Localizing your app listing into Swahili

Storefronts and localization names read from Apple’s App Store localizations reference; language codes and field limits from Google Play’s translation language list and each store’s field reference. Checked August 29, 2026.

Swahili is a Play-only localization: Google Play lists it, Apple does not offer a Swahili App Store localization, and the East African storefronts default to English (U.K.).

For an Android-first product in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda this is a genuine differentiator, and almost no competing listing has it.

Where a Swahili listing appears

Only on Google Play. Apple’s App Store localization list has no entry for Swahili, so there is no Swahili field in App Store Connect — the storefronts where Swahili is spoken default to another language, usually English (U.K.). On Play the listing is available under sw.

What you translate, and what it costs you

Both stores cap the same fields, and neither cap changes by language — but the amount of meaning you fit inside them does. Apple’s keyword field is the one that surprises people: it is measured in bytes, so Latin at about 1 byte per character leaves roughly 100 characters. Google Play counts characters instead, and says so explicitly: its limits “apply to both full-width and half-width characters”.

The screenshots are part of the localization

Both stores let you upload a separate screenshot set per localization, and in practice the captions are what sells — a translated description under English screenshots converts like an English listing. Design the frames once, then export the same layout per language rather than rebuilding it: that is the difference between localizing into Swahili in an afternoon and not doing it at all.