Reviews
Replying to reviews
The reply lifecycle from draft to published, character limits per store, and editing a live reply
Open any review and the drawer gives you a composer. You can type a reply yourself, or generate one with AI and edit it — see AI drafts.
The reply lifecycle
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved in ReviewDesk only. Nothing has been sent to the store. |
| Sending | Being posted to the store API right now. |
| Pending Apple | Accepted by Apple and awaiting moderation. Not yet visible on the App Store. |
| Live | Published and visible to users on the store. |
| Failed | The store rejected the reply. The reason is shown, and you can retry. |
Character limits
| Store | Maximum reply length |
|---|---|
| Google Play | 350 characters — short, and easy to exceed |
| Apple App Store | 5,970 characters |
The composer shows a live counter against the limit for that review's store. AI drafts are generated to fit, and the space taken by your reply footer is reserved before the model writes, so adding a support line never pushes a Play reply over the cap.
Saving and sending
- Save draft — keeps the text in ReviewDesk without posting it, so a colleague can review it first
- Send reply — posts to the store
- Delete draft — discards an unsent draft
If a send fails, ReviewDesk retries automatically a few times with a short backoff before marking the reply Failed. Transient store outages usually resolve on their own.
Editing a published reply
Both stores allow a reply to be changed after publication. Open the review, edit the reply text, and send again — the update is pushed to the store API and replaces what users see. An edited App Store reply goes back through moderation.
Who can reply
Organization owners can always reply. Team members need the Can reply permission, which is set per person independently of which apps they can see. See Roles and permissions.