ASO changelog: what Apple and Google changed (2025-2026)

The log, newest first#

Each row gives the announcement date (or the month, if that is all the page gives), the store, the change and what it means for a listing or a report, with a link to the page that states it.

NoteA row records what a store announced, not what happened to any app's installs. If your numbers moved near one of these dates, read them by source before you decide why.

App Store: your own visuals in search results#

Since October 5, 2026, an iPhone or iPad app's listing can carry creative assets: images or videos you design, not screenshots of the app. Apple makes them available for apps running iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 or later, so people on older versions still see your screenshots. They go in two new places. The product page header sits at the top of the page. The search result asset is shown in search results instead of the default screenshots. Without one, Apple shows your In-App Events, app previews and screenshots.

Apple's specifications ask for a 21:9 header image (3840 x 1646 pixels) and a 3:2 search result image (1920 x 1280 to 3840 x 2560 pixels). Both placements also take a 16:9 image at 5244 x 2950 pixels, .png only, and a universal creative asset can serve both. Videos use the 21:9 and 3:2 sizes at 30 or 60 fps, run 5 to 30 seconds and loop. In search results they play muted and can't currently be unmuted, so the first frames have to work without sound.

You upload assets to the new Asset Library and submit them for review, with an app version or on their own once the app has an approved version. Once approved, an asset can go live on the header or in search results without a new submission, so a seasonal swap no longer waits for an app update. A preview tool in App Store Connect shows the page and the search result before you submit.

1. Treat the search result asset as your new first screenshot. Decide the one thing it must say at a glance: what the app does, and for whom.
2. Keep any text on it short and checkable. An unverifiable claim, a specific price or a discount breaks guideline 2.3.14, and Apple's best practices ask you to leave out Apple recognitions such as Editor's Choice and App of the Day. Assets you reuse in Apple Ads face stricter rules: Apple Ads bars pricing, offers, app rankings, award claims and promoting in-app purchases.
3. Pair assets with custom product pages. In its WWDC26 session, Apple says a custom product page can show a tailored asset for different search keywords.
4. Test before you commit. Apple's What's New page says creative assets can be tested with product page optimization, which shows each treatment to randomly selected people. The store test calculator shows how long a test needs.
5. Write down the day an asset goes live, then read App Store search impressions and conversion by source over matching weeks. Only people on iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 or later see the asset, so the read mixes people who saw it with people who didn't. That is a before-and-after read, not a controlled test.

What Apple does not say: how often the search result asset is shown in place of screenshots, or whether it plays any part in ranking. The screenshots guide covers the screenshots that stay on the page.

App Store: custom product pages in search#

Since October 29, 2025, an app can publish up to 70 custom product pages, double the earlier limit, and assign each one keywords.

The fine print is in App Store Connect Help. The keywords must come from your latest approved app version, and a page is searchable only once it is approved and set to visible. Apple's tip is to give each page a unique set of keywords, so the right page appears. App Analytics shows impressions, downloads and conversion rate per page once the page has five first-time downloads.

So the keyword field of your latest approved version sets which words a custom product page can take, and the page decides what a searcher lands on. Plan them together: put a theme's words in the keyword field with your next version, then give that theme its own page, with its own screenshots and, since October 2026, its own search result asset (setup guide).

Google Play: reports count clicks now#

The same Play Console Help page dates the change to June 2026 in another paragraph, so this log calls it mid-2026. Play Console's What's new files it under July 2026 and adds two details. Visits may read lower from July 10, 2026, because Google changed how it measures visitors. Indirect clicks now count too: when a person interacts with several pieces of content before clicking, each one gets a click.

1. Mark July 10, 2026 on every Play chart, and compare visitors only across periods on the same side of it.
2. Compare click-through rate only with click-through rate. It replaces the old conversion rate, so don't join the two into one line.
3. If you need the old metric, store listing acquisitions are still on the Statistics page.
4. Read the traffic sources with their definitions. In these reports, Google Play search counts searches for your app's name or a closely associated brand; generic searches count under Google Play explore. The Google Play ASO guide and the reporting guide explain both.

Google Play: AI answers read your listing#

Google's I/O 2026 post of May 19, 2026 announced Ask Play, an AI overlay in search that answers follow-up questions, and said app discovery in the Gemini app would arrive in the coming weeks. On October 13, 2026 Google said Ask Play can compare apps side by side in search results, summarizing your store listing and user reviews. Gemini matches a person's described need to your store listing and key features.

So the full description now has a second reader. If the app works offline, has a free tier or syncs across devices, say so in plain words in the listing. Subscription models and offline capabilities are Google's own examples of what people compare.

Google's checklist in the October post: keep descriptions, tags and events fresh, upload high-resolution images and video previews, validate deep links, and integrate Engage SDK. Neither post names a report for visitors who arrive through Ask Play or Gemini.

App Store: other developers' names#

Guideline 4.1(c), added on November 13, 2025, says you cannot use another developer's icon, brand or product name in your app's icon or name without their approval. Guideline 2.3.7 in the App Review Guidelines already told developers not to pack any metadata with trademarked terms or popular app names. Keep rival names out of the app name and the rest of the listing.

How this log is kept#

A row is added when Apple or Google announces a change to what a listing shows, how search treats it, or what store reports count. The date is the announcement date; where App Store Connect's release notes give another day, or two official pages disagree, the row says so. A change reported only by third parties stays out until an official page confirms it.

Changes that official pages state without a date stay out of the log and are listed here:

• Play's help now says store listing experiments test up to 2 variants against your current listing, and that global experiments have been renamed default graphics experiments, with the same functionality. The page gives no date or earlier limit. See the store listing tests guide.
• Apple's What's New page says review summaries now appear in 8 more storefronts besides the United States, in English: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
• Apple's help now says app tags can appear on your product page as well as in search results. It warns that deselecting all tags may affect your discoverability.
• Apple's documentation marks SKStoreReviewController deprecated as of iOS 18.0 and points to RequestReviewAction. It gives an OS version, not a date. That predates this log: App Store Connect has accepted apps built with the iOS 18 SDK since September 17, 2024.

Where RocketASO fits#

RocketASO reads your App Store and Google Play reports, names the fix estimated to be worth most this week, and compares installs before and after it. It starts you with a draft of the copy or the keyword field, and nothing reaches the store until you approve it. Each read, at 7 and 14 days, is a before-and-after read, not a controlled test. To start with a public listing, run the free ASO audit, with no sign-up.