# App Store Review Watch (`oblate_bluegrass/app-store-review-watch`) Actor

Watch Apple App Store apps by ID or URL and return only NEW customer reviews since the last run. Uses Apple's public iTunes RSS + Lookup JSON APIs. Not Google Play. No HTML scraping.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/oblate\_bluegrass/app-store-review-watch.md
- **Developed by:** [Dan Markarian](https://apify.com/oblate_bluegrass) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $14.00 / 1,000 app checkeds

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## App Store Review Watch

Watch **Apple App Store** apps by numeric ID or `apps.apple.com` URL and return **only NEW customer reviews** since the last run.

This Actor talks to Apple's **public JSON APIs** — the iTunes Customer Reviews RSS feed and the iTunes Lookup API. Anyone can retrieve the RSS ([Apple staff confirmation](https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/16909)). **No HTML scraping. No App Store Connect. Not Google Play.**

### What this Actor does

- Accepts App Store IDs (`389801252`) or App Store URLs (`https://apps.apple.com/us/app/instagram/id389801252`).
- Sweeps one or more **storefronts** (country codes such as `us`, `gb`, `de`).
- Fetches the most-recent reviews from\
  `https://itunes.apple.com/{country}/rss/customerreviews/page={1-10}/id={appId}/sortby=mostrecent/json`
- Enriches each app with title + bundle ID from\
  `https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id={appId}&country={country}` (no API key).
- Dedupes by Apple **review id**, persisted across scheduled reruns, so you only pay for *new* rows.
- Emits a `run-summary` record with `appsChecked`, `newCount`, and `rssCapHit`.

#### Official RSS limit (~500 / storefront)

Apple's customerreviews RSS is a **rolling window**, not a full history:

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Page size | ~50 reviews |
| Max pages | **10** |
| Max per app × storefront | **~500 most-recent reviews** |

If an app is very chatty and you don't run often enough, older reviews fall off the window. The `rssCapHit` flag on the run-summary is `true` when page 10 was still full — increase schedule frequency or add storefronts rather than expecting the RSS to go deeper. This Actor will **not** scrape the App Store website to go past that cap.

### Not Google Play

This Actor only reads the **Apple App Store**. It will not accept Play Store URLs, does not call Google APIs, and does not scrape `play.google.com`. For Android reviews you need a different Actor.

### Input

| Field | Required | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `apps` | yes | — | Array of numeric App Store IDs or `apps.apple.com` / `itunes.apple.com` URLs |
| `countries` | no | `["us"]` | ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 storefront codes to sweep |
| `since` | no | last run / seen IDs | ISO date. If omitted, seen review IDs from previous runs are used |
| `maxPages` | no | `10` | `1`–`10` RSS pages per app × storefront |
| `debug` | no | `false` | Log RSS URLs, page sizes, and review IDs (not bodies) |

#### Input example

```json
{
  "apps": [
    "389801252",
    "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/x/id333903271"
  ],
  "countries": ["us", "gb", "de"],
  "maxPages": 10,
  "debug": false
}
```

#### Country sweep

Each **app × storefront** is one successful RSS fetch (`app-checked` event), even when zero reviews are new. Typical sweeps:

- Launch markets: `["us"]`
- English-speaking: `["us", "gb", "au", "ca"]`
- EU sample: `["us", "gb", "de", "fr", "it", "es", "nl"]`

Reviews are storefront-specific. The same customer does not appear once globally — a US 5-star and a DE 5-star are different rows.

### Output

Every **new** review is one dataset row:

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `appId` | Numeric Apple track ID |
| `appTitle` | Localized name from Lookup |
| `bundleId` | e.g. `com.burbn.instagram` |
| `country` | Storefront code |
| `reviewId` | Apple review id (dedupe key) |
| `rating` | 1–5 |
| `title` | Review title |
| `body` | Review text |
| `author` | Reviewer display name |
| `version` | App version the reviewer was on |
| `date` | RSS `updated` timestamp |
| `url` | App Store reviews page for that storefront |

Plus one `run-summary` record: `appsChecked`, `newCount`, `rssCapHit`.

`recordType` is `"review"` or `"run-summary"` so you can filter.

### How "new" is decided

1. **Apple review id** is the source of truth. IDs are stored in a named key-value store (`app-store-review-watch-state`) so scheduled reruns skip rows you already received.
2. Optional `since` additionally drops reviews older than that instant.
3. If `since` is omitted, the first run emits the current RSS window (up to ~500/storefront) and remembers those IDs. Later runs emit only unseen IDs.

The run's *default* key-value store is unique per run and would forget state; a named store is required for a watch Actor.

### Scheduling (daily)

Create a schedule in Apify Console, e.g. **daily at 08:00 UTC**:

```
0 8 * * *
```

For busy apps, run every 6 hours (`0 */6 * * *`) so you stay inside the 500-review window. First run is a backfill of the current window; after that you only see deltas.

### Pricing (pay-per-event only)

Events-only PPE. **Do not enable "PPE + usage".** Platform synthetic `apify-actor-start` is kept; **remove** `apify-default-dataset-item` so dataset writes are not double-billed. `apify-actor-start` is charged by Apify automatically — the Actor does **not** call `Actor.charge` for it.

| Event | When | Default | Bronze | Silver | Gold |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| `apify-actor-start` | Every run (synthetic, covers first 5s of compute) | $0.00005 | $0.00005 | $0.00005 | $0.00005 |
| `app-checked` | After a **successful** RSS fetch for one app × one storefront, **even if 0 new reviews** | $0.02 | $0.018 | $0.016 | $0.014 |
| `new-review` | After each new review is `pushData`'d (deduped by Apple review id) | $0.002 | $0.002 | $0.002 | $0.002 |

#### Example costs

- 1 app, 1 storefront, 0 new reviews: **~$0.02005** (start + one check)
- 1 app, 1 storefront, 10 new reviews: **~$0.04005**
- 5 apps × 3 countries, daily, quiet day: **15 × $0.02 = $0.30/day** in `app-checked`, plus $0.002 per new review

Memory is capped at **256–1024 MB** (`minMemoryMbytes` / `maxMemoryMbytes`) so a user cannot run this JSON-only Actor at 32 GB.

### MCP / agents

Limited-permission PPE Actors can be called from agents (and later x402). Point a client at Apify's hosted MCP server and pin this Actor once it is published:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,<username>/app-store-review-watch"
    }
  }
}
```

Replace `<username>` with the Apify account that published the Actor. The server lives at [mcp.apify.com](https://mcp.apify.com). `call-actor` uses this Actor's input schema; full-permission and rental Actors are excluded from MCP, which is why this project is **limited permissions + PPE events only**.

Cursor / VS Code can also use the same URL. See [Apify MCP docs](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp).

### Legal / source

- Reviews RSS is a public iTunes feed. Apple Developer Forums thread 16909: staff stated anyone can retrieve it.
- Lookup is the public iTunes Search API (no key).
- This Actor does not log into Apple IDs, does not use App Store Connect, and does not scrape HTML.

### FAQ

**Why did I get 0 reviews on run 2?** All current RSS ids were already stored. That is success — you still pay `app-checked`.

**Can I get more than 500 reviews?** Not from this Actor. That is Apple's RSS window. Run more often or add storefronts.

**Does `since` replace seen IDs?** No. Both apply. `since` filters by date; seen IDs prevent duplicates across runs.

**Play Store?** No. Apple App Store only.

# Actor input Schema

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

Apple App Store app IDs or apps.apple.com / itunes.apple.com URLs. Example: 389801252 or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/instagram/id389801252

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

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 App Store storefront codes to sweep. Each app × country is one app-checked event. Default: US only.

## `since` (type: `string`):

Optional ISO 8601 date or datetime. Only reviews on or after this instant are emitted. If omitted, the Actor remembers seen review IDs (and last-run time) in a named key-value store so reruns emit only new rows.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Apple's customerreviews RSS exposes ~50 reviews per page and at most 10 pages (~500 most-recent reviews per app per storefront). This is an official RSS window, not a full history.

## `debug` (type: `boolean`):

Log RSS URLs, page sizes, and review IDs (not full review bodies).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "apps": [
    "389801252",
    "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/x/id333903271"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "since": "2026-08-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "maxPages": 10,
  "debug": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `reviews` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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": [
        "389801252",
        "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/x/id333903271"
    ],
    "countries": [
        "us"
    ],
    "maxPages": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("oblate_bluegrass/app-store-review-watch").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": [
        "389801252",
        "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/x/id333903271",
    ],
    "countries": ["us"],
    "maxPages": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("oblate_bluegrass/app-store-review-watch").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": [
    "389801252",
    "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/x/id333903271"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "maxPages": 10
}' |
apify call oblate_bluegrass/app-store-review-watch --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,oblate_bluegrass/app-store-review-watch"
        }
    }
}
```

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/XjT1wEigiQTXJ5xls/builds/jlCnZJe3svxUGGpQ5/openapi.json