Warning: App Store scrapers can discover apps before their release

[jerrell]

I just received a startling email from a user of my company's first iPhone app, informing me that they'd learned of our new app on AppMiner and wanted to know why it was only available in the U.S. App Store. The problem? The app hasn't been released yet!

After a few minutes of panic, checking the actual App Store and confirming the app hasn't accidentally been released early, I realised that websites scraping the App Store listings can apparently pull information on unreleased apps. A quick search shows up three other app listings sites which have info on this unreleased app.

A lot of effort's gone into planning the release of this app, and it's frustrating to have information leak early. Not a disaster in this case, but not great - for example, the price point listed is wrong.

So be warned: make sure your app metadata is ready for public consumption before your app exits the review process - whatever you've set its release date to!

[hboon]

One side-effect of this is you can also give out promo codes between the app being approved and being released.

[jeb]

What site are you using to view the unreleased app info?

[jerrell]

AppMiner.com and iApper.com are both showing listings. A Google search shows up some other sites, but the mentions seem to have disappeared now.

[mehta]

I believe he said that in his original post. AppMiner.com

[gaiusparx]

You might want to file a bug report to Apple.

[jerrell]

I have submitted a bug report, but I'm not sure if I can expect much response.

As far as I know, these sites are already 'misbehaving' by scraping the App Store info, and Apple seems to turn a blind eye - will they bother plugging security holes in an interface which is already being abused?

[wooster]

Thanks, this is good information to have.