When the user wants to improve their app's star rating, increase ratings volume, optimize when and how they prompt users for a review, or recover from a bad rating period. Use when the user mentions "app rating", "star rating", "review prompt", "SKStoreReviewRequest", "In-App Review API", "ask for review", "low rating", "rating drop", "get more reviews", or "recover from 1-star". For responding to reviews, see review-management. For overall ASO health, see aso-audit.
Rating-prompt-strategy is an App Store Optimization (ASO) guidance skill for improving an app's star rating by controlling when, how, and to whom review prompts are shown. It solves a concrete growth problem: prompting users at the wrong moment produces low ratings, while prompting at a success moment yields four- and five-star reviews. Because ratings are both a store ranking signal and a product-page conversion factor, the skill frames rating optimization as an ASO lever.
The skill documents the native review APIs for both platforms — Apple's SKStoreReviewRequest (capped at three prompts per year, Apple-controlled display, no custom UI) and Google's Play In-App Review API (throttled, privacy-limited) — with short code snippets. It provides a timing framework built around app-specific "success moments" and session-based eligibility rules (minimum sessions, days since install, completed activation event, no recent crash or negative signal, not already rated). It recommends a pre-prompt survey that filters dissatisfied users to a feedback form instead of the native prompt, explains iOS per-version rating resets and version-gating strategy, and lays out a step-by-step recovery plan and timeline for bouncing back from a rating drop, including prompt-frequency limits and a structured rating-strategy output template.
It targets mobile developers, product managers, and growth/ASO practitioners on iOS and Android. Use cases include increasing ratings volume, lifting average star rating, timing prompts around genuine value moments, and recovering after a bad release. The skill cross-references related ASO skills for review responses, onboarding, and retention, and is delivered as a single self-contained SKILL.md reference.
Only prompt users who have experienced value. Prompting too early yields low ratings; prompting at a defined success moment (after a completed workout, purchase, level win, etc.) yields 4-5 star ratings.
iOS SKStoreReviewRequest shows at most three times per year, is display-controlled by Apple, and cannot be customized. Android's Play In-App Review API has no hard limit but is throttled by Google and cannot report whether the user actually rated.
A single in-app 'Are you enjoying [App]?' question shown before the native prompt: 'Yes' triggers the native review prompt, 'Not really' routes to a feedback form instead, filtering out dissatisfied users. It is expected to add roughly 0.3-0.8 stars on average.
On iOS you can request a per-version rating reset in App Store Connect after a major improvement; the skill advises against resetting after a controversial change. Android ratings are permanent and cumulative.
Primarily a strategy and framework guide with short illustrative Swift and Kotlin snippets for the native prompt APIs; it provides timing rules, recovery plans, and an output template rather than a runnable library.
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