Discrepancy between iPhone App Store Search Results and app-store-scraper Search Results

[gregyoung14]

Issue Description:
When performing searches for apps on the iPhone App Store and using this library's search functionality, we have noticed a significant discrepancy in the search results. This discrepancy is not only in the number of search results but also in the actual position of apps in the search results. This issue has been verified across various keywords, and the results do not align as expected.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open the iPhone App Store.
2. Perform a search using specific keywords, a particular locale, and country settings.
3. Take note of the search results and their positions.

Now, using this library:

1. Perform the same search using the same keywords, locale, and country settings.
2. Compare the search results and their positions with those obtained from the App Store.

Expected Behavior:
The search results obtained from this library should closely match the search results from the iPhone App Store in terms of the number of results and their positions, given the same search criteria.

Actual Behavior:
There is a noticeable discrepancy between the search results obtained from this library and the search results from the iPhone App Store, both in terms of the number of results and their positions.

[haseebyf]

+1

[evivz]

Seems like this repo is not updated with latest endpoint of appstore.

[kishanios123]

Seems like this repo is not updated with latest endpoint of appstore.

Please share some references if you have any...

[haseebyf]

I checked on AppTweak, they are showing correct results and order. This means there is a some API that would give the right order of apps.

Recently, the results from this API are different from App Store. https://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/search?term=

[golopupinsky]

This is a well-known issue. In order to get 100% accurate search results you have to use a private api endpoint (amp-api-search-edge.apps.apple.com/v1/catalog/<store>/search). However it requires an authorization token header to be passed and you cannot generate it without ios device.
See example usage here https://blog.csdn.net/qq_15256443/article/details/101064298

[souonunca]

This is a well-known issue. In order to get 100% accurate search results you have to use a private api endpoint (amp-api-search-edge.apps.apple.com/v1/catalog/<store>/search). However it requires an authorization token header to be passed and you cannot generate it without ios device. See example usage here https://blog.csdn.net/qq_15256443/article/details/101064298

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? Is there a way to simulate the App Store and obtain an authorization token? Any suggestion is welcomed!

[pavelsly]

That's right, it is hard to get this token.
but this token lives for a long time.
here is the live token
'Authorization': 'Bearer eyJraWQiOiIyME1XTDBTTkROIiwiYWxnIjoiRVMyNTYifQ.eyJpc3MiOiIzQjA1T0JYTklYIiwiaWF0IjoxNzEzMTk0ODk2LCJleHAiOjE3MTU3ODY4OTZ9.zrOg92e3CoSSdBS3060nNJjRbtRv5oMAiTyAA1IvErY5qtGtgqrF8PjSoTWSiMjBSkirJug0an6NPZuPwEi7ng'

[xzebra]

That's right, it is hard to get this token. but this token lives for a long time. here is the live token 'Authorization': 'Bearer eyJraWQiOiIyME1XTDBTTkROIiwiYWxnIjoiRVMyNTYifQ.eyJpc3MiOiIzQjA1T0JYTklYIiwiaWF0IjoxNzEzMTk0ODk2LCJleHAiOjE3MTU3ODY4OTZ9.zrOg92e3CoSSdBS3060nNJjRbtRv5oMAiTyAA1IvErY5qtGtgqrF8PjSoTWSiMjBSkirJug0an6NPZuPwEi7ng'

Hi @pavelsly, would you mind sharing how did you got that token?

Also, I'm trying to use it for the request on the blog @golopupinsky did mention, but I'm always getting a 401 (unauthorized).

[da-mian]

@xzebra did you or anyone find out how to get this token?

[xzebra]

@da-mian by jailbreaking an old iPhone and mitm the App Store requests