Bot intelligence record

Apple Podcasts

Review first

Use the iTMS identifier to separate Apple feed fetching or subscription-style retrieval from normal visitor requests in server logs.

Feed Feed Fetch Official Documented Confidence: High Verified: Yes robots.txt: No
Operator
Apple
Family
Apple
Type
Feed
Source type
Official
Last checked
2026-05-20

User-Agent Pattern

Apple
iTMS
Verification note

User-agent strings are identification signals, not proof of identity. Confirm important allow, block, or rate-limit decisions with logs, DNS or IP evidence, request behavior, or operator documentation when available.

Robots.txt Snippet

Click snippet to copy 
User-agent: iTMS Disallow: /

Click the snippet to copy it, or highlight the text manually.

Handling Guidance

Depends

Use this record as bot intelligence, then verify the request source and behavior before allowing, blocking, or rate limiting.

Feed fetching, subscription updates, podcast retrieval, or content syndication checks.

Record Details

Structured data
Operator
Apple
Family
Apple
Type
Feed
Purpose
Feed Fetch
Identity type
Official Documented
Confidence
High
Last verified
2026-04-19
Last checked
2026-05-20
Source type
Official
Verification
Use Apple's documented iTMS user-agent; Apple states it does not follow robots.txt for Apple Podcasts crawling.
Spoofing risk
User-agent strings can be spoofed. For allow-listing or low-friction rules, pair the published identifier with operator documentation or cryptographic verification when available.

Notes

Apple Podcasts is listed in the Botcrawl directory as a feed retrieval bot from Apple. The primary identifier for log review is iTMS.

Identification

  • User-agent pattern: iTMS
  • Family: Apple
  • Type: Feed
  • Kind: Fetcher

Common use

Feed fetching, subscription updates, podcast retrieval, or content syndication checks.

Verification and handling

Use Apple's documented iTMS user-agent; Apple states it does not follow robots.txt for Apple Podcasts crawling.

Directory guidance marks the risk level as Neutral and the blocking decision as Depends. Do not rely on the user-agent string alone because user-agent strings can be copied or spoofed.

Robots.txt handling: No.

Evidence and Source

  • Use Apple's documented iTMS user-agent; Apple states it does not follow robots.txt for Apple Podcasts crawling.
  • Match `iTMS` as a case-insensitive substring in HTTP user-agent logs. Review bot_aliases for alternate names or product labels. Do not treat a user-agent match alone as proof of identity for allow-listing.
  • Feed fetching, subscription updates, podcast retrieval, or content syndication checks.
  • User-agent strings can be spoofed. For allow-listing or low-friction rules, pair the published identifier with operator documentation or cryptographic verification when available.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829

Same family: Apple

Applebot Safe

Applebot

Applebot data is used to power various features, such as the search technology that is integrated into many user experiences in Appleʼs ecosystem including Spotlight, Siri, and Safari.

Operator and family: Apple Type: Search Purpose: Indexing
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Official Documented
AASA-Bot Neutral

Apple App Site Association

The Apple App Site Association is used to support "Universal Links" that can open in native iOS apps. The bot requests a specific path for a given hostname, which returns metadata that.

Operator and family: Apple Type: Preview
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot
Applebot-Extended Safe

Applebot-Extended

Applebot-Extended is an AI control token from Apple used for AI-related crawling, retrieval, search, or assistant activity.

Operator and family: Apple Type: Ai Purpose: Ai Assistant
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Official Documented

Similar purpose: Feed Fetch

Citoid/WMF Neutral

WMF Citoid

WMF Citoid is a feed retrieval bot from Wikimedia Foundation used to retrieve feeds, subscriptions, podcasts, or syndicated content.

Operator and family: Wikimedia Foundation Type: Feed Purpose: Feed Fetch
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot
ZoteroTranslationServer/WMF Neutral

WMF Zotero Translation Server

WMF Zotero Translation Server is a feed retrieval bot from Wikimedia Foundation used to retrieve feeds, subscriptions, podcasts, or syndicated content.

Operator and family: Wikimedia Foundation Type: Feed Purpose: Feed Fetch
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot
videootvBot Neutral

videootv Bot

Crawler to extract the newest articles in the publisher's website (via feed or parsing html) to make a carrousel with images, links and text for our native ads module in order to improve.

Operator and family: Digital Green Type: Feed Purpose: Feed Fetch
Verified robots.txt: Yes Block: Depends Verified Bot
SkroutzBot Safe

SkroutzBot

Skroutz uses SkroutzBot web crawler to download XML feeds.

Operator and family: Skroutz S.A. Type: Feed Purpose: Feed Fetch
Verified robots.txt: No Block: Depends Verified Bot

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