Does localising an app listing increase downloads?

In non-English markets, reliably. Both stores index your localised text for search in that territory, so a translated listing is discoverable by queries an English one never matches — and shoppers convert better on a listing in their own language.

Do I have to localise the app itself to localise the listing?

No, and the stores allow it — but be honest in the description if the app interface is English only. A localised listing that leads to an untranslated app earns one-star reviews, which costs more than the extra installs are worth.

Which languages should I start with?

Follow your existing installs before following market-size lists. If you have no data, the usual first tranche for a consumer app is Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), German, French, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Russian and Turkish.

Do I need different screenshots for every language?

You need the caption text translated, not the design redone. Keep the layout, device frames and backgrounds identical and swap only the caption layer — that turns twelve languages into one design plus twelve strings.

How to Localise Your App Store Listing (10 Languages)

Localisation is usually the highest-return work left on a finished listing, and the most commonly skipped — because done by hand it means a spreadsheet of strings and a redesign per language. It does not have to.

Apple’s keyword field is 100 bytes, not 100 characters — and a Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi or Thai character costs three of them, so the same field holds about 33 characters in those languages. Google Play counts characters instead, and says so: its limits “apply to both full-width and half-width characters”. Per-language detail, including which storefronts each localisation reaches, is in our localisation reference.

What localising actually buys you

Both stores let you publish a different listing per territory, and both index that localised text for search in that market. An English-only listing simply does not appear for a query typed in Japanese. Two consequences follow:

Discovery. You start matching queries you previously could not match at all.
Conversion. Of the people who do find you, more install, because the listing reads as though the app was made for them.

Apple lets you localise per App Store territory and Google per Play language. The two do not map one-to-one — Apple treats Latin American Spanish and Spain Spanish as different storefronts, and Play treats them as different languages. Decide once whether you are producing one Spanish or two.

Which languages, in what order

Ignore “largest markets” lists until you have your own data. Open your analytics, sort installs by country, and translate the languages you already have users in — those are markets where the product has proven it resonates without any help from the listing.

With no data yet, a conventional first tranche for a consumer app:

Tier	Languages	Why
Start here	Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), German, French	Large install bases, low translation cost, Latin script so layouts hold
High value	Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese	High spend per user; needs a native check, as machine output reads stiff
Round it out	Italian, Russian, Turkish, Hindi	Large volumes, competitive listings still often English-only

Ten languages is a sensible ceiling for a first pass — each one is a listing you now have to maintain.

What to translate, in order of value

1. Screenshot captions. First thing seen, before anyone reads a word of description. Highest impact, most often skipped.
2. Title and subtitle / short description. Indexed, and visible in search results.
3. Keyword field (Apple). Do not translate it literally — research what people actually type in that language. A literal translation of an English keyword is often not the term used.
4. Full description. Matters for Play search, which indexes it; matters for conversion on both.
5. The app itself. A separate project — but do not let a localised listing promise an interface you have not translated.

Screenshots without a redesign per language

This is the step that stops most teams, and the fix is structural rather than clever: keep the caption text on its own layer, and keep everything else — layout, device frames, backgrounds, colours — identical across locales. Adding a language then costs a translation, not a design pass.

Two things to check on every locale before you upload:

Overflow. German and Finnish routinely run 30% longer than English. Design the English caption with slack, or let the caption box shrink text to fit.
Direction. Arabic and Hebrew need the layout mirrored, not just the text replaced.

Each locale must be a complete set at the correct size — you cannot ship four screenshots in one language and two in another. The sizes are in the App Store sizes guide, and the rejection rules in why screenshots get rejected.

Translate a listing and its screenshots

Design once with device frames and export every required App Store & Google Play size in one ZIP — watermark-free on the free plan.

Start free — no card

Machine translation, then a human on two fields

Machine translation is good enough to get a complete listing live in every target language in an afternoon, and a live localised listing beats a perfect one you never ship. But it does get things wrong in ways that matter commercially — idioms land oddly, and product category names are frequently not the literal translation.

The pragmatic compromise: machine-translate everything, then have a native speaker read only the title and subtitle. Those two fields are 60 characters, they are what gets indexed, and they are what people read. A description that is 90% natural costs you very little; a title that reads wrong costs you the install.

Remember you now maintain ten listings

Every future copy change is ten changes. Keep the source of truth in one place, regenerate translations from it rather than editing each locale by hand, and resist localising into languages you have no intention of supporting — a market you can neither support nor read reviews in is not a market you have entered, it is one you have annoyed.

Localising your listing into 10 languages