Android App Reviews Notifier

🛎️ Get your Android app reviews directly in a Slack channel.

Review	Response

📋 Requirements

• Firebase CLI
• Firebase Functions (requires Blaze # plan)
• Firebase Cloud Firestore
• Google Play developper account
• Google Cloud's Secret Manager (requires billing account)
• Slack Incoming Webhook

🧰 Setup

1. Install required npm dependencies:

   npm --prefix ./functions install

2. Setup and link your Firebase project:

   firebase use --add

3. Configure Slack incoming webhook secret:

   firebase functions:secrets:set SLACK_INCOMING_WEBHOOK

4. Configure Google Service Account secret:
   • Enable Google Play Developer API in Google Cloud Console.
   • Create a new Service Account and generate a JSON key.
   • Invite the Service Account (email) and grant app permissions.

   firebase functions:secrets:set SERVICE_ACCOUNT

5. Deploy the Firebase functions:

   firebase deploy --only functions

6. Add your first app in Firestore:
   • + Start a collection and name it apps.
   • + Add document and Auto-ID then Save.
   • The sanitizeAppDocument Firebase function should automatically insert the required fields.
   • Update the document fields accordingly:
     • developerId: called Account ID in the Google Play Console developer account, also visible in the URL:
       https://play.google.com/console/developers/[developerId].
     • applicationId: visible in the Google Play Console app dashboard's URL:
       https://play.google.com/console/developers/[developerId]/app/[applicationId]/app-dashboard
     • packageName: visible in the Google Play Console app dashboard's
     • icon: the application icon URL that will be used in the Slack messages
     • name: the application name that will be used in the Slack messages
     • ignored: set it to false when you are ready to fetch reviews
7. The system is now ready and will start to fetch reviews and forward them to your Slack channel!

Tip

You can change the default */15 * * * * (15 min) refresh interval.

Important

• User reviews are not stored!
  If you need a backup solution or want to download user reviews, use the Google Play Console Download reviews reports or gsutils command line tool (docs).
• Pagination is not handled to keep the codebase simple.
  Only the most recent 100 reviews will be fetched (API limit).
  If you expect more than 100 reviews between each refresh, reduce the default refresh interval.
• Reviews can be fetched for a period of 1 week (API Limit).
  Beware during during the initial fetch, you might be rate-limited by Slack.

🔗 References

• Google Play Developer API • Reply to Reviews
• Google Play Developer API • Reference reviews.list
• Google Play Android Developer API • Metrics
• Google Cloud Console • Cloud Run functions