One of the ways in which the internet has empowered users is through the use of reviews. Whether you are looking for a new restaurant, a new smartphone or even a new company, reviews offer consumers a solid way to collectively voice an opinion on a product, service or otherwise. Apps are no different. For many who download apps on a regular basis, reviews on the Play Store are highly likely to be an influential factor. The closer that overall review score edges to 5.0, the more likely the app will continue to be downloaded.
It now sees that Google is refining the review aspect of the Play Store a little more as they have slightly changed the way in which you can interact with reviews listed on the Play Store. Up until recently, those who found a review helpful could ‘thumbs up’ a review, essentially, showing their support for the viewpoint or just offering a nod to whether the review was helpful. Likewise, if a review was not that helpful or just downright wrong in your opinion, you could just as easily ‘thumbs down’ a review. However, it now seems that the latter of these two options has now been abandoned as the latest update to the Play Store app on Android is now showing only the thumbs up option.
In some aspects does make a little sense. While thumbing down does make it clear that you did not find a review helpful, it still does not help to really capture whether the app is worth downloading. In contrast, thumbing up a review does highlight that the review was considered to be helpful, therefore, more likely to be informative when deciding whether to download the app. The other obvious benefit of just the single thumbs up system is that the icon is now substantially much bigger as it has essentially consumed the space for the thumbs down icon. Which should at least help to make it more visible and therefore, more likely to be hit, adding support for the review and again keeping you informed. Especially for users who make use of devices with smaller screens. Of course, if a review is blatantly nothing to do with the app, you can always label it “spam” using the three dot menu which also now comes alongside the new and larger thumbs up.