Universal App Review Scraper

Extract reviews from Google Play, Apple App Store, Microsoft Store, and Tencent Application宝 (China) with a single actor.

What This Actor Does

The Universal App Review Scraper is an all-in-one solution for extracting user reviews from mobile and desktop applications across the four major app stores. Whether you're a product manager analyzing user feedback, a developer monitoring app reputation, or a researcher studying app store ecosystems, this actor provides a unified interface to access review data from any platform.

Perfect for:

• 📱 App Developers - Monitor user feedback across all platforms where your app is published
• 📊 Product Managers - Analyze user sentiment and feature requests from real app store reviews
• 🔍 Market Researchers - Study competitor apps and market trends across mobile and desktop platforms
• 🏢 Digital Agencies - Provide comprehensive app analytics and reputation monitoring for clients
• 📈 Data Scientists - Gather large-scale review datasets for sentiment analysis and ML projects
• 🇨🇳 China Market Analysts - Access reviews from Tencent Application宝, the leading app store in China

Why Use This Actor:

• Single Solution: One actor handles all four major app stores (Google Play, Apple App Store, Microsoft Store, Tencent)
• Consistent Data Format: Standardized output regardless of source platform
• Advanced Filtering: Filter by ratings, dates, countries, and languages
• China Market Access: Scrape reviews from Tencent Application宝 with automatic translation
• High Performance: Optimized for speed with built-in rate limiting and error handling
• Rich Metadata: Extract detailed information like app versions, helpfulness scores, and platform-specific data

Quick Start

Using Apify Console

1. Go to Apify Console
2. Configure input parameters and run

Using Apify CLI

npm install -g apify-cli
apify run e9bEKZerOg2LjDyjp --input='{"store": "google", "appId": "com.whatsapp", "limit": 50}'

Input Parameters

Required Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
store	string	Platform to scrape: "google", "apple", "microsoft", or "tencent"
appId	string	App identifier (format varies by store - see below)

Optional Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
limit	number	100	Maximum number of reviews to extract
ratings	array	[1,2,3,4,5]	Filter by star ratings (e.g., [4,5] for good reviews only)
startDate	string	-	Extract reviews after this date (format: "2024-01-01")
endDate	string	-	Extract reviews before this date (format: "2024-12-31")

Store-Specific Parameters

Different stores accept different parameters. Here's what works with each:

Google Play ("google")

• ✅ country (string) - Country code like "us", "gb", "de" or "auto" for automatic detection
• ✅ language (string) - Language code like "en", "es", "fr"
• ℹ️ Uses package names as appId (e.g., "com.whatsapp")

Apple App Store ("apple")

• ✅ country (string) - Country code like "us", "gb", "de"
• ❌ Language selection not supported (store-determined)
• ℹ️ Uses numeric IDs as appId (e.g., "310633997")

Microsoft Store ("microsoft")

• ✅ market (string) - Market code like "US", "GB", "DE" (note: uppercase)
• ✅ locale (string) - Locale like "en-US", "en-GB", "de-DE"
• ℹ️ Uses store IDs as appId (e.g., "9nksqgp7f2nh")

Tencent Application宝 ("tencent") 🇨🇳

• ✅ translateTo (string) - Translate Chinese reviews to another language (e.g., "en", "es", "ja")
• ❌ Country selection not supported (China market only)
• ℹ️ Uses Android package names as appId (e.g., "com.tencent.mm")
• 🌍 Reviews are in Chinese by default - use translateTo: "en" for English translation

Quick Reference: What Works Where?

Feature	Google	Apple	Microsoft	Tencent
Country/Market	✅ country	✅ country	✅ market	❌ (China only)
Language/Locale	✅ language	❌	✅ locale	✅ translateTo
Rating Filter	✅	✅	✅	✅
Date Range	✅	✅	✅	✅

App ID Formats

Each store uses a different format for identifying apps:

Store	Format	How to Find	Example
Google Play	Package name	Look in the URL: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=PACKAGE_NAME	com.whatsapp
Apple App Store	Numeric ID	Look in the URL: apps.apple.com/app/idNUMBER	310633997
Microsoft Store	Store ID	Look in the URL: apps.microsoft.com/detail/STORE_ID	9nksqgp7f2nh
Tencent	Android package	Same as Google Play package name	com.tencent.mm

Usage Examples

Google Play Store

{
  "store": "google",
  "appId": "com.whatsapp",
  "limit": 100,
  "language": "en",
  "country": "us"
}

Apple App Store

{
  "store": "apple",
  "appId": "310633997",
  "limit": 50,
  "country": "us",
  "ratings": [4, 5]
}

Microsoft Store

{
  "store": "microsoft", 
  "appId": "9nksqgp7f2nh",
  "limit": 200,
  "market": "US",
  "locale": "en-US"
}

Tencent Application宝 (China) 🇨🇳

{
  "store": "tencent",
  "appId": "com.tencent.mm",
  "limit": 50,
  "translateTo": "en"
}

Note: Tencent reviews are in Chinese by default. Add "translateTo": "en" to automatically translate to English (or any other language code).

Advanced Filtering Examples

Get Only Bad Reviews (1-2 stars)

Perfect for identifying user complaints and issues:

{
  "store": "google",
  "appId": "com.instagram.android",
  "limit": 100,
  "ratings": [1, 2],
  "country": "us"
}

Get Recent Reviews Only

Extract reviews from the last month:

{
  "store": "apple",
  "appId": "310633997",
  "limit": 50,
  "startDate": "2026-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-01-31",
  "country": "us"
}

Tencent with Translation & Filters

Get highly-rated Chinese reviews in English:

{
  "store": "tencent",
  "appId": "com.tencent.mm",
  "limit": 30,
  "ratings": [4, 5],
  "translateTo": "en",
  "startDate": "2026-01-01"
}

Microsoft Store - Specific Market

Get reviews from UK market only:

{
  "store": "microsoft",
  "appId": "9nksqgp7f2nh",
  "limit": 100,
  "market": "GB",
  "locale": "en-GB",
  "ratings": [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
}

Using Apify SDK

Install SDK

$npm install apify-client

JavaScript Example

import { ApifyApi } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyApi({
  token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN',
});

async function getReviews() {
  const run = await client.actor('e9bEKZerOg2LjDyjp').call({
    store: 'google',
    appId: 'com.whatsapp',
    limit: 100,
    language: 'en',
    country: 'us'
  });

  const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
  console.log('Reviews:', items);
}

getReviews();

Python Example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('e9bEKZerOg2LjDyjp').call(run_input={
    'store': 'google',
    'appId': 'com.whatsapp', 
    'limit': 100,
    'language': 'en',
    'country': 'us'
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(f"Downloaded {len(items)} reviews")

cURL Examples

Run Actor

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/e9bEKZerOg2LjDyjp/runs' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "store": "google",
    "appId": "com.instagram.android", 
    "limit": 50
  }'

Get Results

curl 'https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN'

Output Format

Standard Output (Google, Apple, Microsoft)

{
  "reviews": [
    {
      "reviewId": "review_123",
      "author": "John D.",
      "rating": 5,
      "title": "Great app!",
      "text": "This app works perfectly for my needs.",
      "reviewedAt": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
      "version": "2.24.1.78",
      "country": "US",
      "helpful": 12
    }
  ],
  "appInfo": {
    "title": "WhatsApp Messenger",
    "developer": "WhatsApp Inc.",
    "rating": 4.2,
    "url": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp"
  },
  "metadata": {
    "scrapedAt": "2024-01-20T14:00:00.000Z",
    "totalReviews": 50,
    "store": "google"
  }
}

Tencent Output (with Translation)

When using translateTo parameter, Tencent reviews include both original and translated text:

{
  "reviews": [
    {
      "reviewId": "tencent-com.tencent.mm-123456",
      "author": "用户123",
      "rating": 5,
      "text": "很好用的应用",
      "translatedText": "Very useful app",
      "reviewedAt": "2024-01-15",
      "store": "tencent",
      "helpful": 10
    }
  ],
  "appInfo": {
    "title": "App com.tencent.mm",
    "developer": "Tencent Store",
    "url": "https://sj.qq.com/appdetail/com.tencent.mm"
  }
}

Note:

• text contains the original Chinese review
• translatedText contains the translated review (if translateTo was specified)
• If no translation is requested, only text field is present with Chinese content

💳 Pricing & Cost Control

This Actor uses Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing, so you only pay for the reviews you actually receive.

How Pricing Works

• ✅ First 10 reviews are FREE on every run
• 💵 $0.00005 per additional review
• 📦 Charges are based on the number of reviews returned, not runtime

Example:

Reviews Returned	Free Reviews	Paid Reviews	Total Cost
10	10	0	$0.00
50	10	40	$0.002
100	10	90	$0.0045
1,000	10	990	$0.0495

Popular Apps for Testing

Global Apps

App	Google Play	Apple Store	Microsoft Store
WhatsApp	com.whatsapp	310633997	9nksqgp7f2nh
Instagram	com.instagram.android	389801252	9nblggh5l9xt
Spotify	com.spotify.music	324684580	9ncbcszsjrsb
Netflix	com.netflix.mediaclient	363590051	9wzdncrfj3tj

China Market Apps (Tencent)

App	Package Name
WeChat (微信)	com.tencent.mm
Douyin (抖音 - TikTok China)	com.ss.android.ugc.aweme
Taobao (淘宝)	com.taobao.taobao
Alipay (支付宝)	com.eg.android.AlipayGphone
Meituan (美团)	com.sankuai.meituan
JD.com (京东)	com.jingdong.app.mall

Error Handling

The actor will return error information in the output:

{
  "error": {
    "type": "APP_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "App not found in the specified store",
    "appId": "invalid.package.name"
  }
}

Support

• Apify Documentation
• Actor Issues
• Community Forum