Respond to customer reviews

You can respond to reviews of your app to let customers know you’re listening to their feedback. With a review response, you can tell customers about the features you’ve added or bugs you’ve fixed based on their comments, or get more specific feedback on how to improve your app. Your responses will be displayed in the Microsoft Store for all Windows 10 and 11 customers to see. You can also choose to send your response by email to the customer (if they haven’t opted out and are using a device running Windows 10, version 1803 or later).

To view your app's reviews and provide responses, select Insights in Partner Center. In the left navigation menu, click Reviews found under Apps and games to display the Reviews report. Select Respond to review to provide your response.

Tip

In addition to using Partner Center to respond to reviews, you can respond to reviews programmatically.

By default, your response will be posted in the Store, directly below the original customer review. These responses will be visible to any customer viewing the Store on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 device. If the customer who left the review is using a device running Windows 10, version 1803 or later, and they haven't opted out of receiving email responses, a copy of your response will also be sent to that customer by email. You'll need to provide a valid email address in order to submit your response, which we will include in the email to the customer. They can then use this email address to contact you directly.

If you don't want your response to appear in the Store, and instead want to respond only via email to the customer, uncheck the Make this response public box. Note that you will not be able to uncheck this box if the customer has opted out of receiving email responses and/or if they are using a device that is not running Windows 10, version 1803 or later.

Guidelines for responses

When responding to a customer's review, you must follow these guidelines. These apply to all responses, whether they are public or not.

Important

You won’t be able to change the responses you post to the Store (unless the customer revises their original review), so review your response carefully. If a customer revises the original review, your response will be removed from the app's Store listing page. You then have the option to submit a new response to the revised review by selecting Update your response.

• Responses can't be longer than 1000 characters.
• You may not offer any type of compensation, including digital app items, to users for changing the app rating. Remember, attempts to manipulate ratings are not permitted under the App Developer Agreement.
• Don’t include any marketing content or ads in your response. Remember, your reviewer is already your customer.
• Don’t promote other apps or services in your response.
• Your response must be directly related to the specific app and review. Duplicating the same response to a large number of users isn’t allowed if the canned response doesn’t address the same question.
• Don’t include any profane, aggressive, personal, or malicious comments in your response. Always be polite and keep in mind that happy customers will likely be your app’s biggest promoters.

Note

Customers can report an inappropriate review response from a developer to Microsoft. They can also opt out of receiving review responses by email.

Microsoft retains the right to revoke a developer’s permission to send responses for any reason, including if your responses prompt an unusually high number of inappropriate response reports, or if they prompt an unusually high number of customers to opt out of receiving review responses.

Your relationship with your customers is your own. Microsoft doesn’t get involved in disputes between developers and customers. However, if a review of your app contains offensive, profane, or abusive language, please open a support request.

Use customer reviews to improve your app

Listening and responding to your customers is only the beginning. Acting on their feedback is also critical. If you make significant improvements, showcase them in the Store with confidence by creating a new submission to update your app.