# Google Play Reviews Scraper (`cynix_dev/app-play-reviews`) Actor

Scrape Google Play Store app reviews by package name. Renders the Play Store with Playwright through a residential proxy and extracts star rating and review text. Useful for app-reputation monitoring and sentiment analysis.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/cynix\_dev/app-play-reviews.md
- **Developed by:** [Cynix Dev](https://apify.com/cynix_dev) (community)
- **Categories:** Agents, Automation, E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.25 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Google Play Reviews Scraper

Scrape **Google Play Store app reviews** by package name — star rating and review text. Renders the Play Store with Playwright through a residential proxy, so you can monitor app reputation and run sentiment analysis at scale.

> **Unofficial tool.** This Actor is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Google LLC. It is an independent tool that collects publicly available information.

### What it does

App reviews are the loudest direct signal you get from users, but reading them one page at a time doesn't scale. This Actor pulls review entries for any Android app by its package name (the `com.whatsapp` part of its Play Store URL), renders them with a real browser, and returns the rating and body text as clean records.

Pair it with a sentiment pass — or with the News & Press Monitor's entity/sentiment tooling — to turn raw reviews into trend lines.

### Features

- **Package-name input** — `com.whatsapp`, `com.instagram.android`, etc.
- **Rendered extraction** — Playwright reads the loaded review feed.
- **Residential proxy** — Google blocks datacenter IPs; enabled by default.
- **Clean typed fields** — app id, star rating, review body, URL.
- **Result cap** — `maxResults` (1–500) bounds the pull.

### What people use it for

- App-reputation monitoring — track rating and sentiment after releases.
- Product research — mine competitor apps for feature complaints.
- Sentiment analysis — feed review text into an NLP pipeline.
- Support triage — surface recurring bug reports and requests.
- Market research — compare user sentiment across competing apps.

### Finding the package name

It's in the Play Store URL: `play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp` → `com.whatsapp`. It's also listed under any app's "About this app" details.

#### From reviews to insight

The raw `body` is where the value is. Most teams:

1. Pull reviews on a schedule (e.g. after each release).
2. Run sentiment classification on `body`.
3. Group by `rating` bucket (1–2 stars = detractors, 4–5 = promoters).
4. Surface the most frequent phrases in low-rated reviews.

Because this Actor returns text plus the star rating, that pipeline is mostly glue, not parsing.

### Input

`appId` (the package name) is required.

| Field | Type | Default | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `appId` **(required)** | string | `com.whatsapp` | Package name, e.g. 'com.whatsapp'. |
| `maxResults` | integer | `50` | Cap on reviews (1-500). Range 1–500. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | see below | Google blocks datacenter IPs. Residential proxy is recommended. |

#### Input example

```json
{
  "appId": "com.whatsapp",
  "maxResults": 50
}
```

### Output

One record per review: app id, star rating, body text and source URL.

Every dataset record contains: `appId`, `rating`, `body`, `url`, `fetchedAt`.

Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or JSONL from the Console, or pull it programmatically through the Apify API and any of the official clients.

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** (or **Start** if you already have an Apify account).
2. Fill in the input fields described above — the defaults already produce a working run.
3. Press **Start** and watch the log; results stream into the dataset as they are found.
4. When the run finishes, open the **Output/Storage** tab and export as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Runs can be scheduled (hourly, daily, weekly) and wired into Slack, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, webhooks or your own backend through Apify integrations. Everything the Console does is also available over the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2).

### Proxy configuration

This Actor accepts a standard Apify **proxy configuration** object. Residential proxy is the default because the target site rate-limits datacenter IP ranges; you can select a specific exit country or supply your own proxy URLs.

```json
{
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

### Pricing

This Actor is billed on Apify's **pay-per-event** model: a small charge when a run starts, plus a charge for each result written to the dataset. You only pay for records you actually receive — a run that finds nothing costs only the start event. Current rates are always shown on the **Pricing** tab of this page, and the run log prints your usage as it goes.

Free-plan credits from Apify cover a large amount of light usage, so you can evaluate the Actor before committing to anything.

### FAQ

#### Why a residential proxy?

Google serves datacenter IPs thin or blocked content for review feeds. Residential routing returns the real review listing.

#### Can I get reviews in a date range?

This version returns the most recent reviews up to `maxResults`. For a windowed pull, schedule runs and filter locally by what you've already stored.

#### Is this affiliated with Google?

No. It is an independent scraper of public Play Store content and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Google.

#### Will it capture developer replies?

It captures the user review (rating + body + URL) as published. Developer responses aren't part of the current output schema.

### Legal and responsible use

This Actor collects only publicly available information. You are responsible for how you use the data, including compliance with the target site's Terms of Service, robots directives, copyright, and data protection law such as GDPR and CCPA. Do not use it to gather personal data without a lawful basis.

### Support and feedback

Found a bug, hit a site change, or need an extra field? Open a ticket on the **Issues** tab of this Actor — issues are read and fixed. Feature requests and custom-scraper enquiries are welcome through the same channel.

# Actor input Schema

## `appId` (type: `string`):

Package name, e.g. 'com.whatsapp'.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Cap on reviews (1-500).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Google blocks datacenter IPs. Residential proxy is recommended.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "appId": "com.whatsapp",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing all scraped records.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("cynix_dev/app-play-reviews").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("cynix_dev/app-play-reviews").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call cynix_dev/app-play-reviews --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,cynix_dev/app-play-reviews"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/HxQwpXMwMIO97b3xP/builds/QR4N6K9fmqzsYFcIX/openapi.json