App Store localization: the complete guide

Why localization moves the needle

The App Store isn’t one store — it’s 175 storefronts, each with its own search index and editorial surface. When a user in Germany searches, Apple matches their query against the German localization of your metadata. No German keywords, no German rankings. It’s that mechanical.

Localization affects the funnel twice: first in search visibility (localized keywords rank for queries your English listing can’t see), then in conversion (users are measurably more likely to install when the product page reads natively). It also raises your odds of editorial featuring on regional storefronts, where Apple’s local teams strongly prefer localized apps.

The fields and their limits

Every localization in App Store Connect carries the same set of text fields, each with a hard character limit that applies in every language:

The limits are per-character regardless of script, which quietly changes strategy per language: 30 characters of Japanese or Chinese carries roughly triple the meaning of 30 characters of German. Deep-dives: translating the description and translating keywords.

Choosing languages: a priority order

You don’t need all 50 locales on day one. A pragmatic sequence:

1. Revenue heavyweights — Japanese, Simplified Chinese, German, French, Korean. These storefronts account for the bulk of non-English App Store spending, and users there rarely search in English.
2. Reach multipliers — Spanish (Mexico), Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Indonesian, Arabic. Enormous audiences, fast-growing iOS bases, thin keyword competition.
3. Cheap wins — the Nordics, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Ukrainian. Small translation volume, high per-user value or near-zero competition, often both.
4. Everything else — once translation is automated, the marginal cost of the remaining locales rounds to zero. Ship them all.

Per-language market notes live on our App Store languages reference and the individual language pages.

Translation approaches, honestly compared

Agencies produce excellent copy at $0.08–0.20 per word per language — worthwhile for your top three markets, prohibitive for 50. Raw machine translation (running fields through a generic translator) is free but ignores character limits, keyword intent and brand voice; it’s the source of the awkward listings users have learned to distrust.

LLM translation with context is the current sweet spot: a modern model given the field type, its character limit, your brand glossary and ASO intent produces copy close to agency quality at machine cost. Pair it with native review for your highest-revenue locales and you get 50 languages at the price of three.

Shipping it through App Store Connect

Localizations attach to an app version, and the version must be in an editable state — PREPARE_FOR_SUBMISSION is the usual one. You can add them by hand (Connect → your app → the version → “+” next to the language list, then paste each field for each locale), or write them through the App Store Connect API, which is what StoreTranslate does: translate every selected field with AI, validate against the limits, and upload all locales in one job. New metadata goes live when the version is approved.