How to Get More App Store Ratings (Without Breaking the Rules)
Timing is the whole game
The native prompt converts dramatically better when it appears at a moment of accomplishment. The user just finished a session, completed a streak, exported a result — that's when goodwill peaks. Prompting on first launch, during onboarding, or while the user is mid-task reads as an interruption and earns dismissals (which still consume one of your three yearly displays).
Because you only get three native prompts per user per year, most successful apps gate the call behind engagement thresholds: for example, at least N sessions, at least one core action completed, and no crash in the current session. One well-placed prompt beats three sprayed ones.
What's allowed and what isn't
Allowed: the native prompt, and a plain link or button that opens your App Store page's write-a-review sheet — append `?action=write-review` to your app's store URL and it opens directly on the review form. This is the right tool for a settings-screen 'Leave a review' row or a post-support 'happy to help — mind rating us?' message.
Not allowed: offering rewards, unlocks, or discounts for ratings; showing the prompt only to users you've pre-screened as happy while routing unhappy ones to a feedback form (sentiment gating); or nagging with custom rating dialogs that mimic the system one. These patterns show up in rejections and, worse, in angry reviews describing the nag itself.
Ratings follow product moments, not campaigns
The apps with overwhelming rating counts almost always attach the ask to a repeating emotional peak in the product: the yearly recap, the finished project, the milestone screen. Find the screen where your users feel the win, and put the ask there — once.
And close the loop: read what the ratings come with. Run your app through an analysis on this site monthly; if a complaint theme is climbing, fixing it does more for your average than any prompt strategy.