Can I see who wrote an App Store review?

Usually only a nickname the reviewer chose. Apple does not give developers reviewers' contact details, and you cannot see anyone's reviews of a competitor beyond what the public page shows.

Can I reply to reviews on a competitor's app?

No. Developers respond to reviews of their own apps in App Store Connect. Apple asks that responses avoid personal information, marketing language and spam.

What makes an App Store review a good lead?

A specific complaint you solve, written recently by someone who uses the app for work or regularly, ideally with a nickname or detail that lets you recognise them elsewhere. Most reviews will not meet the last test.

Are App Store reviews the same in every country?

No. Reviews belong to each country's storefront, so a competitor's UK and US pages can show quite different complaints. Check the storefronts for the markets you sell in.

App Store reviews as a lead source for app makers

What App Store reviews are good for

An App Store review is short, emotional and specific: "Lost all my notes after the update", "Syncing with my calendar stopped working", "Love it but the subscription doubled". If you build a competing app, a competitor's reviews are a list of reasons customers would switch, ranked by how angry they are. A one-star review written this week after a bad update is somebody looking for an alternative right now.

The catch is identity. App Store reviewers appear under nicknames. That changes what "lead" means here, so it helps to be clear about the two jobs reviews can do:

Messaging research. What do unhappy users of the market leader complain about most? That becomes your landing page, your onboarding and your ads.
Individual leads. Some reviewers can be recognised: a nickname that matches a public handle, a business named in the text, a professional describing their own work. Those are worth contacting.

Most of the value is in the first job. The second is a bonus on some reviews.

Who reviews apps, and who does not

You find: regular users of consumer and prosumer apps, small business owners using an app to run part of their business (scheduling, invoicing, point of sale, field service), professionals using mobile tools (sales reps, clinicians, tradespeople, coaches), and parents and students.

You do not find: enterprise buyers who chose the app for a company, IT departments, or anyone using the web version only.

Reading reviews for signals

Review	Signal	What to do
"Update broke [feature] I use every day"	Strong, time-sensitive	Act within days; mention migration
"Price went up, looking for something else"	Strong	Lead with your price and what is included
"Great app but missing [feature]"	Medium	Only if you have that feature
"Customer support never replied"	Medium	Show how to reach you
"Doesn't work" with no detail	Weak	Skip
Five-star praise	None	Leave alone

Phrases to scan for: "switching to", "alternative", "used to love", "after the update", "subscription", "for my business", "my clients", "my team".

How to do it by hand

List the competing apps in your category and open each listing in the storefronts you sell in.
Read the ratings and reviews section, then the full list of reviews sorted by most recent where the view allows.
Copy recent negative reviews into a sheet with date, stars, nickname, version if mentioned, and the complaint.
Tag each complaint by theme: sync, price, missing feature, support, bugs, performance.
Count the themes. The top three are your positioning.
Look for identifiable reviewers: business names in the text, professional context, distinctive nicknames you can search.
For those, reach out through public channels with a short note about the problem they described. For everyone else, answer the theme on your own listing and site.

What you can and cannot learn

You can learn: nickname, star rating, review title, text, date and storefront country, plus the developer's response if there is one.

You cannot learn: the reviewer's real name, email, device, or anything Apple holds about them. Apple does not pass reviewers' details to competing developers, and the nickname is often generic.

Apple's rules

Apple's guidance says developers can respond to all reviews of their own app in App Store Connect, the reviewer is notified and may update their review, and responses should be respectful and not "include personal information, marketing language, or spam". That applies to your own reviews: answer your own unhappy users well, because a competitor's customers reading your page see those replies when deciding whether to switch.

Do not:

Post fake reviews on a competitor's app, or on yours.
Try to identify a reviewer who chose to stay anonymous.
Pitch someone using details they did not make public.

When it fails

Nobody can be identified. Expect most reviews to stay anonymous.
The complaint was fixed. Check the competitor's version history and their reply to the review before you lean on it.
The wrong storefront. Reading US reviews when you only sell in Germany wastes the afternoon.
Consumer-only markets. If your buyer is a business that picks the app for its staff, the staff reviews tell you about pain, not about who signs.

How Sluice does it

Paste an App Store review page into Sluice and the reviewers become leads, each with their stars beside their words. Sluice looks each one up where something can be found and scores them 0 to 100 against your customer profile, including whether their review suggests the problem is current. Reviewers at 70 or more are worth contacting, linked back to the review.

The honest limit is the same one as doing it by hand: most App Store reviewers are nicknames, so most will not resolve to a person or company, and many will score below 70 for want of anything to judge beyond their words. That still leaves you with the complaints, ranked, which is useful for positioning. For Android, see Google Play, where reviewers usually show a Google account name. For apps sold to businesses, compare the method on G2, and see YouTube for tutorial videos about the same competing apps.