Following Competitor Apps

Following an app in Ranksy is the first step to using the Competitors hub. Once you follow one or more apps, the Activity feed, Ad Presence, Keyword Gaps, and Review Insights tabs all populate with data. Following is private — the other developer cannot see that you're watching their app.

Follow vs Add to My Apps

These are two different actions with different purposes:

You can do both — follow a competitor AND add your own app to My Apps. They are independent.

How to follow an app

From the Competitors hub

1. Go to ASO → Competitors → Manage in the sidebar
2. The Manage page shows a searchable, filterable browser of all apps in the Ranksy database
3. Use the search box to find the app by name
4. Filter by category, rating range, review count, or Built for Shopify badge if needed
5. Click Follow on any app row

The button changes to Following when active. Click it again to unfollow.

From an app profile page

1. Go to Explore → Browse Apps in the sidebar
2. Search for or browse to the app you want to follow
3. Click the app to open its profile page
4. Click Follow near the top of the profile

How many apps can I follow?

There is no limit. Follow as many apps as you need.

What following unlocks

After following at least one app, all Competitors hub tabs become active:

Activity — a feed of recent reviews, app listing updates, and category rank changes from followed apps. Filter by date range and sub-tab (Reviews, Updates, Rankings).

Ad Presence — which apps are running sponsored ads on your tracked keywords and categories in the last 30 days. Drill into any advertiser to see which specific keywords they're bidding on and compare their sponsored rank to your organic rank.

Keyword Gaps — keywords where followed competitors rank organically or advertise but you don't. Three views: Relevant (semantically related to your top keywords), Competitor Gaps (organic), and Ads Gaps (paid). All three support CSV export. You can track any gap keyword directly from the table.

Review Insights — AI analysis of reviews from followed apps (and similar apps). Shows pain points, feature opportunities, sentiment distribution, top complaints, and review samples. Run a fresh analysis by clicking Analyse New Reviews.

Manage — add or remove followed apps at any time.

Unfollowing an app

From the Manage page:

1. Go to ASO → Competitors → Manage
2. Find the app in the table (use search to filter)
3. Click Following to toggle it off

Or from the app's profile page:

1. Open the app profile via Explore → Browse Apps
2. Click the Following button to unfollow

Tips for building a useful competitor set

Follow your direct competitors first. These are the apps merchants compare against yours when evaluating options. Even 2–3 direct competitors unlock meaningful Keyword Gaps and Review Insights data.

Add category leaders. Following the top-ranked apps in your main categories shows you what the benchmark looks like and which keywords they dominate.

Follow at different tiers. Track emerging apps (launched in the last 12 months with fast-growing review counts) to spot threats early before they reach your rank range.

Check the Activity feed after your own updates. If competitors updated around the same time as you, their ranking changes in the Activity feed help you separate your signal from market-wide algorithm movement.

FAQ

Q: Do competitors know I'm following them? A: No. Following is completely private.

Q: I followed an app but the Keyword Gaps tab shows no data. A: Keyword Gaps requires Ranksy to have scraped ranking data for those competitor apps. Data accumulates over time as daily scrapes run. Organic Gaps also uses your own keyword rankings — if you haven't tracked any keywords yet, go to ASO → Tracked to add some.

Q: Can I follow an app I manage? A: Yes, but it's not necessary — apps in My Apps already appear in your revenue and analytics hubs. Following is most useful for apps you don't control.

Q: Why does Review Insights show zero reviews? A: Click Analyse New Reviews to trigger the initial AI analysis job. If followed apps have few reviews in Ranksy's database, switch the cohort to Similar Apps which draws on a broader set.

Next steps

• Competitors Hub — full reference for Activity, Ad Presence, Keyword Gaps, Review Insights, and Manage
• Browse Apps (Explore) — find apps to follow by browsing the full Ranksy database
• Tracked Keywords (ASO) — track keywords that competitors rank for directly from the Keyword Gaps tab