Ask HN: How can some Android apps hide their (poor) ratings on Play Store?

by zapt02 on 2/4/2022, 10:48 AM with 1 comments

I noticed that a lot of "low quality" Android app seem to have millions of downloads and being able to hide their rating.

For example, when visiting the app at the link below called "Secret Chat (Random Chat)" on my Android device, I can neither see any general star rating, nor any reviews at all - it say "No reviews yet".

When looking at the app through a web browser I can see a lot of poor reviews, but still no star rating.

What's going on here?

The app in question, but there seem to be many like it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.jungrammer.secretchat

  • by slightwinder on 2/4/2022, 3:12 PM

    I can see reviews as also rating there. With browser, as also app.

    As I remember, Play Store is only showing reviews in your local language, so maybe you don't see them because there simply is no review in your language?