Google Play · LiveGoogle Play review monitoring, including reviews older than 7 days
The Google Play Developer API only returns about a week of reviews. Review Expert adds your history from Play Console review exports, checks for new reviews roughly every 5 minutes, and lets your team reply and route reviews from one inbox.
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Two Google data sources, one review list
Google exposes recent reviews and historical reviews in different places. Review Expert reads both with one service account.
| Google Play Developer API | Play Console review reports | |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | Reviews created or modified in about the last 7 days | Monthly CSV files of your app's reviews |
| Reviews without text | Not returned | Not imported as reviews |
| Where it lives | Android Publisher API (reviews endpoint) | Your Play Console Google Cloud Storage bucket |
| Used by Review Expert for | Ongoing sync roughly every 5 minutes, and posting replies | Backfilling history (currently up to 36 months) |
| Developer replies included | ✓ | ✓ |
What you get for Google Play reviews
History beyond 7 days
Older reviews from Play Console's monthly review reports, so your dashboards show trends, not just last week.
New reviews about every 5 minutes
After the first sync, Review Expert checks the API for new reviews roughly every 5 minutes.
Reply within Google's 350 characters
Write or update replies in Review Expert; they're posted through the official API. Every team role can reply.
Route to your tools
Slack and Linear on Starter, Microsoft Teams and Zendesk on Pro, webhooks on Enterprise, each filtered by rating and keywords.
Dashboards
Average rating, rating distribution, reviews over time, by platform, response rate and average response time.
No manual CSV wrangling
No more downloading monthly files from Play Console and merging spreadsheets to see what users said last quarter.
Connect Google Play with a service account
Google's standard way to give a tool API access to your Play Console, without sharing a password.
- 1
Pick a Google Cloud project
Open the Google Cloud Console and select an existing project or create a new one. Sign in as someone who can manage that project's service accounts. - 2
Enable the Google Play Android Developer API
In APIs & Services → Library, enable the Google Play Android Developer API. Our in-app guide also links the Cloud Storage API, used to read your review report files. - 3
Create a service account and a JSON key
Under IAM & Admin → Service Accounts, create a service account (for example “review-expert”), then open Manage keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON. The JSON file downloads to your computer. - 4
Invite the service account in Play Console
In Play Console, open Users and permissions → Invite new users, paste the service account's email and grant View app information and download bulk reports (read-only) and Reply to reviews. Send the invitation. - 5
Upload the key in Review Expert
In the Review Expert dashboard, open Apps & Businesses, add your Android app and upload the JSON key. Review Expert tests the connection, then starts the API sync and the history backfill.
Permission error in Google Cloud?
If Google Cloud says you don't have permission to set policy on the project, you're probably not signed in with an account that can manage that project's IAM. Ask the project owner, or use a project you own. Google's getting started guide covers service accounts for the Play Developer API.
How the history backfill works
Play Console keeps reports for your developer account in a Google Cloud Storage bucket (its name looks like pubsite_prod_<developer ID>, and you can copy the bucket ID from Play Console's Download reports → Reviews page). Inside, review reports are split into one CSV file per app per month.
When you connect an app, Review Expert:
- Uses your service account to find the reports bucket for your developer account.
- Reads the monthly review files for that app, currently going back up to 36 months, and imports each review's rating, text, date and any developer reply.
- Combines them with recent reviews from the API, so the same review isn't listed twice.
- Keeps polling the API roughly every 5 minutes for new reviews.
This is why the service account needs View app information and download bulk reports: without it, Review Expert can only see what the API returns, which is about a week of reviews. Google describes the report files in Download and export monthly reports. For a longer walkthrough, read how to get Google Play reviews older than 7 days.
Brand-new permissions can take time
Google can take a while to apply a newly invited service account's permissions, and new apps may not have report files yet. If the history backfill finds nothing at first, email hello@review.expert and we'll help you run it again once the reports are available. New reviews from the API keep syncing either way.
Replying to Google Play reviews
Replies you write in Review Expert are sent through the Google Play Developer API and appear as your developer reply on Google Play. If a review already has a reply, sending a new one updates it. Google limits replies to 350 characters, so lead with the fix or next step. See Google's reply to reviews documentation for the API details.
Owners, admins and reviewers can all reply. AI-drafted replies and auto-reply rules are coming soon; today replies are written by your team. Our response templates are a good starting point.
Frequently asked questions
Google's reviews endpoint in the Google Play Developer API only returns reviews that were created or modified in roughly the last week, and only reviews that include text. Older reviews have to come from Play Console's review reports, which Google writes as monthly CSV files to a Google Cloud Storage bucket for your developer account.
With the same service account you connect for the API, Review Expert locates your Play Console reports bucket, reads the monthly review CSV files for your app (currently up to the last 36 months), and imports those reviews together with any developer replies. Recent reviews then keep coming from the API.
Review Expert is built to monitor, reply to and route reviews rather than to produce CSV exports. If you only need a one-off spreadsheet, Play Console's Download reports → Reviews page lets you download the monthly CSV files directly. If you want those reviews searchable, filterable and sent to Slack, Linear, Teams, Zendesk or a webhook, connect the app to Review Expert.
Invite the service account's email in Play Console under Users and permissions and grant "View app information and download bulk reports (read-only)" (needed for the review reports) and "Reply to reviews" (needed to post replies). You can grant them for all apps or only the apps you connect.
Google limits developer replies to 350 characters. Keep replies short and specific: acknowledge the issue, give a fix or next step, and point to support if needed.
Yes. Posting a reply to a review that already has one updates it, both in Play Console and through the API. In Review Expert you edit the reply and send it again.
Google's API only returns reviews with text, and the monthly report files are what Google provides for history. Ratings without any written review aren't individual reviews you can reply to, so they don't appear as rows in your inbox.
Review Expert checks the Google Play Developer API roughly every 5 minutes after the initial sync. Google decides when a review becomes available through its API, so there can be a short delay compared with what you see in Play Console.
See your Google Play reviews beyond the last 7 days
14-day free trial. Starter is $49/month ($39/month billed annually) for 2 apps and 5 team members.