Promotional text, description and keywords: what each one does

The keyword field is read by App Store search, together with your name, subtitle and primary category. Customers never see it. It holds about 100 characters (how Apple counts it), and you change it with each new version of your app.

Promotional text appears above your description, holds up to 170 characters, and can be changed at any time without submitting a new version. Apple says it doesn’t affect your app’s search ranking, so use it for what’s new or a current offer, not for keywords.

The description holds up to 4,000 characters of plain text and shows on your product page. Apple says it’s also used for web search engine results once your app is released. You can update the description when submitting a new version. Write it for the person reading it: what your app does, for whom, and why it’s worth a try.

Each localization of your listing has its own promotional text, description and keywords. Writing them for each market, rather than copying one language everywhere, is how a listing reads naturally in each country.