Do you have Android? A feature that should have been there from the start has appeared in Google Play

Reviews in Google Play are useful – until you’re looking for something specific. Sifting through hundreds of ratings for one piece of information about a particular feature has so far required the patience of a Buddhist monk. Google is finally addressing this in its own way: it has added a search bar to the reviews section.

Search within reviews, not among them

The new feature appears as soon as you open the ratings section in any app. Just tap on the overall score at the top and select “See all reviews” – the search field will appear at the very top. Alternatively, you can scroll down to the reviews section and tap the magnifying glass icon below the AI review summary. After entering a query, reviews containing the searched terms will be filtered.

Practically, this means that if you are considering purchasing an app and are interested in, for example, offline mode support or synchronization with a specific service, you no longer have to hope that a relevant review will appear among the first ones. You can simply find it yourself.

Limitations you currently have to live with

The feature has been tested since November last year and is now gradually rolling out to all users. If you don’t see it yet, try manually forcing an update to version 50.7.24-31 in Play Store settings (Settings → About app → Update Play Store). Even so, it may take days or weeks for the new feature to reach everyone.

The search itself still has a few quirks. Firstly, it requires at least two words to be entered – one word doesn’t work, and it’s unclear whether this is intentional or a bug. Furthermore, results are not displayed continuously as you type, so you have to confirm the query. And most importantly – the search only works with exact matches; don’t expect any semantic search that would understand the meaning of the query yet. At least suggestions for popular queries are displayed below the bar, which makes searching a bit easier.

It’s a solid first step that will save time. Once Google adds smarter search that doesn’t insist on exact phrasing, it will truly be a useful tool.

Do you read reviews in Google Play, or do you install apps on a whim?

Source: Google