Chrome extension review notifications: get an alert for every new review on Chrome, Edge and Firefox

Chrome extension review notifications are switched off by default, and most developers find out the hard way: a one-star review about a broken update sits on the listing for two weeks before anyone on the team opens the dashboard. A developer who built his own monitor described the routine well on dev.to: "checking your extension every so often in the developer dashboard" and then finding that "someone has asked a question or left feedback you needed to address."

This guide shows what each extension store offers for new-review alerts, how to turn the Chrome Web Store email on, how to route those emails into Slack or Discord, how to watch Firefox reviews through Mozilla's public API, and what to do about Edge, which has no documented notification at all. Every setting and endpoint below was checked against the stores' documentation and source code on October 14, 2026.

Key takeaways

• The Chrome Web Store can email you when users post or update reviews. The setting is in the Developer Dashboard under Account, Notifications, and Google's documentation calls it Item review completed.
• The Chrome Web Store API has no method for reading reviews, so email is the only official notification channel for Chrome.
• Firefox Add-ons (AMO) emails developers about new ratings by default, and its public ratings API lets you poll for new reviews without a key.
• Microsoft's documentation for Edge Add-ons describes a Reviews page in Partner Center, but no email or webhook for new reviews.
• Alert on what needs a human: low-star reviews, review bursts after a release and rating drops. Everything else can wait for a weekly read.

Chrome extension review notifications at a glance#

Each store handles new reviews differently. Here is what is documented today:

If your extension ships to more than one store, you need a different setup for each, which is why many teams end up with a single monitoring tool. We come back to that at the end. First, the built-in options.

Turn on Chrome Web Store review notifications#

Google documents the setting on its Manage user feedback page: "To receive email notifications when users post reviews or update existing reviews, you can enable Item review completed in the Account settings of the Developer Dashboard, under the Notifications section."

Step by step:

1. Open the Chrome Web Store Developer Dashboard and sign in with the publisher account.
2. Select Account in the left menu.
3. Scroll to Notifications.
4. Enable the option for user reviews. Google's page names it Item review completed; if your dashboard shows a slightly different label for user reviews, pick that one.
5. While you are there, enable Item support issue received if you use the store's support hub. The same page says new support requests use that setting, "configured the same way as review notifications."
6. Add [email protected] to your contacts. Google's review status page recommends this "so that you receive all communications in a timely manner."

The label is confusing because the Chrome Web Store uses "review" for two different things: users reviewing your extension, and Google reviewing your submission. The store's own submission review has separate emails for published and staged items, also on the Account page. If you only want user reviews, check that you enabled the user review option, not only the publishing ones.

What the Chrome Web Store email does not give you#

The email is useful, and it is also the whole feature. A few gaps to plan around:

• No API. The Chrome Web Store API reference lists methods to upload, publish, cancel a submission, fetch status and set a deploy percentage. Nothing reads reviews or ratings, so you cannot pull reviews into your own tools from Google.
• One inbox. The email goes to the publisher account. If the account is a shared address that nobody reads, the notification is lost there.
• No triage. A five-star "thanks!" and a one-star "this update deleted my data" arrive the same way.
• Replies are silent. Google's page says "Users will not be notified when you reply to a review." Other visitors see your reply, which is still worth doing, but the reviewer may never come back to read it.

The next section fixes the first three gaps with a short script.

Send Chrome Web Store review emails to Slack or Discord#

If your team lives in a chat tool, move the email there. Two ways to do it:

• Slack's email address for a channel. Slack can create an email address that posts into a channel. According to Slack's help article on sending emails to Slack, this is available on paid plans only. Create the address, then add a Gmail filter that forwards mail from [email protected] to it.
• A small Google Apps Script. This works with any webhook (Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams) and on free plans, and you control the message format.

Here is the Apps Script version. Create a project at script.google.com while signed in to the account that receives the store emails, paste the code, and set a script property named WEBHOOK_URL under Project Settings:

// Forward Chrome Web Store emails to a chat webhook.
// Runs on a time-driven trigger; labels each thread so nothing posts twice.
const LABEL_NAME = 'cws-forwarded';
const QUERY = `from:[email protected] -label:${LABEL_NAME} newer_than:7d`;

function forwardStoreEmails() {
  const webhookUrl = PropertiesService.getScriptProperties().getProperty('WEBHOOK_URL');
  const label = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(LABEL_NAME) || GmailApp.createLabel(LABEL_NAME);
  const threads = GmailApp.search(QUERY, 0, 20);

  for (const thread of threads) {
    const message = thread.getMessages().pop(); // newest message in the thread
    const text = `*${message.getSubject()}*\n${message.getPlainBody().slice(0, 1500)}`;

    // Slack incoming webhooks read `text`; Discord webhooks read `content` (max 2,000 characters).
    const payload = webhookUrl.includes('discord.com') ? { content: text } : { text };

    const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(webhookUrl, {
      method: 'post',
      contentType: 'application/json',
      payload: JSON.stringify(payload),
      muteHttpExceptions: true,
    });

    // Only mark the thread as done when the chat tool accepted it.
    if (response.getResponseCode() < 300) thread.addLabel(label);
  }
}

// Run once by hand to schedule the forwarder every 15 minutes.
function installTrigger() {
  ScriptApp.newTrigger('forwardStoreEmails').timeBased().everyMinutes(15).create();
}

Run installTrigger once and approve the Gmail and external request permissions it asks for. A few notes:

• Quotas are generous for this job. Google's Apps Script quotas for a consumer account allow "20,000 / day" URL fetch calls and "90 min / day" of trigger runtime. A forwarder that runs every 15 minutes uses a tiny fraction of both.
• The query catches every email from the store. That includes publishing and policy emails, which most teams want in the same channel anyway. To forward only user reviews, add a subject word from your own review emails to QUERY.
• Keep the webhook URL secret. Anyone with it can post to your channel. It lives in script properties, not in the code.
• Review text is user content. It can contain names, links and the occasional abusive line. Post it to an internal channel, not a public one.

For a deeper look at the receiving side, our guides to sending Discord webhook alerts from Node.js and Telegram bot notifications cover formatting, rate limits and retries.

Firefox add-on review notifications#

Firefox is the friendliest store here. Mozilla's add-ons site, AMO, is open source, so you can read exactly what it does. Its notification settings include a developer option labeled "someone writes a review of my add-on", checked by default, and the ratings model sends an email titled "Mozilla Add-on User Rating" to every author of the add-on when a new rating is created. If you have never received one, check the notification settings on your AMO profile and your spam folder.

Two details from the same source code matter in practice:

• The email fires for new ratings, not edits. When a user edits an existing rating, AMO logs the change but does not send the new-rating email.
• AMO tells the reviewer when you reply. Unlike the Chrome Web Store, a developer reply triggers an email to the reviewer, subject to their own "an add-on developer replies to my review" setting. A reply on AMO has a real chance of being read.

Poll Firefox reviews with the AMO ratings API#

AMO also has a public ratings API. GET /api/v5/ratings/rating/?addon=<slug> returns the latest rating from each user, with the score, text, version and author, and needs no key. That makes it easy to build alerts that email cannot give you, such as "only post reviews of three stars or less":

// amo-new-reviews.mjs: print Firefox add-on reviews posted since the last run.
// Usage: node amo-new-reviews.mjs <addon-slug>
import { readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const ADDON = process.argv[2] ?? 'your-addon-slug'; // slug, numeric id or GUID
const STATE_FILE = `./amo-${ADDON}-last-id.json`;

async function readLastId() {
  try {
    return JSON.parse(await readFile(STATE_FILE, 'utf8')).lastId;
  } catch {
    return null; // first run: remember where we are, alert on nothing
  }
}

const url = new URL('https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v5/ratings/rating/');
url.searchParams.set('addon', ADDON);
url.searchParams.set('page_size', '50');

const res = await fetch(url, { headers: { accept: 'application/json' } });
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`AMO returned ${res.status}`);
const { results } = await res.json();

const lastId = await readLastId();
const fresh = lastId === null ? [] : results.filter((r) => r.id > lastId && !r.is_deleted);

for (const r of fresh.sort((a, b) => a.id - b.id)) {
  const text = r.body ? r.body.slice(0, 280) : '(rating only, no text)';
  console.log(`${r.score}/5 on v${r.version?.version ?? '?'}: ${text}`);
  console.log(`  https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/${ADDON}/reviews/${r.id}/`);
}

const newest = Math.max(lastId ?? 0, ...results.map((r) => r.id));
await writeFile(STATE_FILE, JSON.stringify({ lastId: newest }));

Run it hourly from a scheduler you already have, and replace console.log with a webhook call. Rating ids increase over time, so "id greater than the last one I saw" is a simple and reliable cursor. Two cautions: the docs note that these endpoints "are not frozen and can change at any time without warning", so log the response status and fail loudly; and keep the polling interval modest, since an hour is plenty for reviews. Our guide to Firefox add-on stats covers the rest of AMO's public data, including daily users.

Edge Add-ons reviews: check Partner Center#

Microsoft's documentation on replying to user reviews describes a Reviews page in Partner Center under Extension overview, where you can see the average rating, the total number of ratings and every review, filter by rating and response status, and reply. A reply "must be between one and one thousand (1-1000) characters long" and appears on the Edge Add-ons listing "within 20 minutes."

The page does not describe an email, webhook or API for new reviews, and we found none in Microsoft's extension documentation. Until that changes, you have two options: put a weekly reminder on your calendar to open the Reviews page, or use a tool that tracks your public Edge listing. Our guide to Edge add-on analytics explains what else Partner Center reports.

Which reviews deserve an alert#

Once reviews reach your channel, the next problem is noise. A popular extension can collect dozens of reviews a week, and a channel that posts every one of them gets muted. A simple triage:

1. Low ratings, always. One- and two-star reviews usually describe a bug, a broken site or a confusing change. They need a reply and often a ticket.
2. Any review in the 48 hours after a release. This is when regressions show up. Our checklist of what to watch after an extension release covers the rest of that window.
3. Bursts. Ten reviews in a day on a listing that normally gets two a week means something happened: a bug, a feature that delighted people, or a campaign. Look before you celebrate.
4. Rating drops. The average moving down on an established listing means many people changed their minds. Our guide to reading review and rating trends explains how to tell a real shift from noise.
5. Everything else, weekly. Positive reviews are worth reading, just not in real time.

If you get more reviews than you can read, label them instead: our walkthrough of app review analysis with an LLM turns each review into a topic and a sentiment you can count per version.

Detecting "new" reviews on a public listing comes down to comparing today's list of review ids with yesterday's. Our guide to JSON diff in Node.js shows how to compare two snapshots like that and turn the changes into alert lines.

Reply fast, and know who will see it#

Replying is the point of being notified. What happens after you reply differs by store:

On Chrome, write the reply for the next visitor as much as for the reviewer: say what was fixed and in which version. Google also lets you link users straight to your reviews by adding /reviews to the end of the item URL, which is handy in release notes and support replies.

One feed for every store with Extenify#

Built-in notifications cover one store each, in one format each, and Edge has none. If your extension ships to several stores, or you also want to follow competitors' reviews, a single feed is easier to live with.

Extenify is an extension review monitoring tool and app store rating alerts service in one dashboard. It reads the public listings of your extensions on the Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons and Firefox Add-ons, and your apps on Google Play and the App Store, once a day. When something changes, it sends one digest per product with lines such as New reviews, Unusual burst of new reviews, a rating that dropped or recovered, and a rating count that moved, together with version, user and listing changes. Digests go to email, Slack, Discord, Telegram or Microsoft Teams. It checks daily rather than every few minutes, so keep the store's own email on if you want to reply within the hour. Every account starts with a 7-day free trial, and the pricing page lists the plans.

Frequently asked questions#

Does the Chrome Web Store notify developers of new reviews?#

Yes, if you turn it on. In the Developer Dashboard, open Account, scroll to Notifications and enable the user review option, which Google's documentation calls "Item review completed". It emails you when users post reviews or update existing ones.

Why am I not getting Chrome Web Store review emails?#

Check three things: that the user review notification is enabled (not only the publishing notifications), that the email goes to an inbox someone reads, and that [email protected] is in your contacts so the messages do not land in spam, as Google recommends.

Is there an API for Chrome Web Store reviews?#

No. The Chrome Web Store API covers uploading, publishing, submission status and staged rollout percentages, with no method for reviews or ratings. To get reviews into your own tools, forward the notification emails or use a service that reads the public listing.

Do Firefox add-on developers get an email for every review?#

For new ratings, yes, by default. AMO's developer notification "someone writes a review of my add-on" is checked unless you turned it off, and the email goes to every author of the add-on. Edits to an existing rating do not trigger it. You can also poll AMO's public ratings API.

Are users notified when I reply to their review?#

On the Chrome Web Store, no: Google says "Users will not be notified when you reply to a review." On Firefox Add-ons, the reviewer receives an email unless they opted out. Microsoft does not document reviewer notifications for Edge Add-ons.

Summary#

Chrome extension review notifications take one setting: enable the user review email under Account, Notifications in the Developer Dashboard, and add the store's sender to your contacts. Because the Chrome Web Store has no reviews API, a short Apps Script that forwards those emails is the simplest way to get them into Slack or Discord. Firefox emails developers by default and offers a public ratings API for custom alerts. Edge offers neither, so check Partner Center on a schedule or track the public listing. Then alert only on what needs a person: low ratings, post-release reviews, bursts and rating drops.

Image credits#

• Cover photo: Vintage doorbells by Nilo Velez on the WordPress Photo Directory, CC0.