Respond to Reviews from Google Play Console (Service Account Method)

Overview

If you are on the Power plan, this integration with Google Play Store allows you to reply to positive and negative reviews using Cloutly.

Note that you will need to follow these instructions before Cloutly can respond to reviews on your behalf.

After you set up the Google Play Store connection, Cloutly will be able to access your reviews feed and respond to reviews on your behalf.

If you have an iOS app, set up an App Store Connect integration to reply to your reviews on iOS as well.

Before you start

Find the owner of your Google Play Developer account. You'll need owner-level access to be able to set up this integration with a service account (standard Google Play admin is not sufficient).

Create a Service account

Log in to the Google Play Console as the account owner
In the left-hand menu, select "API Access"
Click “Create new service account”
In the pop-up that opens, click the link to go to the Service Accounts section of your Cloud Console.
In the new window, click “+ Create service account”.




On the setup page, do the following:
Provide s Service Account name (eg: Cloutly Reviews)
In the "Role" section, choose "Basic", then choose "Browser"




Click "Done" which will return you to the "Service Accounts" overview section. Then, click on the account you just created to open it up

Switch to the "Keys" tab

Click "Add Key"



Select "JSON" and click "Create". This JSON file will be downloaded to your computer. You'll need to copy the contents of this file into your Cloutly account soon

Back in your Developer Console under "API Access" (where you started), you should now see the service account you've just created in the list

Click "Grant access" next to your new service account

Select the following permissions:
View app information and download bulk reports (read-only)
Reply to reviews

Send the invitation

Go to your Cloutly dashboard -> Integrations and select Google Play Store (Service Account) from the list

Enter your app package name (found underneath the name of your app in Google Play Console)



Paste in the Service Account JSON Key. This is the file you downloaded earlier, which can be opened in Notepad on your computer. Paste the full thing. All of it!

Done!

Updated on: 06/02/2023