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Every new App Store or Google Play review opens a session in the inbox. Your AI or your team answers it there, and the answer is published on the store as the app’s one public developer reply. Each store is connected on its own, in one of two ways: A direct connection needs no extra subscription. Appfigures needs an Appfigures plan that includes review replies. A store uses one connection at a time.

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Before you start

  • You need permission to manage channel settings in OpenCX to connect or change a store.
  • In OpenCX, go to Channels → App Reviews and choose Connect on the store’s card. Pick how to connect the store, choose Continue, then follow that option’s setup steps.

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Connect the App Store directly

  1. In App Store Connect, open Users and Access → Integrations → App Store Connect API and generate a Team key with the Customer Support role.
  2. Download the key file (.p8). Apple lets you download it only once.
  3. Copy the Issuer ID shown above the list of keys, and the Key ID of the new key.
  4. Find each app’s Apple ID under App Information.
  5. In OpenCX, choose App Store Connect, fill in the four fields, and upload or paste the .p8 file. Separate several Apple IDs with commas.

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Connect Google Play directly

  1. In Google Cloud, enable the Google Play Android Developer API for a project, then create a service account and download a JSON key for it.
  2. In Play Console, open Users and permissions, invite the service account’s email, and grant it Reply to reviews for your apps.
  3. In OpenCX, choose Google Play Developer API, upload or paste the JSON key, and enter the package names of your apps (for example com.example.app). Separate several with commas.
Google can take several hours to activate a newly invited service account. Until then, replies are refused and the reviews stay answerable.

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Connect through Appfigures

  1. Link your App Store Connect and Google Play Console accounts in Appfigures.
  2. Create a personal access token under Account → API in Appfigures.
  3. In OpenCX, choose Appfigures on the store’s card and paste the token. The same token serves both stores.

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What happens after you connect

  • New reviews appear in the inbox within a few minutes. Reviews from the last two days are collected when you first connect; a large backlog arrives over the next few checks rather than all at once.
  • Reviews that already have a developer reply on the store are skipped.
  • The session’s side panel shows the rating, the reviewer’s name, and the app version. For direct connections it also links to the store: the review itself on Google Play, and the app’s reviews on the App Store.
  • Google Play only shares reviews that include text. Star-only ratings do not open sessions.
OpenCX checks the credentials when you save. A key it can never use (a wrong file, a missing Apple ID, a malformed package name) is rejected with a message saying what to fix. For a direct connection, OpenCX also reads your reviews once with the new key; if the store refuses it, nothing is saved. This proves the key can read reviews, not that it can reply: a missing reply permission only shows when the first reply fails, and that review stays answerable once you fix it.

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Choose where collection starts

Collect reviews from is optional. Reviews submitted before that date never open sessions. If you are moving a store from another connection, for example from Appfigures to a direct connection, pick today: collection then starts from the moment you save, so reviews already in your inbox are not opened a second time. You can change or clear it later from Manage connection without entering the credentials again.

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Replying

A review takes exactly one public developer reply. The composer counts characters against the store’s limit. On the App Store, Apple publishes the reply after its own review, so it can take a while to appear.

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Pause, switch, or disconnect

  • Pause: turn off Open sessions for new reviews on the store’s card. No new sessions open, and reviews already in the inbox stay answerable.
  • Update credentials: choose Manage connection to open the current connection’s settings and enter new credentials.
  • Switch: disconnect the store, then connect it again, pick the other option, and set Collect reviews from to today. Reviews that arrived through the old connection can no longer be replied to from OpenCX; answer those on the store directly.
  • Disconnect: deletes the stored credentials. New reviews stop opening sessions, and reviews already in the inbox can no longer be replied to.

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Troubleshooting