Intelligence Briefing

Your App Says 4.4 Stars. Your Customers Say 2.8.

Same app. Two ratings. Only one of them is the truth, and the other is the one new customers read first.

By the Verbatim Team · Published 7 June 2026 · 7 min read

Key takeaways

  • The app store shows two numbers. 15,530 raters give the app 4.43 stars. The 587 who write text reviews give it 2.82. Both are real. Only one is the truth.
  • True aggregate satisfaction is 4.43, third best among Saudi coffee apps. The visible story is written by the angriest few.
  • Android is a separate problem: 3.29 stars, a 1.14-star gap behind iOS.
  • Every version update risks the rating. Version 1.4 fell to 2.01. The reply rate to negative reviews is 0%, against 1,809 unanswered negatives across channels.

This is the Digital Signal: the digital experience, read release by release from app stores and delivery platforms. For one of the Kingdom's best-known coffee brands, that experience tells three different stories depending on which number you look at.

The two numbers

On the App Store, 15,530 people rated the app 4.43 stars. But the 587 who wrote a text review rated it 2.82. Same app, two realities. The silent majority taps a score and moves on. The vocal minority writes, and people write when something broke. More than a third of the text reviews, 37.3%, use some version of the phrase "worst app."

The version crash cycle

The rating is not stable. It moves with every release. Version 1.4 fell to 2.01 stars across 187 reviews. The quarterly trend reads like a rollercoaster. The pain points are specific and they repeat. Transactions and payments appear in 22.7% of complaints. Crashes show up in 10.4%. Stability issues in 8.9%.

The reply void

The app reply rate is 0%. There are 369 negative app reviews with no response. On Google, the reply rate is 8.4%, which leaves 1,440 negatives unanswered. Together, that is 1,809 negative reviews across both channels that nobody replied to. Two brands in the sector reply at scale: Tim Hortons at 36.6%, and Dr Cafe at 34.4%. Those two are first and second in the Google league table.

FAQ

Why does an app have a high star rating but bad written reviews?

Because raters and writers are different people. Most users tap a score and leave. The ones who write usually have a problem to report. Here the aggregate is 4.43 stars, but the text-review average is 2.82. The 4.43 is the truth. The 2.82 is what new users read first.

Is the iOS and Android experience the same?

Not in this case. The Android app scored 3.29 stars against 4.43 on iOS, a 1.14-star gap. That is a real platform difference, not review-writing bias.

Does replying to app and location reviews matter?

The only two brands replying at scale, at 36.6% and 34.4%, are the two league leaders. That is an association rather than proof, but it is the lowest-cost action available, and 1,809 negative reviews currently sit unanswered.