PSA: Yep, Android Market User Reviews Are Definitely Mixed Up
Recently, I’ve been noticing that some of the most popular apps in the Android market are showing reviews from months ago as being the “latest”, but they aren’t. Take a look at an application in the Android market that gets at least one or more review per day – something isn’t right. The first review on Twitter for Android is from May 2011. The third is from November 2010. But more recent ones do exist, they’re just buried beneath these old reviews.
The same may be happening on some users’ phones, too. While this issue is quite harmless, it makes market reviews useless. Users often look to the first dozen or so reviews to see how an app is shaping up after a recent update. If you have months-old reviews sitting atop the chain, users might see a negative review about an issue that has already been fixed. This is frustrating for both users and developers.
We’re going to submit this report to Google so they can get it straightened out, but just be sure to check the dates of the reviews you’re reading before you decide not to download an application.