Apple recently announced that the upcoming iOS version 18.4 will include an AI-powered feature for summarizing app reviews. According to Macworld, this new feature will provide a concise summary of user reviews for some apps on the App Store. These summaries will be generated by a large language model and, as Apple explains on its developer website, are designed to "extract key points and information from user reviews and summarize them into short paragraphs."
According to Apple's examples, these summaries will be written in natural language, first highlighting positive reviews of the app and then mentioning negative feedback. Apple states that these summaries will be updated at least once a week to incorporate new user reviews. Additionally, users can report issues with the feature by long-pressing on a review.
Initially, the AI-generated summary of app reviews will be available in the US App Store and apply to apps and games published in English with a sufficient number of reviews. More countries and language versions are expected to follow later in the year. This move follows Amazon's step in 2023 to introduce AI-generated summaries of reviews on its e-commerce website. The short paragraphs there are intended to "highlight product features and customer sentiment" and are displayed above the full reviews.
Theoretically, this feature can help users quickly grasp the "highlights" of an app and save them from reading numerous reviews. However, this feature also carries the risk of manipulation, as it could be misused by unscrupulous vendors to "inflate" reviews. From personal experience with Amazon's summaries, the focus on positive aspects sometimes doesn't seem entirely authentic. As a professional product reviewer, I would typically mention negative aspects first if there were problems with a product.
Key Points:
🌟 Apple will introduce an AI-generated app review summary feature in iOS 18.4.
🔄 These summaries will be updated weekly and initially launched in the US App Store.
⚠️ The feature could be misused by unscrupulous vendors.