📱 🤖 Google Play Reviews Scraper — Ratings, Text & Replies

Android teams pay for normalized competitor review data they can feed straight into product and reputation workflows — without maintaining a scraper themselves.

Output is one None row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one review scraped (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.0001 per review scraped). Source: play.google.com.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out.

Use cases by team

• Product managers: Track release reception on Android and catch complaint spikes early.
• Competitive intel: Monitor rival Android apps' reviews in a schema that matches your iOS feed.
• Reputation / brand: Quantify how sentiment moves across versions with clean, normalized data.
• Data teams: Skip scraper maintenance and get a stable contract you can pipe anywhere.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run b5Mbnw9zYWwXbBAJE on build 0.1.16 (2026-09-17), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

store	app_id	review_id	author_handle	review_date	collected_at
google_play	com.spotify.music	f59c9a55-007e-49be-9242-bf4d6f761bf3	Pooja	2026-09-16T16:54:09	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778189+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	b78709c5-0c66-494e-b851-fab198bcdb2c	Cole Hall	2026-09-16T16:57:26	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778186+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	cef76ba4-1fc0-4367-a014-f299ae84fd85	paulson chacko	2026-09-16T16:58:43	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778184+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	03b39c11-2152-4ceb-b6b3-c4b3ae7cfac7	Zerihun Furgassa	2026-09-16T16:59:49	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778182+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	9ca917e8-9d88-4e51-aa4d-adb38d2878ca	Eshmal Fatima	2026-09-16T17:03:16	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778180+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	0aa9ea3c-0795-404a-9426-b1f6035de6d0	Gulzar Ahmed	2026-09-16T17:03:36	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778178+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	930a2dfc-c3cd-4510-8711-5c0dbd8a50ec	Nancy	2026-09-16T17:04:13	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778176+00:00
google_play	com.spotify.music	d0bb4f90-2cbb-4e80-870c-20e6a2de4a69	Zali Busabusa	2026-09-16T17:04:34	2026-09-17T17:24:53.778174+00:00

The run finished with the status message: SUCCEEDED: emitted 25 item(s)

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• store (string/null) — Output field: store
• app_id (string/null) — Output field: app_id
• review_id (string/null) — Output field: review_id
• title (string/null) — Output field: title
• review_text (string/null) — Output field: review_text
• rating (number/null) — Output field: rating
• thumbs_up (number/null) — Output field: thumbs_up
• author_handle (string/null) — Output field: author_handle
• review_date (string/null) — Output field: review_date
• version (string/null) — Output field: version
• developer_response (string/null) — Output field: developer_response
• developer_response_date (string/null) — Output field: developer_response_date
• country (string/null) — Output field: country
• source_url (string/null) — Output field: source_url
• collected_at (string/null) — Output field: collected_at

What you get

• Public Google Play reviews: rating, title, text, thumbs-up count, author, date, and app version
• Developer replies and reply dates where present
• A normalized 15-field record per review with source URL and collection timestamp
• An isolated open-source adapter with a fresh process and proxy environment on every retry
• Optional watch mode that emits only new reviews and status changes on later runs

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "app_ids": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "country": "us",
  "language": "en",
  "max_items": 25,
  "watchMode": false,
  "sort": "newest"
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 25 × $0.0001 review-scraped + 0 × $0.10 watch-check = $0.02 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "app_ids": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "country": "us",
  "language": "en",
  "max_items": 5,
  "watchMode": false,
  "sort": "newest"
}

Caps the run at 5 rows — about $0.02 on the Free tier ($0.02 start + 5 × $0.0001).

3. Watch mode on a schedule

{
  "app_ids": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "country": "us",
  "language": "en",
  "max_items": 25,
  "watchMode": true,
  "sort": "newest"
}

The first run seeds a private baseline and emits zero deltas; every later run emits one row per change, billed at $0.0001 each.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run b5Mbnw9zYWwXbBAJE, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "store": "google_play",
  "app_id": "com.spotify.music",
  "review_id": "f59c9a55-007e-49be-9242-bf4d6f761bf3",
  "title": null,
  "review_text": "super",
  "rating": 5,
  "thumbs_up": 0,
  "author_handle": "Pooja",
  "review_date": "2026-09-16T16:54:09",
  "version": "9.1.78.2218",
  "developer_response": null,
  "developer_response_date": null,
  "country": "us",
  "source_url": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music",
  "collected_at": "2026-09-17T17:24:53.778189+00:00"
}

🔧 How it works

Source. The actor reads play.google.com — endpoints: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details, https://play.google.com/store/search. Public pages and feeds only; nothing behind a login.

Transport. Requests go through Apify residential proxy.

Watch semantics. Snapshot mode (watch_mode: false) returns a preview. Watch mode keys every record on a source-native id, stores a private baseline in a named key-value store, and on each later run emits one delta row per change (new / changed / removed). A blocked fetch is never diffed, so a source outage cannot show up as a mass removal.

Terminal states. A run ends NORMAL, CAPPED (your cap was reached), PARTIAL (something was withheld and the message says what), GENUINE_EMPTY (the source was read and truly had nothing in scope) or BLOCKED (the source refused or changed shape — the run FAILS loud and bills nothing). A zero-row run is never reported as a silent success.

Charging. Each review scraped is charged at the moment it is pushed (review-scraped); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

How it works

Give it one or more Google Play package IDs (e.g. com.spotify.music). An isolated open-source adapter collects the public reviews for each — a fresh process and proxy per retry — and normalizes them into one 15-field schema that mirrors the Apple reviews actor. Public, logged-out surfaces only.

Compliance & honest limits

• Public Google Play review surfaces only — no login, CAPTCHA, paywall, or access-control defeating.
• Google Play exposes a bounded review window per app and country; full lifetime history is not reconstructed.
• A source-confirmed empty result is SUCCEEDED-0: GENUINE_EMPTY; exhausted block retries fail and truncated runs are PARTIAL.

About

Part of the NexGenData App Intelligence cluster, sharing one honest contract across iOS and Android. Built by NexGenData. Questions or need a custom feed? Open an issue on the Actor page.

Preview vs Watch mode

• Preview (watchMode = false): a one-shot pull of the current reviews — emitted and charged per review-scraped record. Keeps no baseline.
• Watch (watchMode = true): change detection — seeds a private baseline on the first run (zero deltas, no review-scraped billing), then on later runs emits only the new reviews since the baseline, plus one watch-check per run. A settled run with no new reviews reports WATCH_NO_DELTA and charges only the watch-check.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

⏰ Set it on a schedule

A single run is a snapshot. The value is the feed: open the actor in Apify Console → Schedules → Create new, add this actor with input 3 above (watch_mode: true), and pick a cadence:

• Daily — 0 7 * * * (07:00 UTC): catch changes within a day.
• Weekly — 0 7 * * 1: a Monday digest.

Each run is independent; keep the same input on the schedule so the results stay comparable. Schedules can also POST results to a webhook (Console → Integrations).

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Review scraped (review-scraped)	$0.0001	$0.0001	$0.0001	$0.0001
Watch check (watch-check)	$0.10	$0.09	$0.08	$0.07

Worked at the live Free-tier price (watch mode, one delta per change):

• 8 review scrapeds: $0.02 start + 8 × $0.0001 = $0.02
• 25 review scrapeds: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.0001 = $0.02
• 100 review scrapeds: $0.02 start + 100 × $0.0001 = $0.04

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 1024 MB.

Yield on the sample run: SUCCEEDED: emitted 25 item(s). max_items is a hard ceiling on what is delivered and billed, never a target.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by play.google.com. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (play.google.com) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input (in watch mode the first run always seeds the baseline and returns zero deltas); BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How many rows can one run return?
A: Up to max_items (default 100). Raise the cap for a bigger run; you pay per delivered row.

Q: What does watch mode remember between runs?
A: A private baseline of source-native record ids in a named key-value store. Each later run diffs the live source against it and emits only changes.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs except the watch baseline. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other app store intelligence actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers play.google.com. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Status says CAPPED → your cap (max_items) was reached → raise it for a bigger run.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.
• First watch run shows no deltas → expected: it seeds the baseline; changes appear from the second run.

🔗 Related Actors

• 📈 App Store Rankings Tracker — Top Charts by Country — Track Apple App Store chart rankings (top-free/top-paid) by country and category — position, app, developer. Honest not_observed/source_blocked state…
• 📱 App Store & Google Play Metadata Scraper — One Schema — Scrape public Apple App Store and Google Play app metadata by app ID — title, developer, description, category, price, rating, rating count, version,…
• 🔑 ASO Keyword Rank Tracker — App Store & Google Play — Track App Store and Google Play keyword rankings for your apps — position within a searched depth, with a SERP fingerprint. Not-found-within-depth is…
• 🍎 Apple App Store Reviews Scraper — Ratings, Text & Dates — Scrape public Apple App Store reviews for any app by ID — rating, text, version, author, developer response, and date. Watch mode returns only new re…
• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of 256 public monitoring and lookup actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

⭐ Found this useful?

If this actor saved you a manual check, a quick review on the Apify Store helps other teams find it. Feature request or a source that changed? Open it from the Issues tab — every one is read.