Which languages should you localise your app into first?
You don't need to localise into forty languages. For most indie apps, the right first move is a short, deliberate list. Here is how to reason about which languages go on it.
Start with the store listing, not the app
Localising a whole app means translating every string, testing layouts and supporting users in new languages. Localising the store listing (title, subtitle, keywords, description, screenshots) is far smaller and tells you something useful: whether people in a market find and install your app at all. Many developers localise the listing first and only translate the app itself where the listing shows real interest. If your app is English-only, say so honestly in the localised description so nobody feels misled.
Look at your own data first
Before any general advice, check what you already have:
- Downloads by country in App Store Connect or Play Console. If you already get installs from a non-English country with no localisation, that market wants your app despite the language barrier.
- Impressions vs conversion by country. High impressions with low conversion in a country often means people see you but the English page doesn't persuade them.
- Reviews and support email written in other languages.
- Revenue by country if you have in-app purchases or subscriptions.
Any language that shows up here goes near the top of your list, whatever a general ranking says.
Then think about your category
Different kinds of apps travel differently:
- Utilities and productivity (scanners, timers, habit trackers, note apps) solve the same problem everywhere, so they tend to translate well across many markets.
- Games depend on genre taste, which varies by region. Look at which countries the top games in your genre come from and do well in.
- Paid and subscription apps depend on how willing people are to pay for apps in a market, so weigh wealthier app markets more heavily.
- Region-specific apps (local transport, tax, regional services) only need their region's languages.
- Content-heavy apps (language learning, reading, news) may need much more than a listing to be useful, so test cautiously.
The reasoning behind a typical first 10
With no data of your own, a sensible default mixes large app markets, markets where people pay for apps, and markets where English is less commonly used in everyday life. Our default set is:
| Language | Why it's usually on the list |
|---|---|
| Spanish (Mexico) | Spoken across most of Latin America and in the US; a large audience for one localisation. |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Brazil is a very large smartphone market and English listings reach relatively few people there. |
| German | A large, paying market where many users prefer a German-language store page. |
| French | Covers France and other French-speaking countries and regions, including Canada. |
| Japanese | A strong paying market where local-language listings matter a great deal. |
| Korean | A mobile-first market with a strong local-language preference. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | Relevant where your app is distributed to Simplified Chinese readers; check store availability and rules for your target storefronts. |
| Italian | A sizeable European market with a preference for native-language content. |
| Turkish | A large, young smartphone population; few indie apps bother to localise. |
| Indonesian | A very populous mobile market where indie competition in the local language is often thin. |
This is reasoning, not a ranking. Swap any of these for languages your own data points to.
Languages worth considering instead
- Chinese (Traditional) if you want Taiwan and Hong Kong. It is a separate localisation from Simplified, not an automatic conversion.
- Russian, Polish, Dutch, Vietnamese, Thai if your category does well in those regions.
- Arabic or Hebrew if your screenshots and app can handle right-to-left layouts.
- Hindi for some consumer apps in India, though many Indian users search in English, so test.
- English variants (UK, Australia, Canada) are cheap wins: same language, but extra keyword space and local spelling.
Questions to ask before you commit
- Can people in this market actually use my app? (Language, payment methods, local services.)
- Will support requests in this language be a problem? (A short note that support is in English is fine.)
- Does my pricing make sense there? Both stores let you set prices per country.
- Do my screenshots carry text? If so, they need localising too, or they undercut the localised page.
Measure, then expand
After localising, give each market a few weeks and compare impressions, page-view-to-install conversion and installs per country with the period before. Keep the languages that move, refine the keywords in the ones that don't, and try a new language in place of the ones that never respond. Localisation is cheap to iterate on when it's only the listing, so treat the first 10 as an experiment, not a commitment.