Apple Finally Stops iOS Beta Users From Leaving App Reviews

In a move that developers will greet with a sigh of relief, Apple appears to have removed the ability to post reviews on the App Store from devices running iOS 9 beta. The move comes after Apple launched a public beta of iOS 9 earlier this month. This means anyone, not just developers, can download and run iOS 9 on their iOS devices.

Several apps are not compatible or properly optimised for iOS 9 yet, and will not work properly until the final version of iOS 9 is released later this year. That is why it is unfair to developers if people post negative reviews, complaining about how the app doesn't work with iOS 9. We'd even come across some one-star reviews that acknowledged the fact that the app isn't supposed to work with iOS 9. Developers weren't too happy about this and Apple has fixed the issue.

MacRumors notes that while it isn't possible to review apps on the App Store from a device running iOS 9, users can still leave star ratings. Until this loophole is plugged, users can continue to leave negative feedback for unfinished apps or not-yet-optimised apps. The report says reviews cannot be posted from iOS 9 Beta 3 and Beta 4.

The MacRumors report also says that iOS 8.4.1 beta lets users review apps, but that this is a pre-release version of iOS available only to developers. This leads us to speculate that Apple may have removed the ability to post App Store reviews from versions of the OS made available as public beta.