Automation Hub

Overview

Most support teams work with a large number of reviews that often cover similar topics. Reply Templates speed up the process by allowing you to send replies with just a click – but there's also a way to completely automate the reply process. 

In AppFollow, you can streamline the support workflow by setting up Automated replies. Automated replies instantly send appropriate replies to reviews that match a predefined set of criteria. Read on to learn how to set up an Automation rule, choose the necessary conditions for the rule, and manage your Automations.

In case you would like to use Automation together with the Zendesk App integration, please set up the rules in the Zendesk Workspace. This allows us to send you the information about the review being responded to with automation in accordance with the scenarios below: 
1. Automation Scenario: We can check and wait up to 15 minutes for your automation to post. If it posts within this time, we will send both the review and reply to Zendesk. If it doesn’t post in time or the automation rule relies on semantic tags, only the review is sent without the reply. This can only be enabled upon request to the Support team.
2. Pending Approval Scenario: If your reply is pending approval, we send just the review to Zendesk without the pending reply.

Minimal requirements for Automation to work:

• The app has an active Reply to Review Source Connection.
• The Review fits the criteria of an existing Automation rule.
• The Review doesn’t have a reply in the store yet.

The Automation script runs every 10 minutes. When you set up a new Automation rule or update an existing one, Automations are applied to all reviews without replies received during the last 14 days.

Who Can Create Automation Rules

User roles that have access to create Automation rules are:

• Admin
• User
• Support manager

Learn more about roles in our article about User Roles.

How to Create Automation Rules

To get started with creating Automation reply rules:

1. Create a set of Reply Templates that you'll use as your Auto-reply text. 
2. Expand the "Manage reviews" section in the left-hand navigation panel and click "Automation hub".
3. Click "+Add New Rule" at the top right of the page.
4. Enter a name for your new rule.

5. In the "If" section, select the Review conditions that should be met for your rule to work. Learn more about Conditions in our article on Auto-reply Conditions

   If you add several conditions within one rule, all of them must be met for the rule to apply.

6. In the "Then" section, select which action should happen when a Review matches your rule's conditions. Learn more about Auto-reply Actions further in this article.
7. Set the rule Priority. 
8. Choose a Publication Mode: Approval or Auto-posting. Learn more in our article on Auto-reply Publication Modes.
9. Click "Save Rule".

Auto-reply Actions

Actions determine which template is sent when a Review meets an Auto-reply condition. It's possible to reply to a Review with a:

• Specific Reply Template
• Random Reply Template from a predefined template folder
• Report a Concern Template

Read on to learn more about each of these Auto-reply actions.

AI Auto-replies (AI-generated replies)

AI Auto-replies use OpenAI-powered technology to automatically generate replies from scratch based on the content and tone of a user’s review. This allows support teams to handle large volumes of repetitive reviews while keeping responses relevant, contextual, and personalized.

Unlike AI-powered rephrasing or translation, AI Auto-replies do not rely on predefined templates. Instead, the system analyzes each review and generates an appropriate response automatically.

Key capabilities

• Context-aware reply generation: The AI analyzes review content, sentiment, and intent to generate relevant responses.
• Sentiment-based handling: Generate different replies for positive, negative, neutral, or mixed reviews.
• Topic-aware automation: Automatically respond to reviews mentioning specific issues or features (for example, crashes, subscriptions, feature requests).
• Priority-based responses: Apply special handling for high-impact reviews, such as 1-star ratings or frequently mentioned keywords.
• Multi-language support: AI Auto-replies work across multiple languages, enabling efficient global review management.

AI Auto-replies are best suited for high-volume, repetitive reviews where speed and consistency are critical.

Availability of AI Auto-replies depends on your plan. Please refer to the pricing page or contact us for details.

Reply With a Template

To set up an action with a Reply Template, create a set of templates that you'll use as your Auto-reply text. Learn more about creating templates in our Reply Templates article.

When you choose a specific template as your reply text, the template is sent to every Review that meets the rule's conditions.

If the selected Reply Template was set up to work for specific apps only, then the Auto-reply rule will also work only for the apps selected in the Reply Template settings.

Reply With a Random Template from a Folder

When you receive several reviews on the same topic, Reply Templates help you send a response quickly and spend more time on trickier cases. However, sending the exact same message over and over again isn't ideal. To give your messages a more human touch, set up Auto-replies with random Reply Templates. This will ensure that the exact same replies don't get posted one after the other, and your replies will appear more diverse to anyone browsing your app's reviews.

To set up Auto-replies with random Templates from a Folder:

1. Create a set of Reply Templates.
2. Create a Folder to store Templates that answer the same question.
3. Go to the Automation hub page and create a new Auto-reply rule.
4. Set the action to "Reply with Random Template from Folder".
5. Select the Folder from which you want to send your Auto-replies.
6. Save the Auto-reply rule.
7. Now, every time a Review meets the Auto-reply rule's conditions, a random Template will be sent.

Create Template Folders for different topics and languages. This will allow you to have a solid collection of ready-to-go replies for any situation.

Reply With AI-Powered Rephrasing and Translation

With the Rephrasing and Translating tools, you can automatically generate varied and personalized replies, significantly enhancing the quality and effectiveness of your responses.

• Rephrase Templates with AI: Automatically generate variations of existing reply templates, ensuring that responses are less repetitive and more personalized.
• Translate Templates with AI: Automatically translate reply templates into different languages, making it easier for global teams to manage reviews.

These features are available exclusively for Enterprise plan users, as they are part of the automation tools included in this tier.

Benefits

• Simplified Template Management: Users can create a single template, which AI will rephrase or translate as needed, reducing the time and cognitive load associated with managing multiple templates.
• Dynamic Replies: The AI-driven features ensure that each reply is slightly different, reducing repetitiveness and enhancing the perception of a human touch.
• Enhanced Response Quality: Responses are automatically aligned with your company’s tone and style, improving customer satisfaction and the overall quality of interactions.
• Efficient Multilingual Support: The AI can automatically translate templates into the language of the review, facilitating seamless communication with users worldwide.

How to Use

When managing auto-reply rules, you’ll notice new badges added to the available actions. These badges indicate where AI-driven options are available.

1. Select "Reply with template" or "Reply with random template from folder":

2. Two options will appear - Rephrase or Translate:

You can only choose one option at a time—either Rephrase or Translate, not both simultaneously. The option to select both is on the roadmap for later development.

3. After selecting your desired AI option, the system will automatically perform the chosen action, such as translating the template into the review's language or rephrasing the template for a more personalized response:

How AI Auto-replies differ from AI Rephrasing & Translation

While both features rely on AI, they serve different purposes:

• AI Auto-replies generate a reply automatically without using a template.
• AI Rephrasing creates variations of an existing reply template.
• AI Translation translates an existing reply template into the language of the review.

Automatically Report a Concern

If your app gets a lot of spam or inappropriate reviews, you end up spending a lot of time reporting them and less time working with your more valuable reviews. Save time by setting up Auto-reply rules to report inappropriate and offensive reviews automatically. These reviews may contain offensive language or have low ratings, so you can create a rule that detects these criteria and reports a concern automatically. 

Report a Concern is a premium feature. If you would like to enable it, please reach out to our Support Team.

To automatically Report a Concern:

1. Make sure you have set up the Report a Concern integration.
2. Click "+Add New Rule" on the Auto-replies page.
3. Enter the name of the new rule.
4. Select the conditions that a review should meet to fall under this rule.
5. Select Reply with "Report a Concern" as the action.
6. Choose the type of report that you want to submit: off-topic, spam, offensive material, or something else.
7. Select a template that will be sent to the store when the report is submitted.
8. Click "Save Rule"

💡 By default, all accounts have a standard "Report a Concern" Template Folder that you can use for Auto-reply rules. If you deleted yours by mistake, you can create a new set of templates for each of these situations. Need the original messages? Just send us a message, and we'll be happy to share them with you.

Auto-tags

Auto-tags allow you to automatically assign tags to reviews based on predefined conditions. This helps support teams organize feedback, identify trends, and route issues more efficiently without manual tagging.

How Auto-tags work

Auto-tag rules continuously scan incoming reviews and apply tags when conditions are met. These rules run every 10 minutes, ensuring reviews are categorized quickly after they are received.

If you use the Zendesk App integration, tags applied via Auto-tags are automatically sent to Zendesk tickets.

How to create Auto-tag rules

1. Go to Automation hub.
2. Click +Add New Rule.
3. Define the conditions that should trigger the tag.
4. Select the tag you want to apply.
5. Save the rule.
6. Once saved, the rule will automatically apply the selected tag to all matching new reviews.

Auto-tags can be combined with other automation rules to create powerful workflows for reporting, prioritization, and analytics.

For faster setup, the Automation Hub includes presets, cheat sheets, and guides directly on the page to help you create common automation scenarios more easily.

Semantic Tag and Semantic Sentiment Auto-replies

Use Semantic Tags and Semantic Sentiment to cover a larger scope of Reviews that fall into a specific category. With the help of machine-learning algorithms, Semantics-based replies provide more accurate results than rules based on a fixed set of keywords and ratings. Semantic Analysis works for up to 20 languages, so your Auto-replies are good to go, no matter the language. 

With Semantic Automation rules, you can set the Auto-reply to be triggered by:

• Specific topics (bugs, subscriptions, ads)

• The user's tone of voice (positive, negative, neutral, mixed)

  

Copying Rules between Workspaces

You can copy a specific auto-reply rule from one workspace to another, with just a few clicks! To do so, go to the Auto-replies page and find the rule you wish to copy. Right beside the title of your rule, you will see three buttons. Choose the middle button with the copy icon:

Once you click the copy button, a pop-up for you to select the workspace you wish to copy the rule to will show up. Choose the workspace you wish and click "Copy". 

All done! Now your auto-reply rule has been copied to another workspace in a matter of seconds, with just a few clicks.