App Store Optimization (ASO) Guide 2026

App Store Optimization (ASO) is how you get an app found in store search and turn store visitors into installs. It has two halves: discoverability (ranking for the words people type) and conversion (convincing people once they see your icon, screenshots and ratings). This guide covers both for the App Store and Google Play, with the field limits, tools and measurement you need to run it as a repeatable process.

What ASO is (and isn’t)

ASO is the store equivalent of SEO, but the surface is smaller and the rules are stricter. You control a handful of text fields, a set of images and videos, and — indirectly — your ratings. The stores decide ranking based on how relevant your metadata is to a query and how people behave when they see your listing: whether they tap, install, keep the app and rate it well.

• It is choosing the right words for limited fields, designing assets that explain the app in seconds, localizing, testing variants and measuring.
• It isn’t keyword stuffing, fake reviews or competitor names in your metadata. Both stores reject or penalize those, and Apple’s Guideline 2.3.7 explicitly forbids packing metadata with trademarked terms, popular app names, pricing information or irrelevant phrases.
• It doesn’t replace a good product. Retention, crash rate and review quality all feed back into store visibility, so ASO works best on an app people keep using.

ASO is a cycle, not a launch task

Treat ASO as a loop you repeat with your release cadence: research, change a few things, ship, measure, keep what worked. A practical rhythm for a small team:

1. Before launch: research keywords, write metadata for your primary language and top markets, and design a screenshot set that explains the app in three frames.
2. Every release: refresh What’s New, review promotional text, and adjust a few keywords based on impressions.
3. Every quarter: run one asset test (first screenshot or icon), localize another market, and re-check competitors’ listings.
4. Around seasons and launches: schedule in-app events or promotional content and update captions that mention the feature.

How App Store and Google Play search differ

The two stores read different fields. Getting this wrong is the most common reason an app doesn’t rank for words that are “in the listing”.

On the App Store, Apple combines words across the name, subtitle and keyword field, so you don’t need to repeat a word to rank for phrases that contain it. The description is for persuasion only. Keywords, name and subtitle change only when you submit a new version — plan them with your release cycle.

On Google Play, there is no keyword field, so your terms have to live in readable text. The full description matters for search: mention your core features in natural sentences, but don’t repeat terms unnaturally — Google’s metadata policy prohibits repetitive or irrelevant keywords. Google also looks at app quality; its Android vitals “bad behavior” thresholds (crash and ANR rates) can make an app less visible.

For a deeper look at Apple’s keyword field rules and a worked example, read how to fill the App Store keyword field.

Keyword research

Good keywords sit where three things overlap: people search for them, they describe your app accurately, and you have a realistic chance of ranking.

1. Brainstorm from the user’s side. List the problem your app solves, the job it does and the words users use in reviews and support emails (“budget planner”, not “personal finance management solution”).
2. Use store autocomplete. Type the start of each idea into App Store and Google Play search; suggestions reflect real queries.
3. Check popularity. Apple Ads (formerly Apple Search Ads) shows a popularity score for search terms when you set up a campaign; Play Console’s acquisition reports show the search terms that already bring visitors to your listing.
4. Judge competition. Search each term and look at who ranks. If the top results are household names with millions of ratings, a long-tail variant (“habit tracker for adhd”) is often a better target.
5. Check relevance honestly. Ranking for a term people don’t want your app for gives you impressions but no installs — and low conversion can hurt you.
6. Group by locale. Research per language and country; a direct translation of an English keyword is often not what people search for.

Writing metadata that ranks

App name (both stores, 30 characters)

The strongest field on both stores. Lead with your brand, then add one or two core keywords if they fit naturally: “Ripple: Habit Tracker”. Google Play’s policy bans emojis, repeated special characters, ALL CAPS (unless part of your brand) and ranking or price claims such as “#1”, “Best of Play” or “free for limited time” in the title, icon and developer name.

Subtitle (App Store) and short description (Google Play)

The App Store subtitle (30 characters) appears under your name in search results. Use it for your main benefit plus keywords you didn’t fit into the name — and never repeat name words. Google Play’s short description (80 characters) is shown on the listing and indexed; write one clear sentence about what the app does.

Keyword field (App Store only, 100 bytes)

Comma-separated, no spaces, no words already in your name or subtitle, no competitor names. Our keyword optimizer strips duplicates and spaces and shows the byte count.

Descriptions and promotional text

Both descriptions allow 4,000 characters. On Apple, only the first lines show before “more”, so open with the value proposition; Apple’s 170-character promotional text sits above it and can be changed at any time without a new version — use it for launches, seasonal features and offers. On Google Play, the full description is indexed: describe features in plain sentences, use the terms people search for, and keep formatting simple.

What’s New

Release notes don’t rank, but they show on the product page and in update lists. Keep them short and user-focused — the release notes generator turns a changelog into store-ready text within Apple’s 4,000- and Google Play’s 500-character limits.

All limits, including in-app purchase names and review replies, are in our App Store & Google Play character limits guide; check drafts with the character counter.

Conversion assets: icon, screenshots, video, header art

Ranking gets you an impression; your visuals decide whether that becomes a tap and an install. Most people never read a description.

• Icon: see app icon sizes and generate every size with the icon generator.
• Screenshots: treat them as an ad, not documentation. Large captions, real UI and a clear story. Read screenshot design best practices, then get the exact pixel sizes right with the App Store and Google Play screenshot size guides. App Store Connect accepts up to 10 screenshots per device class; Google Play up to 8 per device type.
• Video: Apple allows up to three app previews of 15–30 seconds per device size and localization. Google Play uses a YouTube link.
• iOS 27 header and search artwork: Apple’s redesigned App Store adds a wide header at the top of the product page and artwork that can appear in search results. Sizes and safe areas are in product page header & search result images.
• Feature graphic: see the Google Play feature graphic guide.

Ratings & reviews

Your average rating and rating count appear next to your icon in search, so they affect conversion directly — and both stores are widely believed to use them in ranking.

• Use the official prompts. On iOS, request a review with StoreKit (SKStoreReviewController, or RequestReviewAction in SwiftUI). The system decides whether to show it and limits it to three times per user in a 365-day period. Apple’s Guideline 5.6.1 doesn’t allow custom review prompts. On Android, use the Play In-App Review API; it has a quota, so it may not appear every time you call it.
• Ask at the right moment — after a success (a completed workout, an exported file), not on launch or right after an error. Never offer rewards for ratings; both stores prohibit incentivized reviews.
• Reply to reviews, especially negative ones that mention a bug you’ve fixed. Reviewers are notified and can update their rating. Google Play replies are limited to about 350 characters. The review reply generator drafts polite replies within each store’s limit, in the reviewer’s language.
• Reset when it helps. App Store Connect lets you reset your summary rating when you release a new version — useful after a major fix, but you lose the rating count too.
• Mine reviews for keywords and feature requests. The words customers use are often better keyword candidates than your own.

Localization

Every locale has its own name, subtitle, keywords, description and screenshots. A locale without its own metadata falls back to your primary language, so a German user sees English captions and you don’t rank for German search terms. Localizing metadata is usually the cheapest way to grow reach; localizing screenshots then lifts conversion in those markets.

• The App Store supports 50 localizations; Google Play offers listing translations in more than 80 languages.
• On the App Store, some storefronts also display additional localizations — the US storefront, for example, also supports Spanish (Mexico) and several others — which ASO practitioners use for extra keyword space.
• Translate keywords by research, not word-for-word, and have a native speaker review AI translations.

Locale codes, RTL and CJK typography and a full workflow are in how to localize App Store & Google Play screenshots.

In-app events & promotional content

Both stores let you promote timely content without changing your listing. On the App Store, in-app events (challenges, live events, premieres, major updates) get event cards in search results, on your product page and in editorial placements. Each has a 30-character name, a 50-character short description and a 120-character long description, plus a 16:9 card image and a 9:16 details image — see in-app event image sizes.

Google Play’s equivalent is promotional content (also called LiveOps) in Play Console: events, offers and major updates that can appear on the listing and across Play’s browse surfaces. Both are reviewed, so submit them ahead of the start date.

Events also give returning users a reason to come back, and the store traffic they bring shows up in your analytics as a separate source.

Custom pages & A/B testing

App Store

• Product Page Optimization: test up to three treatments against your original page, each with different icons, screenshots and/or app previews. Tests run for up to 90 days, you choose the share of traffic, and visitors keep seeing the same treatment. Icon tests need the alternate icons in your app binary; screenshot-only tests don’t need a new version.
• Custom product pages: up to 70 additional versions of your product page with different screenshots, promotional text and previews. Give each a unique URL for ads or campaigns, assign keywords so it can appear in search for those terms, and (on iOS 18 and later) a deep link into the matching part of the app.

Google Play

• Store listing experiments: test up to three variants against your current listing — icon, feature graphic, screenshots, promo video and descriptions, including localized experiments in up to five languages.
• Custom store listings: show a different listing to users in specific countries, to people arriving from a particular URL, or to other targeted audiences.

Measuring results

• Separate search from browse. Keyword work shows up in App Store Search impressions; asset work shows up in conversion rate across sources.
• Annotate changes. Note the date of every metadata release, test start and feature launch.
• Compare equal periods (week over week, same weekday mix) and be wary of seasonality and paid campaigns that change traffic quality.

ASO checklist

Doing it with StoreGlaze

StoreGlaze covers the asset and metadata side of ASO in the browser, free and without an account:

• Draft every metadata field in the editor’s metadata panel with live character limits, or check text quickly in the character counter and keyword optimizer.
• Design screenshots from templates and device mockups, translate captions and metadata with AI using your own key, and export exact store sizes — including fastlane folders.
• See the result in context with the store listing preview before you submit.

It won’t tell you search volumes or track rankings — pair it with Apple Ads, Play Console and a keyword tool of your choice.