App Store Lab guide

Start with the sample

On the empty Lab screen, press Create the sample project. It is a keto calorie tracker idea with recorded App Store results in five countries, so every screen has data and nothing is fetched. You can create it again from Settings, App Store Lab.

Add your app or a niche

1. 1

   Find the app

   Type the app name or paste its App Store link and press Find the app. Pick the right match.

2. 2

   Choose the kind

   Own is your app. Competitor is one you watch. A niche has no app of its own, only keywords you want to explore.

3. 3

   Pick countries

   Open Lab settings, Countries to check. The default is five countries. Select the big ten for a wider look. You can choose up to 60.

4. 4

   Add keywords

   In the Keywords view, type phrases people might type in the App Store, in English. Add up to 60 at a time, up to 100 characters each.

Run a check

Press Check now. The Lab runs one search per keyword and country, spaced out so Apple is not hammered, and shows progress as Checked 12 of 40. You can press Stop at any time. A large check asks first and tells you how many searches it is and about how long it will take.

• Apple asked us to slow down: some searches were skipped. Check again in a few minutes.
• No connection to Apple: check your internet and try again.
• Some searches did not finish: press Check now again. Finished ones are kept.

Read the Board

The Board is keywords by countries. Each cell shows your rank (or not in the top 50), an estimated volume, an estimated difficulty and a verdict. Use Colour cells by to tint by opportunity, volume, difficulty or rank. Since the last check lists what moved up or down.

The Keywords view lists each keyword once with demand (countries with real search interest over countries checked), average volume and difficulty. Open a keyword to see the top apps from the latest check, its history over time, and actions to pin it, attach it to chat or track a competitor.

Verdicts

Each keyword in each country gets one verdict. The app works it out from your rank, the estimated volume and the estimated difficulty. Open How verdicts work in the Lab to see the exact numbers.

• Own: your app is already in the first places.
• Push: you rank, enough people search it and the top is within reach. Worth pushing up.
• Target: you do not rank well, enough people search it and it is not out of reach. Worth going after.
• Hard: real search interest, but big apps dominate the top.
• Swap: you rank, but few people search the phrase. Try a different phrase.
• Dead: few searches and you do not rank.
• Maybe: in between. Check again or look closer.

Estimates are labelled

Automatic check

In Lab settings, set Automatic check for each app to every day, every week or off, and choose the default for new apps. It runs only while BigIdeasDB Desktop is open, at the same gentle pace as Check now. It does nothing when the app is closed.

Library, export and Lab settings

• Library: make folders in the sidebar to organize apps and niches. Folders never change a check.
• Export to file: save the Board as CSV, the Keywords as CSV, or a report as Markdown.
• Lab settings: countries to check, automatic check, removing an app or niche, and the sample project.
• Copy link and Open in the store jump to the app's App Store page.

Use the Lab with your AI

The Lab has an agent dock. It is the same chat panel, with the same model chip, so you can ask about what you see. Attach a keyword to the chat from its detail view. Every Lab action is also an MCP tool, so Claude, Codex or Cursor can drive it too. See the aso tools in the tools reference.

• "Check my app in the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan, then tell me where I should push."
• "Which apps beat me most often, and on which keywords?"
• "Pin the best target keywords to my sleep app idea."

Pin to evidence

Pin a keyword in a country to save its rank, estimated volume and difficulty on the evidence board, optionally on an idea. Pinning the same check twice keeps one copy.