Hi,
I have noticed that none of the Mac App Store apps are showing a star rating on the storefront. If you go to Top Productivity, for example, there you will see that no apps have any star ratings! However, inside an app you can see its rating.
Can anyone confim that this is also the case for everyone else? Any information about this, is it a bug, or a new feature? Can't find any information about this anywhere....
I contacted Apple about this some days ago. Today I got a response in which they told me that this is working as intended. Quote from their email:
"It´s my understanding that you are reporting that your app listing in the app store does not display any rating stars for your app. I would like to clarify that this is expected behavior since apps in the Mac App Store don’t display this information."
I didn't enquire any further. Maybe it's a sign that the MAS is going the way of the dodo. Or maybe they'll redesign it. Who knows - everything is possible when it comes to the Mac App Store.
Thank you for your reply. It is crazy, one day we have star ratings, the other day they are all gone! No update from Apple, no warning, nothing!
I seriously thought this was a bug or something...
So, I got curious and mailed Apple again asking where I could find more info about this change. (Because it's a huge change).
I just got an reply ... with a link to this forum thread here.
I'm not exactly sure what to make of that.
I've had an hour long chat with Apple support, describing all the details of the issue. The Advisor contacted me with a Techhnical Advisor, and then with a Senior Tech Advisor. All of them confirmed, that the issue persist for every device on their sides, they've all looked up their internal resources (that took quite a long time) and could not find any reported issue. I've been asking them to let me know whether it is a bug, that will be fixed or is it the expected recent behavior of the MAS. The answer was: "As it seems to be this way on everyones Mac, then this is probably how it should be"...
I've tried to explain that it would be great to get the "stars back", because recently when a user searches the MAS, can't compare the results based on ratings. If a one-star app is in front of a 5-star app, they will seem the same for the user. It does not seem to be a user-friendly behavior, and it is just on e example. This is why I suspect it is a bug not a feature. They understood my opinion, and also said it was better "with stars", but there is no ongoing issues they see, so there is nothing they can tell me about it.
If anyone else gets closer to answering whether it is a bug or a permanent change, please let us know! Thanks
Just an update ... stars seem to be back on the Mac App Store.
I guess the support people at Apple don't know much more than we do about this issue... Also pretty frustrating that something as obvious as this doesn't ring any alarm bells at Apple for nearly 3 weeks. I always assumed they had a QC team cheking their products and services for problems every few days.
