Eh. I work for a company that also gets reviews like this a lot (reviews for products we offer instead of the app itself). You’d be surprised how many people accidentally do it, and how hard it is to prevent. I really think it’s a bit rich to suggest it’s intentional.
Reminds me of when I would frequently get 1 star reviews with the subject “Amazing app! Highly recommended”. So, so frustrating especially when the reviews can have such a big impact.
Actually I figured it out, it's in the article linked within the article. 3 months ago they started interrupting podcasts with a prompt to review (the app).
If that were the case why was it ever at 1.8 stars to begin with then? The drastic change (with no software updates) certainly doesn't make intentional manipulation far fetched.
