appstore-intel

Original：🇺🇸 English
Translated

Look up app details, ratings, reviews, and search the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, and Google Play. Use when the user asks about app ratings, wants to compare apps, or research a competitor's app store presence. No API key required.

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app-store-intelligenceitunes-search-apigoogle-play-scrapingapp-researchapp-comparison

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App Store Intelligence

Look up app details, ratings, reviews, and search the iOS App Store and Mac App Store using Apple's free iTunes Search & Lookup APIs. No API key required.
For Google Play, use web scraping via 
web_search
and 
web_fetch
.

When to Use

  • User asks about an app's ratings or reviews
  • User wants to compare apps in a category
  • User wants to find apps by keyword
  • User asks about a competitor's app store presence
  • User wants app metadata (price, size, version, release notes)

API Overview — Apple iTunes Search API

Free. No authentication. No API key.
Two endpoints:
  • Search: 
    https://itunes.apple.com/search
  • Lookup: 
    https://itunes.apple.com/lookup
Rate Limit: ~20 calls per minute. Cache results for heavy usage.

Searching for Apps

Basic Search

https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=QUERY&country=COUNTRY&entity=software&limit=N
Use 
web_fetch
to call this URL. Response is JSON.

Parameters

ParameterDescriptionRequiredValues
term
Search query (URL-encoded, 
+
for spaces)		YesAny text
country
Two-letter country codeYes
us
, 
gb
, 
de
, etc.
entity
App typeNo
software
(iPhone), 
iPadSoftware
, 
macSoftware
media
Media typeNo
software
(default for apps)
limit
Max resultsNo1–200 (default 50)
lang
LanguageNo
en_us
, 
ja_jp

Example

https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fitness+tracker&country=us&entity=software&limit=10

Looking Up Specific Apps

By App ID (Track ID)

https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=APP_ID&country=us

By Bundle ID

https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.example.app&country=us

Multiple Apps at Once

https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=ID1,ID2,ID3&country=us

Response Format

Each result contains:
json
{
  "trackId": 553834731,
  "trackName": "App Name",
  "bundleId": "com.example.app",
  "sellerName": "Company Name",
  "artistName": "Developer Name",
  "price": 0.00,
  "formattedPrice": "Free",
  "currency": "USD",
  "averageUserRating": 4.5,
  "userRatingCount": 125000,
  "averageUserRatingForCurrentVersion": 4.3,
  "userRatingCountForCurrentVersion": 5000,
  "contentAdvisoryRating": "4+",
  "trackContentRating": "4+",
  "primaryGenreName": "Health & Fitness",
  "genres": ["Health & Fitness", "Lifestyle"],
  "description": "Full app description...",
  "releaseNotes": "What's new in this version...",
  "version": "3.2.1",
  "currentVersionReleaseDate": "2024-01-10T00:00:00Z",
  "releaseDate": "2020-06-15T00:00:00Z",
  "fileSizeBytes": "52428800",
  "minimumOsVersion": "15.0",
  "trackViewUrl": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/...",
  "artworkUrl512": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/...",
  "screenshotUrls": ["url1", "url2"],  // ⚠️ Can be 10+ URLs — summarize count, don't dump all
  "supportedDevices": ["iPhone15,2", "iPad14,1"],  // ⚠️ Can be 100+ items — omit from output to save context
  "languageCodesISO2A": ["EN", "FR", "DE"]
}
The response wrapper:
json
{
  "resultCount": 10,
  "results": [...]
}

Google Play Lookup

There's no free public Google Play API. Use these approaches:

Web Search

web_search: "site:play.google.com/store/apps QUERY"

Direct App Page Scraping

web_fetch: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=PACKAGE_ID&hl=en&gl=us
⚠️ Google Play pages may return limited content or block automated requests. If 
web_fetch
returns incomplete data, fall back to 
web_search
results which typically include rating, download count, and developer info in the snippet.
Extract from the fetched HTML (when available):
  • Title, developer, rating, review count, downloads
  • Description, what's new, screenshots

Google Play Package ID

The package ID is in the URL: 
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.example.app

Step-by-Step Instructions

Search for Apps by Keyword

  1. URL-encode the search term
  2. Fetch: 
    https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=ENCODED_QUERY&country=us&entity=software&limit=10
  3. Parse JSON response
  4. For each result, present: name, developer, rating, review count, price, and App Store link

Get Detailed Info for a Specific App

  1. Find the app's Track ID (from a search, or from the App Store URL — the number after 
    /id
    )
  2. Fetch: 
    https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=TRACK_ID&country=us
  3. Present full details: rating, reviews, version, release notes, price, size, description

Compare Two Apps

  1. Look up both apps: 
    https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=ID1,ID2&country=us
  2. Present side-by-side comparison of key metrics

Check an App's Rating Across Countries

  1. Look up the same ID with different country codes: 
    • https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=APP_ID&country=us
    • https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=APP_ID&country=gb
    • https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=APP_ID&country=de
  2. Compare ratings and review counts by region

Find Both iOS and Android Versions

  1. Search iOS: iTunes Search API with the app name
  2. Search Android: 
    web_search "site:play.google.com/store/apps APP_NAME"
  3. Fetch the Google Play page with 
    web_fetch
    for details
  4. Present both platforms' data

Finding App IDs

  • From App Store URL: 
    apps.apple.com/us/app/app-name/id553834731
    → ID is 
    553834731
  • From search results: The 
    trackId
    field
  • From bundle ID lookup: If you know the bundle ID (e.g., 
    com.spotify.client
    )

Output Format

Single App

### App Name
⭐ 4.5/5 (125K ratings) · Free
By Developer Name · Health & Fitness
Version 3.2.1 (Jan 10, 2024)

📝 What's New: Latest release notes summary...

📱 iOS: https://apps.apple.com/...
🤖 Android: https://play.google.com/...

Search Results

### App Store Results for "query" (N found)

1. **App Name** ⭐ 4.5 (125K) · Free
   By Developer · Category
   📱 https://apps.apple.com/...

2. **App Name** ⭐ 4.2 (50K) · $4.99
   By Developer · Category
   📱 https://apps.apple.com/...

Comparison

### App Comparison

| Metric | App A | App B |
|--------|-------|-------|
| Rating | ⭐ 4.5 | ⭐ 4.2 |
| Reviews | 125K | 50K |
| Price | Free | $4.99 |
| Size | 50 MB | 120 MB |
| Last Updated | Jan 10, 2024 | Dec 5, 2023 |

Error Handling

  • No results: The search term may be too specific. Try broader terms or check spelling.
  • API error / timeout: Retry once. The iTunes API is generally reliable.
  • Rate limited: Wait 60 seconds. Consider caching results for batch lookups.
  • Country not found: Verify the two-letter ISO country code.
  • App removed from store: The lookup will return 
    resultCount: 0
    . Inform the user the app may have been removed.
  • Google Play scraping fails: The page structure may have changed. Fall back to 
    web_search
    results.

Examples

Example 1: "How's the Spotify app rated?"

Fetch: https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.spotify.client&country=us

Example 2: "Find fitness apps with good ratings"

Fetch: https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=fitness&country=us&entity=software&limit=20
Then filter results where 
averageUserRating >= 4.5
and sort by 
userRatingCount
.

Example 3: "Compare Notion and Obsidian on the App Store"

Look up both apps and present a comparison table.

Data Sources

  • iOS / Mac: iTunes Search API — Free, no auth
  • Android: Google Play Store web pages via 
    web_fetch
    — Free, no auth, scraping