Google Play Store ratings are ALL about to be recalculated

The Google Play Store has built up an extensive catalogue of app reviews and ratings ever since it was launched under the Android Market name way back in 2008. These scores are currently treated equally regardless of how old or how new they are. But according to this update post by Kobi Glick (Google Play, Product Lead), this entire system will change very soon.

Although treating scores equally may seem like the fairest ratings system on paper, it fails to take into account the fact that, in most cases, older reviews are no longer representative of an app’s current state. Certain ratings, for example, may be lower due to bugs that have since been fixed. Alternatively, people’s scores may have been negatively impacted by a lack of features, something that may have been rectified shortly after. On the opposite end of the spectrum, recent reviews of an app could be extremely negative due to bugs and dated features, while older ratings may be much more positive because, at the time, the app was one of the best offerings around. 

These flaws essentially mean that ratings aren’t always an accurate representation of an app’s quality. Android developers have been aware of this issue for quite some time now and have been asking Google to do something about it, so it finally is.

Starting this August, recent app reviews will become more important than older ones when it comes to calculating Play Store ratings. Google hasn’t specified how the new total will be calculated, but it says developers can preview their new rating starting today. Furthermore, because users add an average of 0.7 stars to reviews when developers respond to negative ratings, Google will begin highlighting ones it believes deserve a response.