here is the best way to find Google Play Store apps

It never fails to amaze me how bad Google is and continues to be in search. For a company that makes its bones in this category, its apps don’t have enough power to help me find what I want, and I can’t think of a worse example than the Google Play Store.

I mentioned a few of the Google Play Store’s flaws in a recent feature, but its search functionality — or lack thereof — is still one issue I can’t seem to shake. Thankfully, others have recognized this problem and developed their own pioneering remedies. Recently, I found an app that makes finding Android apps very easy; it’s called App Finder.

Aside from providing “sponsored” apps at the top of the search results page and ads wherever there is space, the Google Play Store search results lack customization. You get what Google wants you to get. It’s not about searching for a specific app, but about letting Google suggest what it is you believe you want. One can understand how this can lead to a lot of irritation.

App Finder takes a different approach by returning control to the user. It is a third-party search engine that reliably sniffs Google Play Store apps based on user-defined criteria. It’s an Advanced Search tool in Google Search for the Google Play Store, and pulls information from the app’s title, package name, summary, description, and changelog. This makes it far more accessible than a solution baked into Google’s own app.

After installation, you will notice one obvious problem with App Finder; it is definitely not a Material 3 Expressive-adhering application. The best way to describe the UI of the app finder is to say that it is aesthetically pleasing. The home screen of rights works more than a form, but I quickly realized that this is a good choice. After all, it’s a search tool and not an app beauty contest entrant. It’s customizable too, allowing me to choose which search modifiers I want readily available.

Find apps easily using filters, modifiers, and scales

If I want to search for a specific app, I can type my query in the search bar — like Google Play Store. However, unlike Google’s top ranking solution, I don’t get any ads that make up the results. Despite this advantage, I don’t use the App Finder this way, at least not when I’m looking for a popular or major app. Instead, its real strength lies in its search modifiers, filters, and sliders.

Let me make an example. If I want to find all apps with the word “music” in their title, I type this into the search bar. It’s easy. Without the use of any filters, App Finder highlights over 55,600 results. (Thankfully, this already has more information than the Google Play Store provides.) However, if I move the file Average user rating to at least 4.7, increase Number of measurements slide to 100k, then convert to There are no ads selector, I can narrow that down to 30 results. This level of control over which apps appear in your search report is not possible in the Google Play Store.

There’s a ridiculously wide range of filters and sliders in the App Finder. Users can control total downloads and price range in-app, or filter by release, updated dates, or genre, and also sort by current/monthly downloads. That last statistic is a much smarter metric of app popularity than Google Play Store trending charts. You can also view this data by country or see aggregated global data.

I also use App Finder regularly to look for apps for sale – it’s a great cheat code for finding games. If you increase the rating to the high 4s, you can often find the most interesting titles on the Google Play Store. It’s equally useful for discovering new titles that have just hit the Google Play Store’s gaming section.

Alternatively, if you need more control, you can take advantage of the App Finder search operator. I can enter a + to require the results to include a certain phrase in their title or summary, discarding other results. Then there is the use of quotes, which allows me to search for specific, long strings. OR allows me to search for results that can contain multiple words (for example, video player OR media player). App Finder offers an entire in-app help page for these operators. I really appreciate these little details, and I still visit this page from time to time.

As much as I like the App Finder, it has areas that need more polishing. Yes, the UI is functional and intuitive, but it still feels dated. The results screen could do a better job of highlighting relevant information, and the text space and weight feel a little too cramped for my liking.

Then there are developmental question marks. Although the App Finder is still fully functional, it hasn’t seen an update since October 2024. More worryingly, the developer noted that it is planning “AI-based natural language search,” which makes my skin crawl and may make other anti-AI users, too. Does App Finder need such an addition? No, I don’t believe it does. Is there anything with the word AI in it that is still selling? Publishers and developers certainly seem to think so.

Finally, it’s important to note that App Finder has a paid component. While the bulk of the app is available to consumers for free (at least at the time of this writing), you’ll need to upgrade to unlock additional filters, enhanced zoom ranges, and the ability to export data to continue reading. Considering its functionality, App Finder is also not that expensive. The Ultimate tier costs about $10 to unlock for life, and unless Google makes major changes to the Google Play Store that disrupt App Finder functionality, this doesn’t seem too steep.

As Google continues to bring a poorer search experience to the Google Play Store, it’s more necessary than convenient to use a third-party search app like App Finder to find interesting, trending, and hidden apps. Yes, it sure has its flaws, but I can’t knock the amazing customization, functionality, and experience that App Finder offers.