# Search Android apps sorted by name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314 "2016-08-10T05:46:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/1 "2016-08-10T05:46:11Z")
I’m trying to find an app and I know the first word in the title, but not the entire title. If I saw it in a list, I might recognize it, but when I search in the Play Store the results appear to be in random order, and include everything that has that word in its title or as a keyword. Is there any way to get a list sorted by name, or at least tell it to ignore keywords and only list apps with the word in the title? The first word is ‘casual’, and it seems to be used as a keyword for almost every stinking game in the app store. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/2 "2016-08-11T20:27:00Z")
As with many sites like Amazon, eBay or Netflix, searching seems to be pretty limited on the Play Store. There are various APIs, but I’m assuming you’re not a programmer. There are some lists of apps where people have mined the data, but they charge for them: > **[Android Google Play apps - TheWebMiner](https://thewebminer.com/android-google-play-apps)** > > Database with all apps from Google play [https://github.com/MarcelloLins/GooglePlayAppsCrawler](https://github.com/MarcelloLins/GooglePlayAppsCrawler) (look for the exported section) Another way to approach it might be to search through the Google search engine. Go to [http://google.com](http://google.com) and search for this: site: [play.google.com](http://play.google.com) “casual” (remove the space between site: and p, otherwise it makes a smiley :P) “casual” in quotes (mostly) ensures that word will appear in the search results. Then you can subtract words you don’t want in the results. For example, if what you’re looking for isn’t a game, search for this: site: [play.google.com](http://play.google.com) “casual” -game -games (remove the space between site: and p, otherwise it makes a smiley :P) You can also try filling out the form at [https://www.google.com/advanced\_search](https://www.google.com/advanced_search) Enter the words you want and the words you don’t want. For site enter [play.google.com](http://play.google.com) Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/3 "2016-08-11T21:31:42Z")
The problem is that the word “casual” seems to appear in almost every listing in the store, either in the description or as a keyword. The overwhelming majority of games in the Play store are casual games. I just wish they had an advanced search that told it to search only the titles. Or better yet, display them sorted by title. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/4 "2016-08-13T14:10:52Z")
There are about 2.2 million apps available from Google’s store. A simple alphabetical list would be a lot of scrolling. Even if you got a jump to the “Ca…” part of the list, you’d have quite a bit of work to do. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/5 "2016-08-13T15:22:49Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > There are about 2.2 million apps available from Google’s store. > > A simple alphabetical list would be a lot of scrolling. Even if you got a jump to the “Ca…” part of the list, you’d have quite a bit of work to do. We’re talking about listing the search results in alphabetical order, not the entire store. And also having the option of limiting search results to words in the title. I’m looking for a game called “Casual [something]”. I can’t remember what [something] is. Searching for “casual” returns every game categorized as casual or with the word casual in the description listed in random order. Not helpful at all. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/6 "2016-08-15T15:03:04Z")
Maybe ask Google, if you can find a contact email address. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-android-apps-sorted-by-name/762314/7 "2016-08-15T15:33:19Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Maybe ask Google, if you can find a contact email address. That part’s not hard. But you’ll get the same response as you would if you wrote your question on a balloon and released it.