App Store Subtitle vs Promotional Text: What Each Field Is For

The App Store subtitle is a 30-character line under your app name that Apple indexes for search, and you can only change it when you submit a new app version. Promotional text is a 170-character message at the top of your description that Apple doesn’t use for search, and you can change it any time without a new version. Use the subtitle for a stable, keyword-bearing summary of what the app does; use promotional text for what’s new or timely.

The description is the third field people mix up with these two. It holds up to 4,000 characters, Apple doesn’t list it among its search inputs, and most visitors never expand it.

App Store subtitle vs promotional text vs description at a glance

The limits come from Apple’s product page guidance and the App Store Connect Help reference. The search behaviour comes from Apple’s App Store search page, which describes text relevance as "matches for your app’s title, subtitle, keywords, and primary category".

What is the App Store subtitle?

The App Store subtitle is a short, localizable line of up to 30 characters that sits directly under your app name throughout the App Store, including search results and your product page. It’s one of the four text inputs Apple names for search relevance.

That makes the subtitle the hardest-working 30 characters you have. It has two jobs at once: tell a person scrolling search results what the app is for, and carry one or two keywords you couldn’t fit in the name.

How to write an App Store subtitle

• Describe the outcome or the category in plain words. Someone who has never heard of your app should know what it does from name plus subtitle.
• Use keywords you didn’t put in the name. Words in the name and subtitle are both indexed, so repeating a word wastes space. The same applies to your keyword field; our guide to the App Store keyword field explains how the three fit together.
• Avoid claims you can’t back up. Apple’s App Review Guideline 2.3.7 says subtitles shouldn’t reference other apps or make unverifiable product claims. "The best budget app" is a rejection risk; "Budget planner & bill tracker" isn’t.
• Don’t mention price. The same guideline says metadata like names and subtitles shouldn’t include prices.

The last row is the one people miss. If your app is called "Pennywise: Budget Planner", a subtitle that repeats "budget planner" spends 15 characters on words that are already indexed. "Split bills & pay off debt" adds three new search terms.

Why changing the subtitle takes a release

The subtitle is part of your app’s version metadata, so Apple’s guidance is that you update it when you submit a new version. In practice, batch subtitle changes with a regular release and treat each one as an experiment: note what changed, then watch App Store Search impressions in App Analytics for the following weeks.

What is App Store promotional text?

App Store promotional text is an optional, localizable field of up to 170 characters that appears at the top of the description on your product page. Its defining feature is that you can update it at any time without submitting a new version of your app. Apple is explicit that it "doesn’t affect your app’s search ranking so it should not be used to display keywords."

Because it’s the only text above the description, it’s the first prose a visitor reads after the screenshots. It’s also the only listing copy you can change on a Tuesday afternoon because something happened on Tuesday morning.

What to put in promotional text

• A new feature or content drop: "New this week: 7-day Sleep Reset course, free for everyone. Plus 12 new rain and ocean soundscapes for winter nights." (117 characters)
• A seasonal angle: "Tax season mode: tag deductible expenses as you go and export a clean report in April." (86 characters)
• A launch announcement: "Shared budgets are here: plan with a partner, split bills automatically and see who owes what at a glance. Free in the latest update." (133 characters)
• Accolades. Apple’s product page guidance suggests putting awards and press at the end of the description or in promotional text, rather than in the opening lines.

What not to put there: a list of keywords (it won’t help search and reads badly), or a time-limited offer you’ll forget to remove. Put a calendar reminder next to anything with a date in it.

Where the description fits

The description is a required, localizable plain-text field of up to 4,000 characters; App Store Connect Help notes that HTML isn’t supported. Apple’s product page guidance says the first sentence matters most, because it’s the only part visible before someone taps "more", and it advises against adding unnecessary keywords.

Since Apple doesn’t list the description as a search input, write it for the reader who has already decided to look closer: what the app does, the main features as a short list, what’s included for free versus paid, and how to get help. App Store Connect Help also notes the description appears in web search results once the app is released, so a clear first paragraph helps people who find your App Store page through Google too.

What’s visible where

It helps to picture the screens where each field actually appears:

• Search results: icon, name, subtitle, rating and up to three screenshots or app previews. No promotional text, no description. This is where the subtitle and the first screenshots do the selling; our post on what to put on your first App Store screenshot goes into that frame.
• Product page, above the fold: name, subtitle, ratings, then screenshots or preview.
• Product page, scrolled: promotional text followed by the description, truncated with a "more" link.

The order explains the priorities. Most people decide from the subtitle and screenshots, so those carry the message. Promotional text catches the people who scroll, and the description serves the few who read everything. If the screenshot captions, subtitle and promotional text say three unrelated things, the listing feels unfocused; ideally they make the same promise at three lengths. Our screenshot copywriting guide covers the caption side, and does screenshot text affect search ranking covers the open question of whether Apple reads caption text.

What about Google Play?

Google Play has neither a subtitle nor a promotional text field. Its listing has a title (up to 30 characters), a short description (up to 80 characters) and a full description (up to 4,000 characters), per Google’s store listing best practices. There’s no hidden keyword field, and Google says it uses metadata including the title and description to match searches, so on Play the descriptions do carry keywords and should be written with that in mind, naturally rather than as lists. Store listing text in Play Console is edited separately from your app releases.

If you publish to both stores, keep the message aligned but write each field for its own limit. The Play short description has more room than the App Store subtitle, and the Play full description is worth more care than its App Store twin because Google reads it for search.

The short version

• Subtitle: 30 characters, indexed, changes with a new version. Plain description of what the app does, using keywords not in the name.
• Promotional text: 170 characters, not indexed, change it any time. What’s new, seasonal or worth announcing.
• Description: 4,000 characters, not on Apple’s list of search inputs. Lead with one clear sentence, then features, for people who read.
• Make all three, plus your screenshot captions, tell the same story. If you’re about to ship, our post on why Apple rejects screenshots covers the metadata rules worth checking before you submit.

Launch Shots is one way to keep these fields and the screenshots that sit next to them in the same place, but a spreadsheet with a character-count column does the job too.