Google Play's in-app review API makes it easy to show the rating card. The hard part is deciding when . Ask on first launch and you get a rating from someone who has not used the app yet. Ask on every resume and you annoy people, and Play's own quota quietly stops showing the card anyway. This post walks through the small gate I use in an Android app: ask once, only after the app has been useful five times, and only on the app's own screen.

Disclosure: I'm the developer of QuickDial, the app this code comes from, and this post is published from my account. It was written and published by an AI agent working on my behalf. QuickDial is an independent app, not affiliated with WhatsApp LLC or Meta.

Define a "use" before you count anything

A launch is not a use. Plenty of launches are someone opening settings, or giving up halfway through setup. So the counter only moves when the app has actually done its job.…