Knowledge Base

Reference

How to Flag a Review for Removal on the App Store and on Google Play

As a developer, you might come across a review for your app or game that looks like, feels like, and sounds like spam. It could be a bot, an unhappy competitor, or just a mistake by a user.

Thankfully, you can do something about it! Apple and Google let you flag reviews for removal.

Here's how to do that.

Reporting a Review Through App Store Connect:

  1. Log into App Store Connect
  2. Go to the "My Apps" section
  3. Select the app you want to flag a review for
  4. Select "Ratings and Reviews" from the menu on the left
  5. Find the review you want to report
  6. Click "Report a Concern"
  7. A popup will open for you to select a concern and submit additional details. This is an important step.
  8. First, select the most relevant reason:
  • It Contains Offensive Content - Things that shouldn't be said in public fall into this category.
  • It Looks Like Spam - Reviews that promote something irrelevant tend to fall into this category.
  • It's Off-Topic - Choose this concern if the review has absolutely nothing to do with the app. This is the case for bot reviews.
  • Something Else - If your concern isn't covered by any other topic choose this one. But it's best to choose a defined topic if possible.
  1. Enter your reasoning for why this should be removed in the comments field. Don't skip this part and be as direct and concise as you can.
  2. Click "Submit"

Note: This process will flag the review for Apple but will not immediately remove it from the App Store. If Apple chooses to take action then it will be removed, but flagging alone isn't a guarantee for removal.

Flagging a Review through the Google Play Developer Console

  1. Log into the Google Play Developer Console
  2. Select the app you'd like to report a review for
  3. Navigate to the Reviews page by selecting Quality → Ratings and reviews → Reviews
  4. Find the review you want to flag
  5. Click the flag icon next to the review
  6. Click "Report"

Note: This process will flag the review for Google but will not immediately remove it from Google Play. If Google chooses to take action then it will be removed, but flagging alone isn't a guarantee for removal.