How to find competitor app complaints on the App Store and Google Play

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Your competitors' 1–3 star reviews list what their users want and don't get. Here is how to collect them and use them without breaking store rules.

Where the data is

• The App Store Connect API and the Google Play Developer API cover only your own apps (App Store Connect API: Customer Reviews, Google Play Developer API: Reply to Reviews).
• Competitors' reviews are public on their product pages. Apple's public customer-reviews feed exposes only the most recent reviews per country, so collect regularly.
• The free review export pulls public reviews of any app into a CSV.

Method

1. Pick two or three direct competitors and use the same countries for all of them.
2. Keep 1–3 star reviews from the last 90 days.
3. Tag them with the same themes you use for your own app (bugs, crashes, performance, UX, pricing, ads, feature requests).
4. Compare the share of each theme per app. A theme that is high for them and low for you is a selling point; one that is high for everyone is an opening.
5. Collect exact quotes. Users' wording is the best source for your own product page copy.

Rules when you use it

• App Store: Apple says not to use competing app names in your keywords (Apple Developer: Creating your product page).
• Google Play: the Metadata policy lists "data comparison of apps or brands" in a store listing among common violations (Play Console Help: Metadata policy).
• Use the findings in your product and your own words, not in side-by-side claims in the listing.

A worked example: What users hate about your competitor's app, and the app vs app comparisons.

Sources

• App Store Connect API: Customer Reviews
• Google Play Developer API: Reply to Reviews
• Apple Developer: Creating your product page
• Play Console Help: Metadata policy

Related guides

• ASO from app reviews: turn user words into keywords and copy
• How to analyze app reviews for your product roadmap
• App store review sentiment analysis: a practical method
• All app developer guides

Questions

Can I use the App Store Connect API to read competitor reviews?

No. The App Store Connect API and the Google Play Developer API only give access to apps in your own developer account.

Can I name a competitor in my App Store keywords?

No. Apple lists competing app names among the terms not to use in keywords.

Can I compare my app with a competitor in my Google Play listing?

Google's Metadata policy lists data comparisons of apps or brands as a common violation.