Apple's App Store review notifications reach you through the App Store Connect app on iPhone and iPad, which tells you about new reviews of your apps; the only review email on App Store Connect's notification list fires when a customer edits a review you already answered. To hear about a rival app's reviews, or to get your own in Slack or email, AyeWatch watches the public App Store listing and sends a short summary.
What Apple sends, as of November 2026
| Channel | What it tells you | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| App Store Connect app | New reviews, with the option to respond from your phone | Apps on your developer account |
| Developer Response email | A customer edited a review you had responded to | Account Holder, Admin and Customer Support roles |
| App Store Connect API | Customer reviews and your responses, pulled by your own code | Apps on your developer account |
So the push comes from the app, the email covers one narrow case, and anything else means writing a script against the API.
A few rules worth knowing
Apple's help pages add some details that change how you read an alert:
- Customers rate from 1 to 5 stars on every platform, but written reviews only exist for iOS, macOS and visionOS apps, not tvOS.
- The overview rating is shown per country or region, based on where the customer first bought the app.
- On iOS 18.4 and later, the product page can show a summary of reviews written with large language models.
- When you respond, the customer is notified and may update the review. A new version also lets you reset the overview rating.
Google Play does it by email
If you ship on Android too, Play Console can email you when users write new reviews, update existing ones or send testing feedback. You turn this on in your notification preferences. Its Reply to Reviews API lets helpdesk tools, or your own integration, fetch and answer reviews.
The part neither store covers
Both consoles only show apps on your own account. They will not tell you that a competitor's rating dropped after their last release, or that their new reviews keep mentioning a login bug you just fixed in yours. That signal sits on public listing pages.
AyeWatch watches those pages:
- Paste the public App Store link for the rival app. A Google Play listing works the same way.
- Write the rule in one sentence: new reviews or a change in the rating, and ignore suggested apps and promotional sections.
- Leave the pace on Auto, which checks more often while the page is changing, or set your own.
- Send alerts to push, which every plan has, or on a paid plan to email, Slack, Discord or a webhook.
You can point a monitor at your own listing as well, so one Slack channel carries both apps. For people who like to wire things up, paid plans include a REST API and signed webhook events with AI summaries, so review alerts can open a ticket or post to your own dashboard.
What it is not
AyeWatch reads the public page. It cannot reply to reviews, does not see private review data from App Store Connect, and is no replacement for crash reports or analytics. If you only care about your own iOS app and already live in the App Store Connect app, its notifications are enough. Add AyeWatch when competitors, Android and a shared channel come into it.
Cost and a first test
There is a Free Preview with no card, and paid plans start at $9 a month. Start with one rival listing you already open after each of your releases, and see whether the first summary tells you something you would have missed.