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

| Parameter | Description | Required | Values | |-----------|-------------|----------|--------| | term | Search query (URL-encoded, + for spaces) | Yes | Any text | | country | Two-letter country code | Yes | us, gb, de, etc. | | entity | App type | No | software (iPhone), iPadSoftware, macSoftware | | media | Media type | No | software (default for apps) | | limit | Max results | No | 1–200 (default 50) | | lang | Language | No | 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:

{
  "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:

{
  "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

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

Get Detailed Info for a Specific App

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

Compare Two Apps

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

Check an App's Rating Across Countries

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
Compare ratings and review counts by region

Find Both iOS and Android Versions

Search iOS: iTunes Search API with the app name
Search Android: web_search "site:play.google.com/store/apps APP_NAME"
Fetch the Google Play page with web_fetch for details
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