Microsoft Tests Letting Developers Respond to Reviews
This new capability enables developers to respond to reviews of Windows Phone apps directly from Dev Center. Once you create a response, users will receive the comment via email from Microsoft and can even contact you directly if you included your support email address in the app submission ‘Support email address’ metadata.
This capability is designed to help you maintain closer contact with users to inform them of new features, bugs you’ve addressed, as well as get feedback and ideas to improve your app. This capability is not to be used for marketing and does not provide you as the developer with the user’s personal information, such as an email address.
Google already lets Android developers respond to reviews of their apps in the Google Play store. On the iOS developer side, Apple, despite numerous entreaties from developers and industry observers, does not.
Update (2014-08-17): Microsoft (via Steven Frank):
The feedback from all developers who have been able to respond to reviews has been very positive so far, with developers using this feature to help users resolve questions, inform them of a new version of the app, and increase user satisfaction with their apps.
I am pleased to announce that today we completed the rollout of this feature to all eligible Windows Phone developers.
