App Store title and subtitle: limits and how to write them

Your app name (often called the title) and subtitle appear under your icon in search results and on your product page. They are also the fields Apple’s search gives the most weight to. Each is limited to 30 characters.

Writing the app name

• Lead with your brand if people search for it; otherwise lead with the keyword.
• Add your single most valuable keyword phrase after a colon or dash: “Habitly: Habit Tracker”.
• Keep it readable. A name stuffed with keywords looks like spam, converts worse and invites rejection.
• Your name must be unique on the App Store, and App Review Guideline 2.3.7 limits it to 30 characters without prices or irrelevant terms.

Writing the subtitle

• Use different keywords from the name: repeated words add nothing.
• Describe the benefit, not the feature list: “Build routines that stick”.
• Mix one or two keywords into a phrase that still reads naturally.
• Avoid “free”, prices, “best” and “#1”.

Words combine across fields

Apple matches searches against words from the name, subtitle and keyword field together. With “Habit Tracker” in the name and “daily” in the subtitle or keyword field, you can rank for “daily habit tracker” without spelling it out. Exact phrases in the name still tend to rank best for their own search.

Testing a new name

Changing your name or subtitle needs a new version, and you can’t A/B test them with product page optimization (which covers the icon, screenshots and previews). So check a draft carefully before you submit: does it fit, does it still contain the words you rank for, and does it score better than the live one? The Metadata lab answers all three as you type.