Was there are recent update to the App Store Search Algorithm?
I noticed that beginning about a week ago my keyword search rankings changed drastically. I had read that Apple was planning on using AI as part of the search algorithm. I don't know if that's been rolled out but if it has, something is wrong.
I've been seeing other developers on Reddit trying to make sense of the recent search rankings. The results seem to be attempting to inject potentially related apps and deprioritizing exact matches, to the point of burying the apps most relevant to what the user entered.
In one test, I searched using all 3 words in my subtitle: "brainwave binaural monaural". The app is a 5-star audio neuromodulation app (but only 6 reviews). It appeared 66th in the search results.
About 10 of higher ranking apps were competitors with good ratings and more ratings, so that made sense. The majority though were either unrelated apps with none of my search terms in their subtitle or related apps with 1-2 star ratings (but also none of my subtitle words).
For example, at #30 was the Skullcandy earbud pairing app with 2.3 stars (283 reviews) and none of my subtitle words ("Skullcandy App Experience"). At #46 was a second Skullcandy app with 2.4 stars (subtitle: "Skullcandy smart tech").
Based on subtitle/keyword relevance, and rating, it makes no sense that these two earbud apps would appear 36 and 20 places above mine in the results.
Has anyone else seen similar changes to the search ranking? I've been doing this since '08 and I haven't seen search perform as poorly as it is now.