Apple Now Lets Customers Rate and Review Pre-Installed Apps on the App Store

Apple now lets users rate and review pre-installed iPhone apps on the App Store, such as Maps, Podcasts, Mail, and others, bringing the company's apps to parity with how users criticize and/or laud third-party apps on the platform.

apple podcasts rating
Spotted first by 9to5Mac, Apple now lets users leave a zero to five-star rating for a number of its pre-installed apps, further enabling users to write their reviews. At the time of writing, the Podcasts app, which has faced a flurry of criticism, has a 2 out of 5-star rating out of 156 reviews, with other Apple apps varying.

Presently, no Apple app has a perfect five-star rating, with even the company's built-in Stocks app struggling to reach a 4 out of 5 grade. Notes has earned just 3.6 out of 5, while even Maps, which has received more attention from Apple over the years, has only a 3 out of 5 ratings.

By opening up its apps to ratings and reviews, Apple and its teams are now better able to receive more direct feedback for individual apps on ‌‌iPhone‌‌ and iPad. In light of recent ‌App Store‌ litigation, this move also nixes a potential criticism from Apple's detractors, who could have previously argued that by withholding ratings and reviews for pre-installed apps, Apple was being anti-competitive.

Apple's pre-installed apps, such as Mail, Podcasts, and Maps, don't receive regular ‌App Store‌ feature updates as other apps do; instead, their major updates are bundled with significant iOS releases.

Apple refines and tweaks all of its apps with each minor update for iOS and iPadOS, but significant changes, such as the ones that are likely to be requested through ratings and reviews, are not expected to come sporadically throughout the year, but instead, users will have to wait for the next major iOS release to see if their wishes have come true.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...

Top Rated Comments

iLoveDeveloping Avatar
46 months ago
Lovely! That’s my morning sorted. Let’s write some reviews! ?
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Shirasaki Avatar
46 months ago
Finally something users can pour their frustration and anger towards apple to, and it would be public.

Hope this will tear Apple’s “WE ARE THE BEST” tinfoil hat a little bit and face the reality.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrPresident Avatar
46 months ago
Haha, love the inclusion of the podcast app reviews!
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Reason077 Avatar
46 months ago
Those 1-star reviews on the Podcasts app seem a little unfair to me.

Yes, the UI could use some improvement. I particularly don't like how deeply it buries some commonly used (by me) features, like "recently played".

But, compared to the BBC's awful "BBC Sounds" app, which seems to go out of its way to make it hard for you to find content you're looking for (or even any good new relevant content), the Apple Podcasts app is a discovery dream!
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
46 months ago
Good idea, it will be interesting to see how ratings fare over time.

I’ve just rated Maps 5 stars out of 5. It’s leaps and bounds better than Google in my area and I prefer its user interface.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fakeycakemaker Avatar
46 months ago
Ere Apple, can we rate and review iOS updates too please?…..
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)