---
title: Strengthening trust in App Store reviews - Shopify developer changelog
description: >-
  Shopify’s developer changelog documents all changes to Shopify’s platform.
  Find the latest news and learn about new platform opportunities.
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  html: 'https://shopify.dev/changelog/strengthening-trust-in-app-store-reviews'
  md: 'https://shopify.dev/changelog/strengthening-trust-in-app-store-reviews.md'
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  createdAt: '2026-07-14T15:38:39-04:00'
  postedAt: '2026-07-06T12:00:00-04:00'
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---

July 6, 2026

Tags:

* App store

# Strengthening trust in App Store reviews

Reviews on the Shopify App Store are foundational to a fair marketplace. They're how merchants find the right apps, and how developers earn trust for the products they build. Reviews are one of the most important ways merchants decide which apps to trust. To keep that signal honest, we're making two changes to how we handle review incentivization and untrusted reviews. We're announcing both together. Here's what Partners need to know.

## 1. A dedicated policy on review incentivization

**What it is:** Offering, unlocking, or withholding app features in exchange for a merchant leaving a review.

**What's changing:** Rules on this practice previously lived within the Partner Program Agreement, which made them easy to overlook. We're introducing a dedicated App Store requirement on review incentivization with clear consequences.

**The consequence:** When an app is found to be incentivizing reviews, we'll remove a significant portion of its reviews. We've already identified apps engaged in this practice, and we'll be enforcing this policy as soon as the change goes live.

## 2. Stronger untrusted review detection

**What it is:** Reviews that don't come from genuine users of an app. These are posted to inflate an app's ranking or to harm a competitor's.

**What's changing:** We're expanding the set of signals we use to determine whether a review is authentic. Because we're applying these signals to existing reviews as well as new ones, a meaningful number of reviews that don't meet our authenticity bar will be unpublished over the coming weeks.

**What to expect:** Because untrusted reviewers often leave reviews across many listings to appear more legitimate, some genuine apps might see reviews unpublished too. This isn't a reflection of wrongdoing on your part, but it's a result of removing the untrustworthy activity connected to those reviews. Our goal is to ensure that the reviews that remain carry more weight. Unpublishing will roll out gradually as the backfill completes.

## Why now

As the Shopify App Store grows, so does our responsibility to protect it. Untrusted and incentivized reviews undermine the trust merchants place in the review systems, and they create an uneven playing field for developers who play by the rules. A trustworthy App Store benefits everyone who builds honestly. These changes make our standards clearer, our enforcement more consistent, and the reviews merchants rely on more genuine.

## What you should do

As you collect reviews, make sure you're doing so honestly and fairly. These are some best practices we recommend:

* **Use the [Reviews API](https://shopify.dev/docs/api/app-home/apis/user-interface-and-interactions/reviews-api)** to request reviews from merchants who actually use your app.
* **Ask in neutral language at the right moment.** A simple "How's your experience? Leave a review" after the merchant has used your app is fine. Offering anything in return is not.
* **Reply to negative reviews** instead of trying to bury them. Merchants value developers who engage with feedback.

Reach [out to Support](https://help.shopify.com/en/partners/help-support/getting-support) with any concerns or if you feel that trusted reviews have been removed.

## What's next

This is the start of a broader investment in App Store quality. We're continuing to improve automated detection, strengthen policy enforcement, and strengthen the overall health of a trustworthy ecosystem.

The Shopify App Store should be a place where the best apps win. That's what we're building toward.