iRate is a really helpful library to promote your iOS app by reminding users to leave a rating for you in the App Store. This is a strategy recommended by Apple on their App Store "tips" page, and doing so will likely increase the number of positive reviews your app receives. This quick tip will show you how to add iRate to your iOS project to begin generating the most successful type of marketing: word-of-mouth!

Step 1: Download iRate

As you might expect, iRate is available on Github. Jump to the project page and download the latest version.

Step 2: Import & Initialize iRate

It's really fast and easy to add iRate to your project. After downloading the files, copy them into your Xcode project.

To begin, you'll need to import the iRate project:

#import "iRate.h"

After that, you can add the following code in your AppDelegate.m file to initialize iRate:

+ (void)initialize
{
	//configure iRate
	[iRate sharedInstance].appStoreID = 355313284; // Replace this
}

For the appstoreID, you enter the App ID of your app. The App ID, or application identifier, is created online from your Apple developer account in the "iOS Provisioning Portal" section. For those of you who have already released your application on iTunes, you can also find your App ID from within iTunes Connect.

After setting up the above, you're done! It really is that simple.

Debugging iRate

If you build and run the app, you won't notice that you have added iRate, because the prompt will only show after 10 days by default. However, if add the following line to the code, the message will display immediately:

[iRate sharedInstance].debug = YES;

Of course, be sure to take this line of code out before you release your app, because if you don't the message will show every time a user opens the application, and I can tell you that will likely decrease your overall rating.

Additional Configuration

It's also possible to personalize the prompt to your requirements. You can do that by changing the following properties of the iRate class:

• appStoreID
• applicationName
• daysUntilPrompt
• usesUntilPrompt
• eventsUntilPrompt
• remindPeriod
• messageTitle
• message
• cancelButtonLabel
• rateButtonLabel
• remindButtonLabel
• disabled
• debug

It's recommended to leave the daysUntilPromt property above five, because those who are still using your application after five days are far more likely to rate and give a positive review.

Wrap Up

I hope you liked this quick tip about iRate. You can find the source code in the same download file as the iRate.h and iRate.m files. I highly recommend adding iRate to your app, because it's an easy way to increase the positive reviews for your app. If you have some new ideas for iOS tutorials, please leave them in the comments section below!