The Story Behind AppReviewBot
October 26, 2023
TL;DR
AppReviewBot started because checking app reviews was tedious. We built a simple solution to get reviews in Slack, and it grew from there. Today, thousands of teams use AppReviewBot to monitor reviews, track sentiment, and respond faster.
The Problem That Started It All
In 2017, checking app reviews meant logging into App Store Connect, then Google Play Console, scrolling through pages of feedback, and trying to spot what mattered. It took time, and important reviews got missed.
We thought: what if reviews just showed up in Slack, where the team already worked?
That simple idea became AppReviewBot.
What We Built
The first version was basic: connect your app, get reviews in Slack. No dashboard, no analytics — just notifications.
But teams started asking for more:
- "Can we filter by star rating?" — So we added filters
- "Can we see trends over time?" — So we built sentiment tracking
- "Can we respond from Slack?" — So we added reply functionality
- "What about Microsoft Teams?" — So we expanded integrations
Each feature came from real customer requests. We didn't have a grand roadmap — we just listened and built.
How AppReviewBot Works Today
Review Monitoring AppReviewBot checks App Store and Google Play for new reviews, then delivers them to your team's communication tools within minutes.
Smart Filtering Configure alerts based on star rating, keywords, or app version. Get notified about what matters, skip the noise.
Sentiment Analysis Track whether reviews are trending positive or negative over time. Spot issues before they become crises.
AskARB AI Ask questions about your reviews in plain English. "What are users complaining about this week?" Get summarized answers.
Team Integrations
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Discord
- Mattermost
- Telegram
- Webex
What We've Learned
Building AppReviewBot for eight years has taught us a few things:
Reviews are underused product signals. Most teams treat reviews as customer support. The best teams treat them as product feedback.
Speed matters. The faster you see a review, the faster you can act. A crash report sitting unnoticed for days costs users.
Integration beats dashboards. Reviews in Slack get seen. Reviews in a separate dashboard often don't.
Simple beats complex. We've said no to a lot of feature requests. The tool should do one thing well: get reviews to your team.
What's Next
We're focused on making AppReviewBot smarter and more integrated:
Better AI analysis AskARB is just the beginning. We're working on automatic issue detection, trend alerts, and smarter summaries.
Deeper integrations More ways to connect AppReviewBot to your existing workflows — ticketing systems, analytics tools, and CRMs.
Team workflows Better tools for assigning reviews, tracking responses, and measuring team performance.
We don't announce features until they're ready, but these areas are where we're investing.
Try It
If you're still checking reviews manually, give AppReviewBot a try. Setup takes 5 minutes, and there's a free trial.
Get started at appreviewbot.com
Questions? Reach out at support@appreviewbot.com.
Thanks for reading — and thanks to everyone who's been using AppReviewBot over the years. Your feedback (yes, including the critical reviews) has shaped what this tool is today.
