangerous because it could allow developers of scam apps or even malware to make their apps appear legitimate if they manage to get their apps on the Apple app store.

Not only that, but it has been previously noted that the “featured review” (a review that appears on the app’s main page that Apple have deemed particularly helpful) can also be faked, with many nonsensical 5-star reviews being displayed. This appears to be achieved using fake “I found this review helpful” votes, suggesting that not only have spammers managed to find ways to flood the App store with fake reviews, but also with fake reviews of reviews.

It’s a good reason to be especially cautious when downloading apps from the Apple app store and not to rely on merely using the review system to determine whether you should be downloading a particular app.