Apple App Store Scraper

Fetches app metadata from the Apple App Store for a list of app URLs. Optionally gates output on the current store version being strictly newer than a supplied minimum version — useful for polling apps and only processing them when a new release appears.

Input

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telegram-messenger/id686449807",
      "minVersion": "12.5"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spotify-music-and-podcasts/id324684580"
    }
  ],
  "maxRetries429": 3
}

• apps (array, required): list of apps to scrape
  • url (string, required): full Apple App Store URL (any country)
  • minVersion (string, optional): if provided, only emit full data when the current store version is strictly greater than this value. Omit to always fetch full data.
• proxyConfiguration (object, optional): Apify proxy configuration. Recommended — also required for maxRetries429 retries to actually rotate IP.
• maxRetries429 (boolean or number, optional, default 3): retry strategy for HTTP 429 (rate limited) responses. false/0 disables retrying, true uses the default of 3 retries, or supply a number for a custom retry count. Every request (first attempt and retries) draws a fresh proxy URL from proxyConfiguration with no sticky session, so each retry after a 429 goes out over a different IP, combined with exponential backoff (2s, 4s, 8s, ... capped at 30s, plus jitter).

Output

One dataset record per input item. Non-skipped records include the full field set; skipped records include skipped: true and a reason.

Example — full record:

{
  "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telegram-messenger/id686449807",
  "appId": "686449807",
  "skipped": false,
  "name": "Telegram Messenger",
  "subtitle": "Messenger for the people",
  "developer": "Telegram FZ-LLC",
  "category": "Social Networking",
  "price": "Free",
  "currentVersion": "12.6",
  "releaseNotes": "- New animated emoji...",
  "lastUpdatedDate": "2024-11-15T00:00:00Z",
  "releaseDate": "2013-08-14T00:00:00Z",
  "rating": 4.6,
  "ratingCount": 1234567,
  "ageRating": "17+",
  "size": "200.0 MB",
  "languages": ["English", "Arabic", "..."],
  "compatibility": "Requires iOS 16.0 or later.",
  "description": "Pure instant messaging...",
  "seller": "Telegram FZ-LLC",
  "copyright": "© 2024 Telegram FZ LLC",
  "inAppPurchases": false,
  "privacyDataCategories": ["CONTACT_INFO", "IDENTIFIERS"],
  "screenshotUrls": ["https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/..."],
  "iconUrl": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/.../512x512bb.png",
  "chartRank": "5",
  "chartCategory": "Social Networking",
  "websiteUrl": "https://telegram.org/",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-12-01T00:00:00+00:00"
}

Example — skipped record (current version not newer than minVersion):

{
  "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/telegram-messenger/id686449807",
  "appId": "686449807",
  "skipped": true,
  "reason": "current version not newer than minVersion",
  "currentVersion": "12.4",
  "minVersion": "12.5",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-12-01T00:00:00+00:00"
}

Example — error record (network failure, unparseable URL, etc.):

{
  "url": "https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bad-url/id999",
  "appId": "999",
  "skipped": true,
  "error": "HTTP 404",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-12-01T00:00:00+00:00"
}

Screenshots

Screenshots are under test and review.