How to scrape Google Play reviews
The first thing to know: the Google Play Developer API only returns reviews for apps in your own Console account, and even then only reviews written or edited in the last seven days. The moment your research target is a competitor's app, the official route is closed, and there is no key you can request that opens it.
The competitor's reviews are the ones worth reading anyway, because that is where the churn reasons and feature gaps live. Here is how each route holds up, from scrolling the listing to running an open-source scraper to pulling an app's newest reviews as ranked angles in about 60 seconds.
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The manual route: fine for a skim, not a pattern
Open an app's Play listing, tap into the reviews, and scroll. Play reviews are blunt and unusually specific, users name their phone model and the exact update that broke things, so a few reviews teach you a lot fast. The problem is coverage: the listing surfaces a curated slice, the sort options are coarse, and reviews differ by language and country, so the German churn story never appears under your English scroll. Reading twenty reviews gives you an anecdote, not the pattern your ad needs.
The official routes and their limits
There are two developer paths and both stop at your own apps. The Google Play Developer API's reviews endpoint exists for reply-to-review workflows: it covers only apps in your Console account, and only reviews created or modified within the last week. The Play Console also offers monthly review exports as CSVs, which are great for monitoring your own product and useless for studying a rival.
If your question is what are users saying about an app I do not own, neither route answers it. The competitor reviews carrying the churn reasons and the missing-feature complaints are exactly the ones the API will not hand you.
The DIY scraper route: works until it breaks
Because there is no official path, open-source libraries exist that read the Play web listing's own internal endpoints. They genuinely work, but you inherit a maintenance contract: the internal format shifts without notice, requests get blocked at volume, and the output is raw JSON you still have to clean, translate, and read. For a one-off engineering project that is fine. For a marketer who wants this Tuesday's churn reasons, it is a part-time job.
The paste-a-URL route
Adlicio reads an app's newest public reviews straight from the Play listing URL and finishes in about 60 seconds, up to 500 reviews per run, no Console account and no script to maintain. Point it at another market by adding the language and country to the URL, hl=de&gl=DE for Germany, and it reads that market's reviews instead.
Then it does the part that matters: the reviews come back clustered into ranked angles, the feature that keeps the streak alive, the update that started the battery complaints, the subscription users could not cancel, each with the verbatim quotes behind it. One-star reviews get weighted alongside the five-star ones, because the churn reasons in the one-star pile are usually what your next ad needs to disarm. The raw reviews stay exportable.
The 60-second version
- 01Pick the apps your users compare
Your own app, the category leader, and the competitor you lose installs to. Their reviews hold different halves of the churn story.
- 02Paste each Google Play URL into Adlicio
Any app with a public listing works. For another market, add hl and gl to the URL (hl=de&gl=DE) and the scrape reads that language's reviews, newest first, in about 60 seconds.
- 03Mine the churn reasons, keep the quotes
Work from the ranked clusters: the recurring complaint becomes the objection your ad answers, the verbatim review becomes your proof or your listing line.
Questions people also ask
Does the Google Play Developer API return competitor reviews?+
No. The reviews endpoint only covers apps in your own Play Console account, and only reviews created or modified in the last seven days. For any app you do not own, that route is closed, which is why competitor research means reading the public listing instead.
Can I get Google Play reviews in other languages?+
Yes. Play reviews are split by language and country, and each market reviews the same app differently. Add hl and gl parameters to the listing URL, hl=pt&gl=BR for Brazil, and Adlicio reads that market's reviews.
How do I find churn reasons in Google Play reviews?+
The churn reasons sit in the one and two-star reviews, and on Android they are dated: the update that broke sync, the phone it lags on, the subscription that kept charging. Adlicio groups those low-star reviews into the recurring reasons users leave, so the pattern surfaces instead of a single angry anecdote.
Can I research a competitor app without building a scraper?+
Yes. Paste the app's public Google Play URL and Adlicio reads its newest reviews for you, so there is no library to maintain, no proxies, and no Console account. It only reads what any shopper browsing the listing can already see.
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Run this play on your own Google Play page.
Paste one public URL. Adlicio returns the angle, hook, and proof to test next.