App Reviews AI Filtering is Broken

[jason_engage]

How can a shop install an app for 3 minutes and leave a 1-star review without getting flagged by the new and shiny AI filtering you guys have.

I see all types of reviews getting filtered out (often 5 star reviews!), but of course the AI is all for leaving up fraudulent 1 star reviews.

It’s not even an e-commerce website - maybe an agency? Maybe a competitor? It’ password protected no content - probably never will have content!

There’s so much more you guys can do to improve the quality of reviews.

1. If store is password protected and/or never made a sale and/or brand new store and/or new merchant - block the review

2. Did they have the app installed for less than X minutes? Block it

3. Did they actually even use the app? (Check graphql / rest api usage maybe)? Block it.

4. Does the merchant have a tendency of negative reviews (probably a scammer or a hater) - block it

5. Does the 1-star leave any text explanation to back up the claim? Block it

In the very least scrutinize 1-star reviews as hard as you scrutinize 5-star reviews. I know you guys are alway triple checking 5 star reviews - please do the same with 1-stars!

I have lots of examples of reviews from questionable merchants getting thru - we put in a ton of work into these apps and we know most merchants have review fatigue - but there’s always some wacky merchant ready to leave a 1-star - for whatever reason - just block them - especially 1-stars because they are mostly ridiculous.

With a 2 or 3 star - you know at least the merchant put some thought and reasoning into it!

[jason_engage]

Here’s a 5 star review that IS NOT PUBLISHED until they buy a plan. FAIR ENOUGH

But how are you publishing 1-star reviews WITHOUT PLANS then? Where’s the Fairness?

[Ollie_autoBlogger]

So frustrating. It goes both ways as well. The number of apps with highly detailed 5 star reviews from users who’ve only had the app installed for a few minutes is crazy. More needs to be done.

Here’s an example from an app that’s currently being prominently displayed on the App Store (redacted for privacy). This is a non-archived review, left after just 3 minutes of use, rated 5 stars, and over 1,200 characters long.

I’ve reported this app of course, with specific examples across multiple issues, but as usual there’s been no action and no response.

Fake reviews are illegal in the US, UK, Europe and most other major markets, yet Shopify still appears to be doing barely the bare minimum to fight them, and in some cases is even promoting apps that are obviously abusing the system.