Search Console app for iPhone: what to look for before you install one

There is no official Google Search Console app for iPhone. Google has never released one, so every Search Console app on the App Store is a third-party client that reads your data through Google’s public API. QueryWatch, which publishes this site, is one of them: an independent app for iPhone and Android, free for every property, not affiliated with Google. This post is about choosing between apps in general, because the same five checks apply whichever you pick.

1. How many properties does the free tier show?

Many apps limit the free tier to one or a few properties. That is fine for a single site and awkward for anyone with clients. Count your own properties, then read the free-tier line in the store listing before signing in. QueryWatch shows every property you can access at no cost, with no cap.

2. Does it alert you, and what does the alert compare against?

A dashboard only helps when you open it. An alert reaches you when you do not. Ask what the alert compares: a fixed threshold, a rolling average or the same weekday in earlier weeks. Weekday-aware comparisons avoid false alarms on quiet Sundays. QueryWatch compares the latest complete day with the same weekday over the previous four weeks, fires at a 30% change or two standard deviations, and sends at most one push per property per day. How an alert is built walks through an example.

3. Where does your Google token go?

Any app that reads Search Console holds some form of access to your Google account. Find out whether the token stays on your phone or lives on the developer’s server. In QueryWatch the token stays on your phone unless you switch on alerts; then a one-time authorisation code goes to a relay server in Germany so it can check your properties while the phone sleeps, and it is deleted when you turn alerts off. Where does your Google token go? lists the questions worth asking of any app.

4. Are there widgets?

Widgets put the numbers on the Home Screen or Lock Screen without opening anything. QueryWatch offers Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets on iPhone on the free tier. Check whether a competitor locks widgets behind a subscription.

5. What does it cost, and for what?

Apps charge for different things: properties, history, alerts or reports. Compare what you would actually use. Prices change, so the comparison pages carry each figure with the date it was checked rather than repeating it here.

What an app cannot do

It cannot make Search Console data faster, because the data trails by a day or two. It cannot verify a new property, which happens in a browser. And QueryWatch is deliberately not a rank tracker and does not read GA4. Why QueryWatch is not a rank tracker explains the choice.

If you want to see how it feels before connecting an account, QueryWatch has a Demo Mode with sample data. It is on the App Store and Google Play. For all the facts in one place, see the QueryWatch fact sheet.