Get Alerts for Every Major Update in the App Stores

Marie-Laure Cruytby 
CPO at AppTweak

7 min read

They’re finally live! AppTweak has just released its Smart Insights feature, which will keep you up to date on the latest app store changes. In just a click, access a custom newsfeed with all the relevant updates for your followed apps in your followed markets. Looking for more? Opt in to receive email or slack notifications for the apps of your choice.


Smart Insights: Alerts but better

You’re probably all familiar with the hassle of alerts systems. First, you have to configure your alerts: When do you want to be notified? What should trigger that notification? At what frequency? You spend a significant amount of your precious time setting up your custom alerts, only to find yourself overwhelmed with notifications that you end up not even reading anymore.

We tried something different. With Smart Insights, no set up is needed. AppTweak automatically detects the changes that are worth highlighting for your followed apps and markets. With just a click, you can access a newsfeed with all the updates you need to know about and links to more details on each change.

AppTweak Smart Insights newsfeedAppTweak’s Smart Insights newsfeed.

If you wish to get more hands-on access into these insights, you can customize the notifications you’d like to receive from the apps you’re following. You can also include notifications for the competitors you have added to each app.

Customize notifications on Smart Insights newsfeedCustomize notifications on your Smart Insights newsfeed.

Moreover, you can activate push notifications for the apps you want to follow closely and choose to receive a daily digest of the changes by e-mail or real-time slack notification.

Receive Smart Insights push notifications by email and/or SlackReceive Smart Insights push notifications by email and/or Slack.

In this blog, we explain the Smart Insights that are currently tracked on AppTweak and how you can use them in your ASO routine.

Get our ASO Slack App to receive real-time notifications!

Receive alerts when competitors implement an ASO update

With Smart Insights, you will never miss a competitor app update again! Any time a competitor makes a change to their app metadata, we let you know in the Smart Insights feed so that you can react accordingly and on time. In just a click, you can see which metadata element of the competitor’s app has changed, and compare the before and after versions.

AppTweak Smart InsightsAppTweak’s Smart Insights: Alerts for app updates

In the given example, we see that the fashion app Shein recently changed its feature graphic and screenshots. The new creatives now put forward the app’s exclusive virtual fashion show that will take place on 19 September.

Thanks to Smart Insights, you can now easily monitor your competitors’ activity and updates and make sure your own app responds to these changes on time.

Tips on why and how to monitor your competition

It’s not always easy to keep track of when and where your app is featured by the App Store and Play Store. Luckily, thanks to our Featured Apps feature, you can more easily discover in which countries your app was featured and in which section of the App Store and Play Store.

With Smart Insights, your app (or a competitor you follow) will appear in your newsfeed whenever it is featured in the App Store or Play Store in a country you follow. You can rapidly scan the newsfeed to see if one of your apps was featured lately and in which country and section.

The popular card game Hearthstone, for instance, was featured twice on 9 September in the United Kingdom – once on Google Play in the category “Cartoony games” of the Games tab, and once in the “Today tab” of the App Store in the category “the Basics.”

AppTweak Smart InsightsAppTweak’s Smart Insights: Alerts for app featurings

If you activate push notifications for your followed apps, you can even know in advance when one of your followed apps is about to be featured! You can also browse our Featured Apps section to check in which other countries the featuring will appear, or alongside which stories will it run.

Read our case study on how to get your app featured and measure the impact

Get notified of unusually high levels of new app ratings

Reviews and ratings are a great metric to measure your users’ satisfaction. With Smart Insights, AppTweak lets you know as soon as we’ve detected that your app has received an unusually high level of new ratings.

This can typically happen after an app update, if users are complaining about an issue they found in the latest version of your app. It can also be due to increased traffic driven to your app after a special campaign or sponsorship which results in new users testing your app and leaving new comments.

AppTweak Smart InsightsAppTweak Smart Insights: Alerts for new app ratings

In this example, the dating app Ship received 222 new ratings on 24 August, which is 118 times more than the usual flow of ratings the app gets. If we access the Reviews and Ratings section for this app, we can see that these new ratings are mostly very positive.

Detail of the number of new ratings received for the dating app Detail of the number of new ratings received for the app “Ship.”

Make sure you are aware when your app receives a high number of new ratings. It’s important to respond to these rapidly if they are negative or to understand where they come from if they are positive.

Client Testimonial: how to increase your app’s reviews and ratings

Never miss an app store algorithm update

We all know that feeling when you perform a quick check of your app’s performance across keywords only to find all your rankings have moved! With Smart Insights, you can get notified whenever we detect an app store algorithm update so that you can closely monitor its impact on your app’s visibility and avoid a heart attack!

Check out our free algorithm change detector

For instance, on 17 August, we detected an algorithm change on the Play Store that impacted 20 countries. For each country, we indicate the level of impact of the algorithm change.

AppTweak Smart InsightsAppTweak Smart Insights: Alerts on App Store algorithm change

This can help you rapidly take action in the affected countries. Identify the keywords on which your app’s visibility was most affected, thanks to our keywords movement feature, and find alternative high potential keywords to replace them.

10 Tips to find the perfect keywords for your app

Smart Insights: Recap

In short, with the new Smart Insights feature, you can access relevant updates on the changes that are happening on the App Store and Google Play that are relevant for your apps. Just by scanning the newsfeed, you’ll be aware of any of the following:

  • If one of your followed apps or competitors made a change to their metadata.
  • If one of your followed apps or competitors was or will be featured.
  • If one of your apps or competitors received an unusually high number of new ratings.
  • If we detected an algorithm change in the App Store or Play Store in one of your followed countries.

Of course, there’s more to come! Feel free to share any idea of Smart Insights that you would find helpful.

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Marie-Laure Cruyt
by , CPO at AppTweak
Marie-Laure is CPO at AppTweak, she has always worked in digital companies with a product focused around an app or a SaaS. She’s a real (dark only) chocolate lover.