I got an iPod touch device. I set my device's language to Hebrew, and it changed most of the interface to Hebrew. When I went to the App Store, the UI language was English. When I tried to search for the Wikipedia app using its Hebrew name "ויקיפדיה", the App Store couldn't find any results.
The app description is also English-only.
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | BUG REPORT | None | T71218 The iOS app cannot be found by its localized name in the App Store | ||
| Duplicate | None | T71330 Put iOS store descriptions into localization files for TranslateWiki |
... Searching in Russian "Википедия" finds to other apps: one app for other encyclopedia and one app that generates crosswords from Wikipedia words.
Hmm, we might have to localize the actual app store entries for that to work... I think the display name of the app in the InfoPlist.strings only gets used on the home screen & app switcher etc, the name in the store is distinct and sits in the iTunes Connect stuff.
I'm not sure why was it marked as resolved. Did anyone fix it in the App Store?
In the last few days I tried searching for "ויקיפדיה" in the App Store on two iPhones, and found nothing.
The App Store search engine takes into account only the information listed on the App Store Connect—it ignores the metadata from the app (Info.plist, etc.). However, when the iTunes Store account country and device language don’t match, the search is done in both variants, with device language taking precedence.
Here’s a few examples:
To sum up, the search is performed on up to two App Store localizations (one for the device language, another for the iTunes Store country). Searching for a term that doesn’t appear in either won’t get the result.
To improve discoverability, I’d recommend adding a couple high-profile terms (first of all, “Wikipedia” in English) to keywords in all App Store localizations.