App store localisation guides
Practical, no-fluff guides for indie developers who want their App Store and Google Play listings to work in more than one language.
App Store keywords, per locale
How Apple's 100-character keyword field works in each localisation, what not to repeat, and why translating your English keywords word for word wastes it.Which languages to localise first
How to pick your first 10 languages using your own data, your category and practical reasoning, without guesswork dressed up as statistics.Google Play listing localisation
Custom translations vs machine translation in Play Console, and how to write a 30-character title, 80-character short description and 4000-character full description.Screenshot caption localisation
Keeping captions short, handling German and French text expansion, Chinese and Japanese line breaks, and right-to-left Arabic.The store limits at a glance
| Store | Field | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| App Store | App name | 30 characters |
| App Store | Subtitle | 30 characters |
| App Store | Keywords | 100 characters |
| App Store | Promotional text | 170 characters |
| Google Play | App name | 30 characters |
| Google Play | Short description | 80 characters |
| Google Play | Full description | 4000 characters |
Every localisation you add gets its own set of these fields.
Where to start
If you're new to localisation, read which languages to localise first, then the guide for your store. Localising the listing before the app itself is a cheap way to find out which markets respond.
Want it done for you? 10 languages, $39. Per-locale keyword research, store limits enforced, English back-translation for every field. See how TenTongues works.