Are Google Play reviews public?

Yes. Google says a review on Google Play is linked to the reviewer's Google Account and is public. Reviews usually appear under the name on that account, which is often a real name.

Can developers solicit reviewers in their replies?

Google's guidance on replying says not to solicit or promote in replies, and to keep replies relevant, truthful and respectful. Breaking those guidelines can lead to suspension of the app or developer account.

What is the best signal in Google Play reviews?

A recent, specific complaint the developer has not answered, especially after an update. It means the problem is live and the user feels ignored.

How do Google Play reviews differ from the App Store for prospecting?

Google Play reviewers more often appear under a real name, and you can see at a glance whether the developer replied. App Store reviewers mostly use nicknames.

Mining Google Play reviews of competing apps

The developer's reply column is the tell

Every Google Play review page shows two things side by side: what the user said, and whether the developer answered. That second part is what makes Play reviews useful for prospecting. A one-star review that the developer answered with a fix is a solved problem. The same review with no reply after three weeks is an unhappy customer who also feels ignored, and that combination is when people go looking for an alternative.

The other difference from the App Store: Google says reviews are linked to the reviewer's Google Account and are public. In practice they usually appear under the name on that account, so more Play reviewers are recognisable people than on iOS.

Who reviews on Google Play

Android users of the app in question. For prospecting that means:

Small business owners using an app to take payments, book jobs, track time or manage stock.
Mobile workers: drivers, technicians, field sales, carers, tradespeople.
Professionals using a companion app for a desktop product (a CRM's mobile app, an accounting app).
Consumers, who will be the majority for most apps.

You will rarely find the person who bought a company-wide licence. You will find the person in the van who has to use it.

What counts as a signal

Strong:

"Since the last update ..." followed by something that stopped working. Time-sensitive and often widespread.
"Switching to ..." or "uninstalling" with a reason.
Work context: "I use this for my cleaning business", "my whole team relies on this".
No developer reply to any of the above.

Medium:

Feature requests ("would be five stars if it had offline mode") that you already have.
Price complaints after a change.

Weak:

One-word reviews, crash reports with no context, reviews older than a year.

How to do it by hand

Open the competitor's Play listing and go to the full reviews view.
Filter to the lowest ratings and sort by newest.
For each review, record: name, stars, date, complaint theme, whether the developer replied, and any work context.
Highlight unanswered reviews from the last month. These are your priority.
Group complaints by theme and count them. If thirty people mention the same broken sync since one release, that is your headline.
For reviewers with real names and work context, look them up on LinkedIn or find their business. Contact them about the problem, briefly.
For everyone else, put the theme on your own listing and site: "Works offline", "Your data survives updates".

Twenty minutes per app covers a month of negative reviews for most mid-sized apps.

What you can and cannot learn

You can learn: the display name and picture on the reviewer's Google Account, the rating, date, text, how many people found the review helpful, and the developer's reply.

You cannot learn: email address, device details, location, or whether they still have the app installed. Google gives developers more data about reviews of their own apps in the Play Console, but none of that is visible on a competitor's listing.

Google's rules on replies

Google's Play Console guidance on replying to reviews says replies should address the user's comment in a clear, valuable and truthful way, should not be abusive or dismissive, and should not "solicit or promote", because users do not find solicitations useful. It warns that failing to follow these guidelines can lead to suspension of the app or the developer account. That is about replies to reviews of your own app, which is where you answer your own unhappy users; there is no way to reply on a competitor's page.

Ground rules for outreach:

Only contact reviewers you can identify from what they made public.
Never use a reviewer's name to guess a personal email or phone number.
Do not post reviews on a competitor's app, under any account.

Why it fails

Consumer-heavy reviews. Most reviewers are not business buyers, and the scorer will rightly mark them low.
The name is common. "David Smith" with a cartoon avatar is not findable.
The fix shipped yesterday. Check the latest version notes before writing about a bug.
You have the same weakness. If your Android app has the same complaints on its own page, the switcher will see that before they reply.

How Sluice does it

Paste a Google Play review page into Sluice and its reviewers become leads, each with their stars beside their words. Each is looked up for role, company and location where a match exists, then scored 0 to 100 against your customer profile, with separate judgements on whether they are worth approaching and whether the review suggests a live problem. People at 70 or more are worth contacting, each linked back to the review, and a first message drafted from their words is scored before you can queue it.

The honest limit: even with real names, many reviewers will not match a professional profile, so a share of every page stays unidentified and scores on words alone. For iPhone users of the same competitor, see the App Store. If you sell to app makers rather than app users, companies hiring for mobile roles is the better route, and the pricing page shows what a pass costs before it runs.