With the release of iOS 8 Apple added some additional functionality to the Search page in the App Store app on iOS devices that is very helpful to app developers.

When you launch the App Store app and click Search you are greeted with the current Trending Searches that are occurring on iTunes.  Just tap on any one of these terms to immediately search the App Store to see the results for the phrase. This easily accessible bit of information is a powerful tool for app developers to find new app ideas and to improve App Store keyword optimization for your existing apps.

The Trending Searches can change frequently throughout the day and as you can see in the screenshots below the Trending Searches on the same day between 6am and 6pm are quite a bit different.  This is a great way to get a point in time snapshot of what is trending in the App Store.

You can use this information in various  ways to help your app development.

1.) If you’re looking to get started on a new app but you’re having developer’s block and can’t come up with a new idea you can use the Trending Terms to jump start your thought process.  Based on the screenshots above maybe you should look into learning more about ‘playtube’ to see if that presents an opportunity to develop an app that people are looking for.

2.) Perhaps you are looking to improve the discoverability of an app that you already have in the App Store.  If you happen to see a keyword in the Trending  Searches that is similar to your app by all means add this as a keyword to your app in iTunes Connect and release an updated version.  This is a bit of a timing game but if your app is related to a trending term this can boost the search traffic to your app.

3.) Not only can you see the search terms that customers are looking for - you can also see the ‘competition’ for these keywords with just a few taps.  When you tap a keyword the search results will appear and you’ll see the number of results for that term.  In our example below we can see that there is greater competition for ‘locationholic’ (23 Results) than there is for ‘office lens’ (4 Results).

When you are looking to improve discoverability of your app the Trending Searches page is one of the best ways to understand current trends.  Not only can you quickly see the most recent trends that customers are interested in but you can also see how difficult it will be to get your app noticed.  If you can find relevant keywords with little competition this is a great way to get your app noticed and increase the number of downloads for your app.