Google Play Store to delay review posting

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

A new change to the Google Play Store promises to be better for users. Google will delay any reviews and ratings for 24 hours before publicly showing them.

This change will hopefully cut down on the widespread practice of review bombing. That’s when multiple users post the same scores within a short time, driving down the average score of the app.

It could also reduce the number of low-scoring reviews that could have been handled by a report to the developers. Bad reviews can also be used as bug reporting, which isn’t the intended use of Play Store reviews.

The delay gives developers time to address the issue, which is why Google is doing this. It also gives Google time to determine whether the reviews are suspicious or legitimate and act accordingly.

This policy change could detect more than just paid reviews. We’ve seen multiple incidents recently of apps in the Google Play Store full of malware.

Those apps often have fake reviews with high scores to tempt users into downloading them. Then, when users start complaining, you see multiple one-star reviews with comments like “doesn’t work.”

Delaying the reviews would help Google figure out both the fake reviews and the reviews of the fake app.

This latest change is just one of the things Google is changing to make the Play Store more usable.

Thanks to Android Police for rounding these up, Google also prohibits unexpected full-screen ads, bans impersonation, removes fake health advice, and makes it easier to cancel subscriptions.

Have any thoughts on this? Carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Google announces October 6 event to show off Pixel 7 and more
• How to hide photos and videos in Google Photos
• Truth Social has been banned from the Google Play Store
• iOS 16 is available today – here’s how to get it

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.