How to localize your App Store and Google Play listing

Apple’s example: if English is your primary language and your only one, your metadata appears in English in all App Store countries and regions. Add a French localization and it shows to users whose language setting is French, and also in countries or regions where the App Store supports French but not English. Users can search for your app with the localized keywords in every country or region where the App Store supports French. If no localization matches a user’s language setting, the next most relevant localization is used; elsewhere the primary language shows. So a localization can reach more storefronts than the one country you had in mind, and each one gets its own keyword field; the keyword rules are in App Store keywords.

You add languages from the language pop-up menu of the app in App Store Connect, and you can manage languages only when the app status is editable. The roles that can do it are Account Holder, Admin, App Manager and Marketing. When you add a language, screenshots and properties default to the primary language, except the description and keywords, which you enter for the new language. The app name and privacy policy URL for the language are set under App Information. Apple notes that these listing languages are metadata and differ from localizing the app binary in Xcode. If you delete a language, the storefronts that showed it revert to the primary language.

You can change an app’s primary language, but only to a language you already added in a previous version and that App Review has approved. Screenshots in that language must be uploaded and approved for all supported platforms, at the same sizes as your current primary language; if they were derived from another localization, you first upload new ones and submit a version. If the app has a custom product page, it also needs screenshots in that language. Screenshot sizes are covered in screenshot sizes.

On Google Play you add languages under Store listing > Manage translations and enter your own title, short description and full description for each. Play Console also offers free machine translation of the store listing and in-app products into a set of languages including Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and Thai, which Google notes are not reviewed by humans, and paid human translation ordered from third-party vendors. If you do not translate, Google Play users can choose to view an automated translation of your listing, with a notice that it was translated automatically. Text translations without localized graphics show your default-language graphics, so localize the screenshots too. For different listings by country rather than language, Google recommends custom store listings; see how to promote an app on Google Play.

Beyond the listing, Play Console can translate your app strings with Gemini models at no cost. Once turned on, translations are generated whenever a new app bundle is uploaded to a draft release, based on the latest strings.xml, and you can preview them in a built-in emulator, edit them, or exclude strings such as brand names from translation. Google warns that right-to-left languages need an RTL-ready app. Play Console may also show a banner recommending languages, based on your install distribution and growth per language compared with apps in your category, your conversion rate per language and the potential market.

Censuus ranks apps by the real visit traffic they draw on the web. Adding your app is free on the submit page, and it can rise on the visits it earns. Sponsorship raises placement and adds a followed link to your website; details are on the sponsor page. For the rest of the listing, see the ASO checklist. We do not promise downloads or store rankings.