AppFollow

What is AppFollow

AppFollow is a comprehensive platform for managing the reputation and performance of mobile applications. Its main purpose is to help developers, product managers, and support teams monitor and respond to user reviews from various app stores, including the Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore, and Huawei AppGallery. The tool uses Artificial Intelligence to automate responses, analyze user sentiment, and provide actionable insights from feedback. This helps companies improve their app ratings, increase user satisfaction, and boost visibility through App Store Optimization (ASO). AppFollow was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, serving thousands of companies worldwide.

AppFollow Features

AppFollow offers a wide set of features to manage and grow mobile apps:

• AI Review Management: Automatically reply to user reviews using AI-generated responses that match your brand's tone. The system can handle reviews in multiple languages, saving significant time for support teams.
• Product and Competitive AI Insights: Use AI semantic analysis to understand user sentiment at a large scale. The platform can automatically tag reviews based on topics, detect bugs, and find feature requests. You can also monitor competitor app reviews to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
• App Store Optimization (ASO) Tools: Improve your app's visibility in search results. AppFollow provides tools for keyword research with AI suggestions, tracking keyword rankings, and monitoring top charts and featuring opportunities.
• Analytics and Reporting: Access detailed dashboards that show your app's rating trends, review volumes, and response times. Create custom reports to share with your team and stakeholders.
• Integrations and Alerts: Connect AppFollow with your existing tools like Slack, Zendesk, Microsoft Teams, and Tableau. Set up custom alerts to receive real-time notifications for important reviews, sentiment changes, or ranking updates.
• Unified Inbox: Manage reviews from all major app stores (Google Play, App Store, Microsoft Store, etc.) in a single, organized inbox.

AppFollow Pricing Plans

AppFollow provides several pricing tiers to fit different needs. There is a plan for individuals and small teams that offers basic review management and ASO features. A more advanced plan is designed for growing businesses, providing more automation, AI capabilities, and integrations. For large organizations, there is an Enterprise plan that includes custom solutions, premium support, advanced security features, and full API access. Each plan builds upon the previous one, offering more capacity for tracked apps, keywords, and team members.

AppFollow Free Plan

AppFollow offers a Free Plan that is suitable for individual developers or small projects. This plan typically includes the ability to track a limited number of apps and keywords, access to the reviews inbox for major app stores, and basic analytics. While it has limitations on the volume of reviews you can manage and does not include the most advanced AI and automation features, it is a great way to start managing your app's reputation without any cost. For more advanced features, a free trial of the paid plans is also available.

How to use AppFollow

Getting started with AppFollow is a direct process:

1. Sign Up: Create an account on the AppFollow website using your work email.
2. Add Your Apps: Connect your app store developer accounts (like App Store Connect and Google Play Console) to AppFollow. This allows the platform to pull in your reviews and ratings.
3. Set Up Integrations: Go to the integrations section and connect AppFollow to your team's communication tools, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, to receive review alerts.
4. Configure Automation: In the dashboard, set up rules for auto-replies. You can create templates or use the AI to generate responses for common types of reviews (e.g., 5-star reviews or reviews mentioning a specific bug).
5. Monitor and Respond: Use the unified inbox to read and manually respond to complex reviews that require personal attention.
6. Analyze Feedback: Visit the analytics dashboards to track your average rating, see sentiment trends, and identify common topics in user feedback with AI-powered tags.
7. Optimize Visibility: Use the ASO tools to find relevant keywords and track your app's search ranking to improve organic downloads.

Pros and Cons of AppFollow

Pros:

• Powerful Automation: The AI-driven auto-replies and semantic analysis save a lot of manual work.
• All-in-One Platform: Combines review management, user sentiment analysis, and ASO tools in one place.
• Broad App Store Support: It supports major app stores beyond just Apple and Google.
• Extensive Integrations: Connects with many popular business tools, making it easy to fit into existing workflows.
• Actionable Insights: Provides clear data and reports that help in making product decisions.

Cons:

• Learning Curve: The platform is feature-rich, which can be overwhelming for new users.
• Cost: Advanced features are only available on higher-tier plans, which can be expensive for smaller companies.
• ASO Tool Limitations: While the ASO tools are good, they may not be as advanced as specialized, dedicated ASO platforms.

AppFollow integrations

AppFollow integrates with a wide range of popular business and development tools to streamline workflows. Here are some of the key integrations:

• Slack and Microsoft Teams integration: Post app reviews, ASO reports, and alerts directly into your team's channels.
• Zendesk and Intercom integration: Create support tickets from app reviews to manage user issues within your existing helpdesk software.
• Tableau and Power BI integration: Export review and ratings data to your business intelligence tools for deeper analysis.
• Discord integration: Send updates and reviews to your community and team channels on Discord.
• Trello and Jira integration: Convert user feedback and bug reports from reviews into tasks for your development team.

AppFollow Alternatives

• AppTweak: A strong competitor with a primary focus on ASO, offering powerful keyword optimization and market intelligence tools. It also includes review management features, making it a good all-around choice.
• Appfigures: Known for its excellent app analytics and performance tracking. It provides detailed reports on downloads, revenue, and other key metrics, along with solid tools for monitoring reviews.
• Sensor Tower: An enterprise-level mobile market intelligence platform. It offers deep insights into app performance and competitor strategies but is generally more expensive and complex than AppFollow.
• Asodesk: Another platform with a strong emphasis on ASO. It provides a suite of tools for keyword optimization and competitor analysis, with review management as a secondary feature.

AppFollow API

Yes, AppFollow provides a comprehensive API that allows developers to integrate its data and functionality into their own applications, dashboards, and workflows. The API gives you access to reviews, ratings, app metadata, ASO data, and more.

To get an API key, you typically need to be on a paid plan. The key can be generated within your AppFollow account settings under the API section.

Here is a simple example in Python showing how to fetch reviews using the API:

import requests

# Your AppFollow API credentials and app details
api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
app_id = 'YOUR_APP_ID' # e.g., 529479190 for the Facebook app on iOS

# API endpoint for reviews
url = f'https://api.appfollow.io/reviews?ext_id={app_id}&sort=date'

# Set up the headers with your API key
headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

# Make the GET request
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

# Check if the request was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
    reviews = response.json()
    print('Successfully fetched reviews:')
    for review in reviews.get('reviews', []):
        print(f"- {review['author']}: {review['content']}")
else:
    print(f'Failed to fetch reviews. Status code: {response.status_code}')
    print(response.text)

For full documentation, developers should visit the official AppFollow API documentation page on their website.

AppFollow Affiliate program

AppFollow offers a Partner Program rather than a traditional public affiliate program. This program is designed for agencies, consultants, and technology companies that work with mobile app businesses. Partners can get benefits like co-marketing opportunities, client referrals, and special access to AppFollow resources. The commission structure and specific benefits are usually discussed upon application. To join, you typically need to fill out an application on their website detailing your business and how you plan to partner with them. If you cannot find a public page, it is best to contact their sales or support team to inquire about partnership opportunities.