Is it allowed to offer incentives for 5 star ratings on the Google Play app store?

Question

I started using an Android app that is offering in-app incentives (unlocks) in return for 5 star ratings on the Google Play app store. Is this against Google Play's terms of service?

— authentictech | Sources

Answer

It is a violation of Google Policy

Highlighting one part of policy violation, related to what you say

Here are some examples of common violations:

Asking users to rate your app while offering an incentive

Edit:

For other violations see Google Play Content Policies

For reporting use Report Inappropriate Apps

— beeshyams | Sources

Q & A

How to stop SMS spam from mobile operator?

Why doesn't su have its setuid bit set?

Escalate privileges in ADB shell to fix build.prop permissions

Can Google Daydream View function as a Cardboard for unsupported phones?

How to install TWRP if usb device not recognised?

Which Google apps can be deleted or disabled without harm to the system?

Galaxy S7: Difference between various European versions

Has TWRP been replaced by another custom recovery image?

Displaying profile photo on others' phone when called

How To Root Samsung A510F?

Headphone problem

Cannot use WhatsApp in Gingerbread anymore

Annoying functionality of suggestions in newer version of Google keyboard

Can't Restore Samsung Galaxy S3 To Factory Firmware

Whatsapp on android device: PlayStore error code -11, parsing error when trying manual install

How do I delete a symlink from /sbin?

How to explain SSL cert validation discrepancy between Chrome and WebView on a modern Android?

Update from external storage disabled

Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 frozen after rooting with Kingoroot

Boot from sdcard

Topics

2D Engines 3D Engines 9-Patch Action Bars Activities ADB Advertisements Analytics Animations ANR AOP API APK APT Architecture Audio Autocomplete Background Processing Backward Compatibility Badges Bar Codes Benchmarking Bitmaps Bluetooth Blur Effects Bread Crumbs BRMS Browser Extensions Build Systems Bundles Buttons Caching Camera Canvas Cards Carousels Changelog Checkboxes Cloud Storages Color Analysis Color Pickers Colors Comet/Push Compass Sensors Conferences Content Providers Continuous Integration Crash Reports Credit Cards Credits CSV Curl/Flip Data Binding Data Generators Data Structures Database Database Browsers Date & Debugging Decompilers Deep Links Dependency Injections Design Design Patterns Dex Dialogs Distributed Computing Distribution Platforms Download Managers Drawables Emoji Emulators EPUB Equalizers & Event Buses Exception Handling Face Recognition Feedback & File System File/Directory Fingerprint Floating Action Fonts Forms Fragments FRP FSM Functional Programming Gamepads Games Geocaching Gestures GIF Glow Pad Gradle Plugins Graphics Grid Views Highlighting HTML HTTP Mocking Icons IDE IDE Plugins Image Croppers Image Loaders Image Pickers Image Processing Image Views Instrumentation Intents Job Schedulers JSON Keyboard Kotlin Layouts Library Demos List View List Views Localization Location Lock Patterns Logcat Logging Mails Maps Markdown Mathematics Maven Plugins MBaaS Media Menus Messaging MIME Mobile Web Native Image Navigation NDK Networking NFC NoSQL Number Pickers OAuth Object Mocking OCR Engines OpenGL ORM Other Pickers Parallax List Parcelables Particle Systems Password Inputs PDF Permissions Physics Engines Platforms Plugin Frameworks Preferences Progress Indicators ProGuard Properties Protocol Buffer Pull To Purchases Push/Pull QR Codes Quick Return Radio Buttons Range Bars Ratings Recycler Views Resources REST Ripple Effects RSS Screenshots Scripting Scroll Views SDK Search Inputs Security Sensors Services Showcase Views Signatures Sliding Panels Snackbars SOAP Social Networks Spannable Spinners Splash Screens SSH Static Analysis Status Bars Styling SVG System Tags Task Managers TDD & Template Engines Testing Testing Tools Text Formatting Text Views Text Watchers Text-to Toasts Toolkits For Tools Tooltips Trainings TV Twitter Updaters USB User Stories Utils Validation Video View Adapters View Pagers Views Watch Face Wearable Data Wearables Weather Web Tools Web Views WebRTC WebSockets Wheel Widgets Wi-Fi Widgets Windows Wizards XML XMPP YAML ZIP Codes