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ToolDeck

Monitoring & Intelligence

App Store Review Monitor

New App Store / Google Play reviews land on Slack with sentiment and priorities.

Saves about ~1 hr per week

What it does

  • Pulls new app reviews from both stores
  • Scores sentiment and urgency
  • Posts each review to Slack with the rating
  • Flags critical bugs and 1-star spikes

How it works

  1. Store review APIs polled
  2. Sentiment + bug signals scored
  3. Reviews posted to Slack
  4. Spikes flagged for action

What's included

  • Store connectors
  • Dedupe archive
  • Slack + spike alerts

Set it up yourself

Follow these 4 steps in order. You will need accounts for: OpenCrawl, Slack.

Step 1: Connect the store feeds

  1. For Apple: App Store Connect API (needs a team key) or a review-feed service.
  2. For Google: Google Play Console API with reviews entitlement.
  3. Or use a public RSS/scraper for both to start.
  4. Put both connectors in the workflow.
  5. Test each returns reviews.

Watch out: Both stores need their own connector — the API access differs completely; don't build one 'unified' fetch that does neither well.

Step 2: Dedupe and track

  1. Track a last-seen review id per store.
  2. Only process new reviews since the last run.
  3. Store reviews in a sheet: store, rating, text, version, date, status.
  4. Test the dedupe with real data.
  5. Keep the sheet as the archive.

Watch out: The dedupe is what keeps the Slack channel sane — without last-seen tracking, re-polls re-post old reviews.

Step 3: Add the scoring step

  1. Build: 'Classify this app review: sentiment (positive/negative/mixed), bugReport (y/n + detail), version mentioned. Return JSON.'
  2. Flag rare keywords: crash, log out, billing, refund.
  3. Paste with API key.
  4. Test on diverse reviews.
  5. Prioritize bug flags.

Watch out: The bug flag with the version number is the actionable gold — 'crashes on 2.4' tells you exactly where to look.

Step 4: Post + spike alert

  1. Post each new review to #reviews: rating, snippet, app, version.
  2. Flag 1-star + bug words to a #review-action channel.
  3. Daily spike alert: if 1-star count today > 3× 7-day average.
  4. Weekly summary: rating trend, top complaint topics.
  5. Test the spike math.

Watch out: The spike alert is the crisis detector — a version release that spams 1-stars needs same-day action, and the weekly trend alone is too slow.

Frequently asked questions

What does the App Store Review Monitor automation do?

New App Store / Google Play reviews land on Slack with sentiment and priorities. Pulls new app reviews from both stores

How much time does App Store Review Monitor save?

It is estimated to save ~1 hr per week. Actual savings depend on your volume.

Which tools does App Store Review Monitor use?

It works with OpenCrawl and Slack.

What does App Store Review Monitor include?

Store connectors, Dedupe archive, Slack + spike alerts.

Can I set up App Store Review Monitor myself?

Yes. The do-it-yourself guide on this page walks through 4 steps, from getting access to testing the finished automation.