Apple puts a stop to app reviews left by anyone with a device running iOS 9 beta

By Andre Revilla Published July 22, 2015

Apple has removed the ability to leave app reviews from those with phones running beta versions of iOS. It’s intended to minimize the amount of negative reviews left due to an app running poorly on beta software, something developers can do little about. In the attempt to leave a review from a phone running a beta version of iOS 9 — or any future publicly available revision, presumably — a pop-up message appears that reads “This feature isn’t available.”

However, while this will stop negative reviews being left on apps solely due to issues related to running an unreleased version of the phone OS, it’s not the end of the problem. While a written review can’t be left, a star rating can still be given to an app, meaning negative opinions can still be voiced.

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Apple has been forced to address the problem due to the release of iOS 9 as a beta piece of software to the public. Anyone who wants to can download and install Apple’s next revision of the OS, before it’s officially finished and ready for public use. Although interesting and fun, it’s an unfinished, and therefore unstable operating system that most apps are not configured for, resulting in crashes, glitches, and poor performance.

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The alteration has been made in both iOS 9 Beta 3 and iOS 9 Beta 4, but not in the developer-only iOS 8.4.1 version, suggesting Apple is primarily addressing the general public with the change. Whether it’s a work in progress, and the star rating option will also be removed in the future, remains to be seen.

If you’re interested in trying out iOS 9 — before it’s officially released in September — you can check out our guide here for instructions on how to download it. We’ve already been using the software (but haven’t left any negative app reviews) since it was released, and you can read our comprehensive hands-on here.

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AV Contributor

Andre Revilla is an entrepreneur and writer based in Chicago that has been covering and working in the consumer tech space…

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