Introduction to {appler}
Introduction
The {appler} package is a wrapper around Apple’s App Store Search API. This allows the user to pull information about artists, applications, and anything else available on iTunes or the Apple App Store.
Other functions are included to allow the pulling of information not included in the search API such as application reviews and split of ratings.
Apple Store Search
The first thing to do is find the ID of the entity you are analysing.
The search_apple function will use Apple’s API to return
any items that are related to the search terms entered. By default it
pulls tracks and audiobooks, however with the entity
parameter we can specify we want to search for artists or
applications.
# Artist ID can be obtained from the artistId column
taylor_swift_songs <- search_apple("Taylor Swift")
taylor_swift <- search_apple("Taylor Swift", media = "music", entity = "musicArtist")
str(taylor_swift)
#> 'data.frame': 50 obs. of 8 variables:
#> $ wrapperType : chr "artist" "artist" "artist" "artist" ...
#> $ artistType : chr "Artist" "Artist" "Artist" "Artist" ...
#> $ artistName : chr "Taylor Swift" "Dan + Shay" "Gucci Mane" "Florence + the Machine" ...
#> $ artistLinkUrl : chr "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/taylor-swift/159260351?uo=4" "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dan-shay/690319057?uo=4" "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/gucci-mane/62374520?uo=4" "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/florence-the-machine/281070699?uo=4" ...
#> $ artistId : int 159260351 690319057 62374520 281070699 830588310 979458609 1036753321 358714030 27044968 78257321 ...
#> $ amgArtistId : int 816977 2902475 703775 1062562 3044004 3257678 3208877 1184089 542550 737022 ...
#> $ primaryGenreName: chr "Pop" "Country" "Hip-Hop/Rap" "Alternative" ...
#> $ primaryGenreId : int 14 6 18 20 15 14 18 20 14 15 ...
taylor_swift_id <- taylor_swift$artistIdApplications are slightly different, where they instead of
artistId, trackId is used to store the unique
ID.
github_tracks <- search_apple("GitHub")
github_app <- search_apple("GitHub", media = "software", entity = "software")
# Over 50 apps are returned, however the top is the official GitHub app
github_app_id <- github_app$trackId[1]
cat(github_app_id)
#> 1477376905When searching software, a lot more information is returned, such as
application metadata (size, version, release notes) and average rating.
Use str(github_app) to take a look at everything
included.
Manual Search
Alternatively the ID can be found in the URL.
For artists and tracks it can be found as the last part of the URL.
For example, to find out about Taylor Swift the ID is
159260351 (from https://music.apple.com/us/artist/taylor-swift/159260351),
or her latest album Midnights is 1650841512 (from https://music.apple.com/us/album/midnights-3am-edition/1650841512).
For applications it is almost the same, however it is prefixed with
“id” which will need to be removed when using functions from {appler}.
For example the ID for GitHub is 1477376905 (from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/github/id1477376905).
Apple Store Lookup
If you already have the ID, you can use lookup_apple and
it will return the same information as search_apple but for
the specific entity chosen.
taylor_swift_lookup <- lookup_apple(taylor_swift_id)
str(taylor_swift_lookup)
#> 'data.frame': 50 obs. of 8 variables:
#> $ wrapperType : chr "artist" "artist" "artist" "artist" ...
#> $ artistType : chr "Artist" "Artist" "Artist" "Artist" ...
#> $ artistName : chr "Taylor Swift" "Dan + Shay" "Gucci Mane" "Florence + the Machine" ...
#> $ artistLinkUrl : chr "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/taylor-swift/159260351?uo=4" "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dan-shay/690319057?uo=4" "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/gucci-mane/62374520?uo=4" "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/florence-the-machine/281070699?uo=4" ...
#> $ artistId : int 159260351 690319057 62374520 281070699 830588310 979458609 1036753321 358714030 27044968 78257321 ...
#> $ amgArtistId : int 816977 2902475 703775 1062562 3044004 3257678 3208877 1184089 542550 737022 ...
#> $ primaryGenreName: chr "Pop" "Country" "Hip-Hop/Rap" "Alternative" ...
#> $ primaryGenreId : int 14 6 18 20 15 14 18 20 14 15 ...Comparing the results of search and lookup:
Reviews
Once you have the ID, you can get to the interesting part: the reviews. Apple has an RSS feed that enables you to pull the latest 500 reviews for an application, along with information such as the version that was being reviewed, and what rating was given by the user.
There is a limitation that you can only pull the reviews for a single country, and by default the reviews from the US will be returned, however any ISO-2 country code can be used. If the app isn’t available in that country, then there will be a 400 error.
github_reviews <- get_apple_reviews(github_app_id)
head(github_reviews)
#> id review_time author app_version
#> 1 14643801044 2026-10-08 23:33:03 Comet-CRASHOUT 1.280.0
#> 2 14634139998 2026-10-06 12:11:37 Myahr2088 1.279.0
#> 3 14626100310 2026-10-04 09:46:15 chadiggy1 1.279.0
#> 4 14622561636 2026-10-03 12:17:31 DonJTrump real 1.279.0
#> 5 14620185228 2026-10-02 20:26:03 S73313 1.279.0
#> 6 14617740408 2026-10-02 06:20:51 grtbet 1.279.0
#> title rating
#> 1 Amazing app! 5
#> 2 Owner review 5
#> 3 I want off device 1
#> 4 Best app ever 😜😜😜😜😜 5
#> 5 GitHub or GitLost 5
#> 6 Repo view 2
#> review
#> 1 Definitely works with managing small stuff related to GitHub, and 2FA.
#> 2 It’s signed me into 3 different accounts trying to mix me up
#> 3 Illegally accessing account after removing.
#> 4 Yes it’s the best
#> 5 print()
#> 6 Why is it SO DIFFICULT to implement a feature in the app so I can SEE which repository of mine has the most recent activity, I.e THE ONE I JUST PUSHED TO..? Top repository does NOT display the most recent one I worked on!Ratings
One extra piece of functionality available in {appler} is the ability
to scrape the rating split from the App Store. Whilst the average rating
for the app is available in search_apple, it is useful to
know how many 5* ratings are given and how many 1* ratings are
given.