Both platforms give you a system dialog for ratings. Using it is the safe path. Rolling your own rating screen, or rewarding ratings, is where apps get into trouble. This page is a short summary; the details sit on the linked pages and on the official sources.
The safe pattern
- Use the platform's own dialog, not a lookalike.
- Trigger it from app logic at a good moment, not from a button. Google says that after "enough" use of the app the flow can be triggered, and not to "prompt the user excessively".
- Do not ask questions first. Google's guidance says not to ask things like "Do you like the app?" before or while showing the card.
- Do not change the dialog. Google says to show the card without altering size, opacity or shape and without overlays.
- Expect that nothing shows. Google documents a quota, and the API "does not indicate whether the user reviewed or not, or even whether the review dialog was shown". Continue your app flow either way.
- Never attach a reward. Apple's guidelines say users must not be forced to rate or review to access functionality (3.2.2), and that paid, incentivized or fake feedback can lead to removal from the Developer Program.
Sources: Google Play In-App Review pages and Apple App Review Guidelines, retrieved 2026-10-21.
Apple
Apple's guideline 5.6.1 says: "Use the provided API to prompt users to review your app ... and we will disallow custom review prompts." Apple's StoreKit documentation says the system displays the review prompt "a maximum of three times within a 365-day period". Read the current text before you build: see Apple's rules for rating prompts.
Google Play
Details on quota and testing: Google Play In-App Review API: rules and limits.
When to ask
After the user has done something worth rating, not at launch and not repeatedly. See when to ask for app reviews and how a rating prompt should look.
A fallback that is allowed to be a button
If you want a "Rate us" entry in settings, link to your store page rather than calling the in-app API. Google advises this because a user may have hit the quota. Apple's StoreKit documentation describes the same idea for the manual route: a link to your app's App Store page, so the person starts the review themselves.
Policies change; check the official pages before each release. This is not legal advice.
Start free to collect private feedback before you ask for public ratings.
Related: hub, Apple's rules, Google Play API rules.