# Google Play Monitor — Competitor Android App Tracking (`dottti/googleplay-monitor`) Actor

Track any Android app across storefronts and get only what changed: new releases with notes, price moves, rating shifts, install-tier jumps and delistings.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dottti/googleplay-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Mohanad Alshaka](https://apify.com/dottti) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 app change detecteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 Monitor — Competitor Android App Tracking

Watch any Android app and get **only what changed since your last run**: new releases with their notes, price moves, rating shifts, install-tier jumps, and delistings.

Point it at your competitors, schedule it daily, and each run returns a short list of what moved instead of a fresh dump of the same records.

Pairs with **App Store Monitor** if you track both platforms.

### Honest note on reliability

Apple publishes a JSON API. Google does not. Play store data lives inside `AF_initDataCallback` blobs in the page, and every field is reached by a positional index path into an undocumented nested array. Those indices move when Google reshuffles the page.

A naive extractor handles that badly: the path silently starts returning nothing, rows come back full of nulls, and nothing distinguishes "this app genuinely has no version" from "the parser broke three weeks ago."

So every field here is **validated against the shape it must have**:

- A rating must be a number between 0 and 5. `97` is rejected, not reported.
- A title must be a non-empty string.
- A price must be a non-negative number of micros.

A field that is missing-but-required, or present-but-wrong-shaped, marks the extraction unhealthy. Unhealthy records are reported in the run log and in `RUN_SUMMARY`, and **excluded from the saved baseline** so a broken parse cannot corrupt future comparisons and produce a storm of false changes on the next run.

That is the difference between an Actor that breaks loudly and one that lies quietly.

### What a change row looks like

```json
{
  "country": "us",
  "changeType": "new_version",
  "reasons": ["new_version", "rating_fell"],
  "title": "Spotify: Music and Podcasts",
  "developer": "Spotify AB",
  "previousVersion": "9.0.10.100",
  "version": "9.0.12.100",
  "releaseNotes": "We are always making changes and improvements.",
  "previousScore": 4.39,
  "score": 4.34,
  "scoreMove": -0.05,
  "newRatingsSinceLastRun": 18422,
  "installsText": "1,000,000,000+",
  "installsApprox": 1000000000,
  "price": 0,
  "currency": "USD",
  "url": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music"
}
```

Change types: `new_version`, `app_updated`, `price_drop`, `price_rise`, `became_paid`, `became_free`, `rating_fell`, `rating_rose`, `installs_tier_change`, `title_change`, `developer_change`, `delisted`, `new_app`, `first_seen`.

### Three details that matter in practice

**Not every app has a version.** Apps shipping per-device builds show "Varies with device" and carry no version at all. Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram are all like this. That is a legitimate null, not a broken parse, and it is treated as such. Apps that do publish one, such as Firefox or Edge, are tracked normally.

**Rating noise is filtered.** An app with 31 million ratings drifts every day. A move must clear `scoreDelta` (0.05 by default) before it counts, so real movement is not buried under decimal drift.

**Storefronts differ.** Price, currency and rating are per country, so each storefront is tracked against its own baseline.

Every row carries the same fields, including `delisted` rows, so CSV exports stay rectangular.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `apps` | Package names or Play Store URLs. Both work and can be mixed. |
| `countries` | Two-letter storefront codes, each tracked separately. |
| `language` | Language for titles and release notes. |
| `mode` | `changes` returns only what moved. `snapshot` returns everything each time. |
| `stateKey` | Names the saved baseline. One key per watchlist. |
| `scoreDelta` | How far the rating must move to count. Default 0.05. |

#### Daily competitor watch

```json
{
  "apps": [
    "com.spotify.music",
    "com.instagram.android",
    "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp"
  ],
  "countries": ["us", "gb", "sa"],
  "mode": "changes",
  "stateKey": "competitors"
}
```

The first run records the baseline. Every run after returns just the moves.

### Notes and limits

- Public store pages only. No developer account, no Play Console credentials, nothing behind a login.
- One request is made per app per storefront, so a large watchlist across many countries takes proportionally longer. `requestDelayMs` controls the pacing.
- An app returning 404 on a storefront is treated as unavailable there, and reported as `delisted` if you were explicitly tracking it.
- `changes` mode keeps its baseline in a named key-value store. Deleting that store resets it and the next run reports `first_seen` again.

### Development

```bash
npm install
npm test
node src/main.js
```

# Actor input Schema

## `apps` (type: `array`):

Android package names or Play Store URLs. Both work and can be mixed. Example: com.spotify.music, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instagram.android

## `countries` (type: `array`):

Two-letter country codes. Price, currency and rating differ per storefront, so each one is tracked against its own baseline.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Two-letter language code for titles and release notes.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

changes: return only apps that moved since the previous run. snapshot: return every app every time.

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Names the saved baseline that changes are measured against. Use one key per watchlist so separate schedules do not overwrite each other.

## `scoreDelta` (type: `string`):

How far the average rating must move before it counts. A high-volume app drifts slightly every day, which would otherwise bury the real signal.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Google rate-limits bursts. One request is made per app per storefront.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries with exponential backoff on 429 and 5xx, honouring Retry-After when present.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "apps": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "mode": "changes",
  "stateKey": "default",
  "scoreDelta": "0.05",
  "requestDelayMs": 800,
  "maxRetries": 4
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `apps` (type: `string`):

Each row carries changeType (new\_version, app\_updated, price\_drop, price\_rise, became\_paid, became\_free, rating\_fell, rating\_rose, installs\_tier\_change, title\_change, developer\_change, delisted, first\_seen), the previous version, price, score and ratings count, the score movement, new ratings since last run, and the full current app record.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Per-storefront outcome plus extraction health: which apps resolved, which failed validation, and how many extractions were excluded from the baseline.

# 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 = {
    "apps": [
        "com.spotify.music"
    ],
    "countries": [
        "us"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dottti/googleplay-monitor").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 = {
    "apps": ["com.spotify.music"],
    "countries": ["us"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dottti/googleplay-monitor").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 '{
  "apps": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ]
}' |
apify call dottti/googleplay-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,dottti/googleplay-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/BbvrDogSr1sN66Ysj/builds/S1QamfWJCmzatQfgP/openapi.json