Google Play ASO: what changes from the App Store

The fields each store reads#

Both stores give you a 30-character title. After that they part ways. Apple says an app is searchable by its name, subtitle, keywords and company name. Google says that the text in your store listing helps users discover your app, and asks you to use SEO best practices in the description while staying within its spam policies.

So on Play, the full description does part of the job the keyword field does on the App Store, but people read it too. Say what the app does in plain words in the first lines, and use the words people search for where they fit a sentence.

Stuffing does not help. Google's guidance for the short description says unnecessary keywords added in an attempt to improve search results will not impact ranking, and its spam policies name keyword spamming.

Words are only part of ranking. Apple weighs text relevance, which includes the primary category, alongside user behavior such as downloads and ratings. Google ranks apps on a combination of ratings, reviews, downloads and other factors. Neither store publishes the weights.

What a Play title may not say#

Google's metadata policy sets rules for the app title, icon and developer name:

• No emoji, emoticons or repeated special characters. Avoid ALL CAPS unless it is part of your brand name.
• No text that indicates store performance or ranking, such as "App of the year" or "#1".
• No price or promotional information, such as "10% off". Google's best practices add that words like "Free" and "No Ads" don't belong in app titles or developer names.
• No text that suggests a Google Play program, such as "Editor's choice" or "New".
• A title of 30 characters or less.

The short description has its own list in Google's guidance: no calls to action such as "download now", and no words such as "Best", "#1", "Top" or "Sale". The practical rule for both fields: the app's name and a plain line about what it does, with no claims. The title counter and the short description counter check the length.

Testing a listing: store listing experiments#

Play Console's store listing experiments split visitors at random between your current listing and up to two variants. A default graphics experiment tests the icon, feature graphic and screenshots. A localized experiment can also test the descriptions, and you can run up to five localized experiments at once. You pick the metric to judge by (unique user install clicks, open clicks or pre-registration clicks), and an experiment stops on its own after six months.

The App Store's counterpart, product page optimization, tests up to three treatments of the icon, screenshots and app previews for up to 90 days, and now also the product page header shown on iOS 27 and later. It tests images and video, not text. So on Play you can put a new description to a randomized test, while on the App Store a text change is read before and after.

A randomized test is the only way to learn which of two versions does better, because both run over the same days. Save it for the change you care most about, and expect a small app's test to need weeks before it can say anything.

Custom store listings#

Play lets you publish up to 50 custom store listings and show each one to a group: people in a country, people who searched with specific terms, lapsed or churned users, buyers or non-buyers, pre-registration, ads traffic, or anyone who opens a unique URL.

The App Store's version is custom product pages: up to 70 per app, each with its own screenshots, previews and promotional text. You can assign a page keywords from your latest approved app version, and it shows in App Store search only once it is approved and set to visible.

Both are worth the work once one listing serves groups that want different things. With one audience, keep one listing and make it good.

Reading Play's reports#

Play changed its store listing reports in mid-2026. Google says they now focus on user intent (clicks) rather than acquisitions. The main numbers are unique user install clicks and click-through rate: the percentage of store listing visitors who clicked Install, Open or Pre-register. It replaces the old conversion rate. Store listing acquisitions are still in Statistics and in exports.

The traffic sources need care too. In these reports, Google Play search counts visitors who searched for your app's name or a closely associated brand. A search for a kind of app, such as "racing game", or a tap on an autocomplete suggestion, counts under Google Play explore, together with browsing. So generic search on Play has no column of its own: it sits inside Google Play explore.

Play does name search terms: the Search term dimension shows the term a visitor searched for before opening your listing. Google's export documentation says it is only available for the Google Play search source, and small terms are grouped as "Other". Check which source a term sits under before you read it as generic search.

NoteComparing the two stores? Play's click-through rate counts button clicks among store listing visitors. The App Store's conversion rate divides downloads by unique device impressions. They measure different steps, so keep them in separate columns. The reporting guide lays both stores out side by side.

Ratings and reviews on Play#

The rating people see on Google Play is weighted towards more recent ratings, so a fixed problem shows in it sooner than it would in a lifetime average. To ask for a rating inside the app, use Google's In-App Review API. Google applies a time-bound quota and does not publish its value, so a request may show no dialog. Build the flow so nothing breaks when it doesn't.

On the App Store, the system shows the rating request at most three times in 365 days to a person who has not rated the app on that device. You can also reset the summary rating when you release a new version, which Apple recommends doing sparingly. The ratings page covers when to ask.

Shipping a change#

On Google Play you publish listing changes from Play Console. Google says certain apps may be subject to extended reviews of up to 7 days, or longer in exceptional cases. On the App Store, the name and subtitle change with a new app version, and Apple says App Review typically handles at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours.

Either way, the date that counts is the day the change appears on the public listing. Check it there and write it down.

A Google Play ASO checklist#

1. Count the title and short description against their limits.
2. Read the title, icon and developer name against the metadata policy: no rank, no price, no promotion, no emoji.
3. Make the first lines of the full description say what the app does, in the words people search for.
4. In Play Console, read store listing visitors and install clicks from Google Play explore and Google Play search, kept apart, and the search terms Play names.
5. Choose one change, or put it to a store listing experiment, and note the day it went live.
6. Read the same number of days before and after, by traffic source. That is a before-and-after read, not a controlled test.