The Google Play change log
Google Play changes every night: apps disappear, new ones launch, popular ones ship updates. The store shows none of it as a list. APK Shift compares the catalogue night by night and writes each change down with its date: 53,456 removals and 19,382 releases in the last seven days alone.
1,000 free tokens a month, no card needed.
Gone this week (1M+ installs)
See all
Three kinds of change, one log
APK Shift reads the whole public catalogue every night and compares it with the night before. Whatever moved becomes an entry in the log, with the date it was noticed, so you can go back to any day of the last months and see what happened on the store.
- Removed. Apps that were on Google Play yesterday and are gone today, with their last known installs, developer and category.
- Released. Apps that appeared for the first time, dated by their release.
- Updated. Popular apps, a million installs and up, that shipped a new version, with the version number and the update date.
- Kept on record. A removed app keeps its record, so a link to it still answers with the last data seen.
Popular apps updated in the last days
See all
Reading the log through the API
- Get a key. Sign up on apkshift.com with an email, no card; the key appears in the cabinet with free monthly tokens.
- Ask for a day.
/removed?since=YYYY-MM-DD&until=YYYY-MM-DDlists the removals of that day;/newtakes the same dates for releases. - Filter. Add
min_installsto skip the long tail andcategoryto follow one market. - Store the diff. Run it every morning and keep the answers: after a month you have your own change history of the store.
Who reads a store change log
- Security and compliance teams checking whether apps on managed devices are still distributed.
- Competitive analysts noticing the day a rival product disappears or ships a big update.
- Researchers measuring removal waves after a Google Play policy change.
- App directories cleaning dead listings out of their own catalogues.
Notes
All guides- A daily Google Play change log with three API calls
Removed, released and updated apps for one day, filtered to the installs you care about, ready for a morning report.
- Removal waves: reading Google Play enforcement in the data
Why removals cluster on some days, how to tell an account termination from a policy sweep, and what the numbers cannot tell you.
An independent Google Play data service
APK Shift on apkshift.com is part of the APK API network: it reads the public Google Play listing for 4.1M apps and refreshes it every night. It is an independent service, not affiliated with Google, and it serves metadata only: apkshift.com does not host, distribute or link to APK files. The brand main site is apkapi.com, where the same API, documentation and account live.
The change log: questions
What is APK Shift?
APK Shift (apkshift.com) is a dated change log of Google Play built on the APK API. Every night it compares the catalogue of 4.1M apps with the night before and records which apps were removed, which were released and which popular apps shipped an update.
Is apkshift.com an official APK API site?
Yes. apkshift.com is part of the APK API network, and the brand main site is apkapi.com. A key created on apkshift.com uses the same APK API, so it works across the network for keys, billing and documentation.
How does APK Shift know an app was removed?
When a package that was listed the night before no longer answers on Google Play, it is marked removed with the date it was first missing. The store never says why, so the log records the fact and the date, not a reason.
Can a removed app come back?
Yes. Developers sometimes unpublish an app and publish it again later. When that happens the app shows as live again in its record, and the removal stays in the log for the day it happened.
How far back does the log go?
Day pages cover the last 120 days, and removed apps keep their records after that. Through the API you can ask for removals and releases by any date range the index holds.
Is APK Shift free?
Yes, to start. An account on apkshift.com includes free monthly tokens with no card. A day of removals or releases is one list call of up to 100 apps for 2 tokens, so a daily check fits easily into the free tier.
Can I download APK files from apkshift.com?
No. APK Shift is a Google Play metadata service: dates, versions, installs, developers and categories. It does not host, distribute or link to APK files; the answers are JSON, not binaries.
