Research an idea
Decide whether to build it, with the evidence on the table.
An AI research brief that supports a build or do-not-build decision, written from real App Store and Google Play listings and reviews, and honest about what reviews cannot tell you.
One idea in.One brief out, with its sources.
Describe the idea, confirm which apps really compete with it, and Appfox writes the brief from their listings and reviews. Every claim links back to what it came from.
- Stores
- App Store and Google Play
- Scope
- One country and language per market
- Sources
- Real listings and reviews, linked
From an ideato a recorded decision.
You describe the idea and confirm the competitors. Appfox does the collecting, and writes a brief you can trace back to its sources.
- 1
Describe the idea
The job it does, who it is for, the store, the country, and the language. Appfox derives editable search concepts from that description.
- 2
Confirm the competitor set
Discovery runs across store search, similar-app relationships, and overlapping review language. You keep or remove candidates and label each one direct or adjacent. Low-confidence candidates are never added silently.
- 3
Read the brief
Positioning, observable monetization, recurring complaints, existing strengths, potential gaps, and evidence against the idea. Each claim links to the listings and reviews behind it, with coverage shown.
- 4
Inspect the sources
The original review text, the listing snapshot, and the collection window. A complete local list is not the whole store, and the brief says exactly how much was collected.
- 5
Record a decision
Save a hypothesis and the next validation action, or record that you will not pursue the idea. Both are useful outcomes.
- 6
Keep watching
Enable monitoring and the market keeps refreshing. When you later add an owned app, it joins the same market with its evidence intact.
Clear about what reviewscan and cannot show.
A brief is built for a build or do-not-build decision. It reports what the evidence supports and names what it cannot establish.
What a brief can tell you
- Who exists in the market, and who was newly discovered versus verifiably newly launched.
- How apps position themselves on their listings.
- What monetization is observable: free or paid, in-app purchase names, listed prices, trials where visible.
- What customers complain about repeatedly, and the words they use for the job.
- What features are praised, and which are requested again and again.
- Where review or rating activity is rising, as an activity proxy with its components shown.
What it will refuse to claim
- Market size, willingness to pay, or business viability. Reviews cannot establish those.
- That an unmentioned feature is a missing feature. Unmentioned and verified missing are different states.
- A trend before trustworthy comparable snapshots exist. History is never backdated from today's listing.
- That update frequency or review velocity equals revenue growth.
- That an in-app purchase indicator is a verified subscription offer.
- That a periodic search is an exhaustive census of the market.
The market keeps goingafter the brief.
The brief was a decision point. The market is a living object. When you later add an owned app, it joins the same market with its evidence intact.
- Competitor sets refresh
- New entrants are scored for similarity before they are suggested to you.
- Listings and prices are recorded
- Changes are stored against history. Nothing is backdated from today's listing.
- Tracked queries report rank
- Current and previous rank for every search query you follow.
A tracked market for a meal-planning idea. Ratings, prices, and release dates from the US App Store, October 2026.
Private beta
Research your next idea.
Research briefs are available to invited beta users. Request access with an idea and the store you plan to launch in.
Invitations are sent by email.