Great news for App Store user reviews and developers will be coming in the iOS 10.3 update. In the past, reviews and ratings were one-sided and tedious. Apple is now allowing developers to respond to the reviews about their apps and let users rate and review their apps more efficiently!
iOS 10.3 Update. The Latest Apple update iOS 10.3 is still in beta. Its release notes provide that developers will now be able to respond to a user review, and said response will be available for others to see. This feature will also be available for its Mac counterpart.
This feature has long been available to Android developers on Google Play. However, the Apple developer community had no such convenience. Developers would have to sit and wait until their next app update to be able to fix or work on user comments. However, they would never be able to respond or get the chance to actually "resolve" the issue in the comments section.
The Cupertino-based tech giant has not provided any further information on how this new response system will work. Hopefully, it will facilitate easy communication between users and developers and provide a means for a healthy discussion. Additionally, it would also be helpful if Apple would provide a notification for the developers. More popular apps get a lot of comments and reviews and it is currently very difficult for developers to address each and everyone one individually.
The release notes further provide that a new API will be available which will introduce a new way to solicit reviews. Developers will be able to ask users to rate or review their apps as they are using it, without having to go to the App Store. Previously, rating or reviewing an app proved to be such a tedious process for the user.
Positive ratings are essential to developers. They help maintain apps and encourage more downloads. With the new API, developers can now get more reviews and ratings which they are also able to respond to.
In addition, the new update will bring the new Apple File System. This was first introduced in Sierra 10.12 beta. The Apple File System is optimized for devices with solid state storage and also supports 64-bit file IDS, has stronger encryption, and is more efficient at managing a hard drive's free space. This will also improve latency and lag issues. There will also be a "Find my AirPods" option, cricket scores, further Siri integration into other apps, HomeKit improvements, and other enhancements.
iOS 10.3 will still be in beta for a month or two. The official release will be available to the public via an over the air update. This is fantastic news for both App Store developers and users! Expect the update to be available very soon, in a month or two.
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