App Store app name and subtitle: 30 characters each

On the App Store, the app name is limited to 30 characters and the subtitle to 30 more. Both appear in search results, both are matched by App Store search, and both change only with a new version that goes through App Review. Apple counts characters, not bytes: an accented letter or a Japanese character counts as one. Use the name for your brand and the phrase that best says what your app does, the subtitle for a second phrase with different words, and the keyword field for every other word.

What Apple documents

Apple describes the two fields in App Store Connect Help and in its guide to the product page. The name first:

The localized name of your app as it appears on App Store product pages and when users install your app. The name must be at least two characters and no more than 30 characters. You can edit it until you submit the app to App Review. Later, you can change the name when you create a new version or the status of the app version permits editing this property.

Documented · Apple App information

The same page describes the subtitle as “a summary of your app that appears under your app’s name on your App Store product page”, limited to 30 characters. Put together with Apple’s other pages, the two fields compare like this:

	App name	Subtitle
Length	2 to 30 characters	Up to 30 characters
Required	Yes	No
Localized	Yes, one per localization	Yes, one per localization
Where it shows	Product page, search results, at install	Under the name, “throughout the App Store”
Matched by search	Yes	Yes
When it changes	Freely until the first submission, then with a new version	With a new version
Unique	One app per name in each localization	No rule documented

Apple’s search page lists both among the text it matches: “your app’s title, subtitle, keywords, and primary category”. The title is your app name. Apple does not say how much each field weighs; the guide to App Store search covers what it does and doesn’t say.

The product page guide gives each field a job. For the name: “Choose a simple, memorable name that is easy to spell and hints at what your app does. Be distinctive. Avoid names that use generic terms or are too similar to existing app names.” For the subtitle:

Your app’s subtitle is intended to summarize your app in a concise phrase. Consider using this, rather than your app’s name, to explain the value of your app in greater detail.

Documented · Apple Creating your product page

Apple adds two lines of advice: avoid generic descriptions such as “world’s best app”, and “highlight features or typical uses of your app that resonate with your audience.”

One more name is easy to confuse with this one: the name under your icon on the Home Screen. It does not come from App Store Connect but from your app’s bundle, where Apple documents CFBundleDisplayName as “the user-visible name for the bundle, used by Siri and visible on the iOS Home screen.” It can be shorter than your App Store name, but guideline 2.3.8 asks that your metadata, “including app name and icons”, stay similar “to avoid creating confusion”.

What counts as a character?

Apple writes “30 characters” and doesn’t define a character. The counter in App Store Connect is the authority: for the keyword field, it counted characters, not bytes, when we checked (see the keyword field guide). For names and subtitles, the listings already on the store show how the limit is applied.

So, in practice:

One letter is one character, accented or not. é counts as one, though it takes two bytes.
One Chinese, Japanese or Korean character is one character. A Japanese subtitle can hold 30 of them.
Spaces count. So does a no-break space, which French typography puts before a colon.
Bytes don’t matter. A tool that counts bytes will cut your name too early in any language with accents, and far too early in Japanese.

What we didn’t see: emoji, flags, or characters built from several code points. Apple doesn’t say how App Store Connect counts them, so check its counter before you rely on one.

The one name over the limit was 50 characters long, on an app whose last version dates from August 2017. A name only changes with a new version, and this app hasn’t had one since. It is an old name, not a loophole: Apple’s guideline 2.3.7 says “App names must be limited to 30 characters.”

Last, Apple doesn’t say how many characters of a name fit in a search result. That depends on the device, its orientation and the text size, and the figures that circulate, such as 22 or 26 characters, don’t come from Apple. Put the words that matter most at the start, so that a cut costs you the least important ones.

What do the top results put in their name and subtitle?

Apple documents the fields; the store shows what the apps that rank actually do with them.

This doesn’t prove that the name made these apps rank: they also have the downloads and ratings that Apple lists among its signals. It does show that, for a general search, an app at the top whose name and subtitle don’t contain the words is the exception: 9 of 96.

The same results say more about how the two fields are used:

Full length. 35 of the 93 different names used all 30 characters, and 55 used 28 or more. 28 of the 91 subtitles used all 30; two apps had no subtitle.
Two parts. 70 of the 93 names joined two parts with a colon or a dash, usually a brand and a phrase.
Repeats. 21 of the 93 repeated a word between the name and the subtitle, including the first result for “budget” in the US. Apple’s advice against repeating words is about the keyword field. It says nothing about a word in both the name and the subtitle; a repeat simply spends characters on a word search already has.
The exceptions. For “routine” in France, 4 of the first 8 had the word in neither field. Their match comes from text you can’t see: a keyword field, another localization the French store searches (Apple lists English (U.K.) there, see the localizations guide), or user behaviour.

Name or subtitle: what goes where?

Apple’s pages and these results point to a simple split.

The name: your brand, and the phrase that best says what the app does. Pick the phrase people type that your app answers best. Apple asks for a name that is distinctive and “hints at what your app does”, not a generic one.
The subtitle: a second phrase, with new words. Apple suggests using it, rather than the name, to explain the app’s value: a feature or a typical use, in words people search.
The keyword field: everything else. Apple asks you not to repeat there the words of your name, subtitle or category. The keyword field guide shows how to fill its 100 characters.

Two things are not documented. Apple doesn’t say whether a word counts more in the name than in the subtitle or the keyword field, and it doesn’t say whether word order matters. Guides that state either as a rule are reporting their own observations. If it matters to you, measure it: move one word, wait for the version to go live, and compare the ranks over several days.

Here is the split applied to a made-up habit app, Daybit, the same app as in the keyword field guide.

Draft	Characters	Problem
Name `Daybit - The Best Habit Tracker App`	35	Over 30; “best” is an unverifiable claim; “app” adds nothing
Name `Daybit`	6	Distinctive, but says nothing about what the app does
Name `Habit Tracker`	13	Generic, which Apple advises against, and one name serves one app per localization
Subtitle `The #1 habit tracker app!`	25	An unverifiable claim, and two words already in the name
Subtitle `Build better habits every day`	29	Readable, but “habits” is the plural of a word in the name

The listing that comes out of it:

Name (21 characters): Daybit: Habit Tracker
Subtitle (30 characters): Daily routine and goal planner

Six different words, none repeated, all describing what the app does, and a brand that is easy to spell. The name leaves 9 characters free. Filling them is a fair choice, as 35 of the 93 top names did: each word you move into the name frees room in the keyword field. Whether that word ranks better in the name, Apple doesn’t say; test it.

When can you change the name and subtitle?

Before your first submission, the name is free to edit. After that, both fields change with a version. Apple’s table of editable properties marks “the properties that can be localized and edited at any time without submitting a new version of your app”; the name and the subtitle are not among them.

In practice, a new name or subtitle means:

A new version in App Store Connect. Apple says that “the metadata from the current version is automatically transferred to the new version”, so you start from your current text.
A new build. Apple’s steps for a new version include “Upload your new build to App Store Connect.”
App Review, which checks the new text with the version.

Apple documents no limit on how often. Each change costs a release and a review, and ranks move a little every day on their own, so judge it on several days of ranks before and after, not on one search. The guide to judging a listing change shows how.

If the name you want is taken, App Store Connect Help says: “You can use an app name for one app per localization.” If one of your own apps uses it, rename that app in an update or remove it. If another developer uses it and you hold the trademark, the same help page links to Apple’s claim form.

Which review rules apply?

Guideline 2.3.7 is the one that names both fields:

Choose a unique app name, assign keywords that accurately describe your app, and don’t try to pack any of your metadata with trademarked terms, popular app names, pricing information, or other irrelevant phrases just to game the system. App names must be limited to 30 characters. Metadata such as app names, subtitles, screenshots, and previews should not include prices, terms, or descriptions that are not specific to the metadata type. App subtitles are a great way to provide additional context for your app; they must follow our standard metadata rules and should not include inappropriate content, reference other apps, or make unverifiable product claims.

Documented · Apple App Review Guidelines

Other guidelines add to it:

4.1 (c): “You cannot use another developer’s icon, brand, or product name in your app’s icon or name, without approval from the developer.”
2.3.8: terms like “For Kids” and “For Children” are reserved for the Kids category.
2.3.10: no names of other mobile platforms or app marketplaces in your metadata, unless the app has approved functionality tied to them.

Turned into a checklist for the two fields: no competitor’s name or brand, no price, no “best” or “#1”, no mention of another app, nothing that only a children’s app may say, and nothing about another platform.

In the results above, 3 of the 93 listings, all in France, carried a “number one” or “best” claim in their name or subtitle, and all three were live. Review doesn’t catch everything. That is no reason to copy them: the rule is written, and a rejection costs you a review cycle.

Is it the same on Google Play?

Partly. Google’s title has the same length: “Your app title must be 30 characters or less”, says Google’s metadata policy, which also forbids emoji in the title. Google Play has no subtitle field, and its search works differently; the Google Play guide covers it.

Common mistakes

Counting bytes instead of characters. You lose characters in every language with accents, and most of a Japanese or Chinese name.
Repeating the name in the subtitle. Not forbidden, but every repeated word is one you could have added.
A claim in the subtitle. “Best”, “#1” and the like are unverifiable claims under 2.3.7.
Changing the name, subtitle and keywords in the same version. If ranks move, you won’t know which change did it.
Judging on one day. Measure before and after, over several days.

Sources

Apple, App Store Connect Help, App information: the name and subtitle, their lengths, when the name can change.
Apple, App Store Connect Help, Required, localizable, and editable properties: name and subtitle localized, not editable without a new version, subtitle optional.
Apple, App Store Connect Help, Create a new version: metadata carried over, a new build.
Apple, App Store Connect Help, Add a new app: one app per name in each localization, trademark claims.
Apple, Creating your product page: what the name and the subtitle are for.
Apple, App Store search: the name and subtitle among the text matched, and in search results.
Apple, App Review Guidelines: 2.3.7, 2.3.8, 2.3.10 and 4.1.
Apple, CFBundleDisplayName: the name on the Home Screen.
Google, Play Console Help, Metadata: the 30-character title, no emoji.
Measurements: the App Store app’s iPhone search, by ASO Gauge’s method, on 26 October 2026. Twelve general searches, one per keyword, in the United States and France between 00:08 and 00:10 Paris time, first 8 results each; and the names in the first results of 33 searches in six storefronts between 00:08 and 00:13. One public App Store lookup for an app’s version dates.

Checked on 26 October 2026.