Arabic App Store and Google Play listings: localising the name, subtitle and keywords for UAE storefronts

Which language a UAE shopper sees on each store

Apple publishes a table of storefronts and their languages. For the United Arab Emirates it lists English (U.K.) as the default language and Arabic as the additional supported language. Arabic is never a storefront's default anywhere in Apple's table; it is always the second language.

Which of your localizations a customer actually sees depends on the App Store language for their location, their device settings, the languages you have added and your primary language. Apple says that if no localization matches, the next most relevant one is used. So an app with only an English (U.S.) listing still shows in the UAE, in English, and an Arabic-reading customer never sees a word of Arabic.

Google Play works on the user's language preference. If it matches a translation you added, they see that translation. If it does not, Google may offer an automated translation, with a notice and a link back to your default language. Arabic machine text that nobody checked is not something I would let represent a business.

The metadata you localise, field by field

This post is about store metadata, the text and images on the listing. Translating the app itself and mirroring the layout is a separate job, covered in my post on bilingual RTL apps. Here is what each store lets you set per language.

App Store: two localizations and two keyword lists

When the UAE is the main market, I add Arabic and English (U.K.) as localizations, even if the primary language is English (U.S.). That way the storefront's default language has text you wrote for it, rather than whatever Apple picks as the next most relevant.

Each localization gets its own keyword list. Apple does not publish how keywords from two localizations combine in one storefront, so I do not plan around a guess. I write each list to work on its own: the English (U.K.) list in the words a UAE resident types in English, the Arabic list in the words they type in Arabic. Apple says not to repeat the app name or company name, since the store already searches those, and bans other apps' and companies' names.

Bytes are the trap. Apple caps keywords at 100 bytes, not 100 letters. In UTF-8, each English letter and comma takes one byte, while characters from U+0080 to U+07FF take two. The main Arabic block, U+0600 to U+06FF, sits inside that range. A worked example: ten English keywords averaging six letters, plus nine commas, use 69 bytes. The same ten ideas in Arabic, at five letters each, are 50 letters at two bytes each, so 100 bytes, plus nine commas makes 109. It does not fit. Plan on roughly half as many Arabic letters as English ones, and count bytes before you save.

Choose the Arabic name with care. Apple lets you edit the name freely only until the first submission; after that it changes with a new version or when the version status allows. The subtitle, Apple suggests, is updated when you submit a new version.

Google Play: translations first, a UAE custom listing when the message differs

Start with translations. Under Store listing, Manage translations, you add Arabic and enter the title, short description and full description. Play Console offers free machine translation into Arabic, and Google states these are not reviewed or approved by humans. Use it as a draft for a fluent writer, at most.

A custom store listing is a different tool. You can create up to 50, target them by country, and each country can belong to only one. For each one you can change the name, icon, descriptions and graphics. Contact details, privacy policy and category stay shared. Custom listings are not translated automatically, so you pick a default language and add Arabic as a translation inside it.

My decision rule: if your Arabic and English text says the same thing in every country, translations are enough. If the UAE listing must say something the rest of the world should not see, such as service areas in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for an app also sold in the UK, create a UAE custom listing and translate that. One more reason to keep it simple: every custom listing is another set of Arabic text to maintain.

Checklist before you open either console

Fill this in a shared document first, with the Arabic written or reviewed by a fluent speaker. A blank line means the listing is not ready.

• Primary App Store language chosen, and English (U.K.) added if the UAE is the main market: done / not done
• Arabic app name, 30 characters or fewer, agreed with the brand owner: ______
• Arabic subtitle, 30 characters or fewer, saying what the app does: ______
• Arabic keyword list, counted in bytes (100 max), no app or company names: ______
• English (U.K.) keyword list, written separately from the Arabic one: ______
• Arabic description and Google full description, under 4,000 characters each: done / not done
• Google Arabic title (30) and short description (80): ______
• Arabic screenshots taken from the app running in Arabic, for both stores: done / not done
• UAE custom store listing on Google Play needed? If yes, its default language and Arabic translation: ______
• Privacy policy URL that works for Arabic readers: ______

The Arabic listing work in each package

Every package includes help publishing to the stores: Launch ($999, up to 10 screens), Growth ($1,699, up to 25) and Scale ($2,500, up to 50). For a UAE app I set up the Arabic and English localizations, count the keyword bytes, and capture screenshots from the Arabic build when the app supports Arabic. You supply or approve the Arabic copy. Paid translation, like any third-party fee, is not included in the package price.

Search ranking and approval are decided by Apple and Google, and I cannot guarantee either. While the launch offer runs, if the app is rejected I fix and resubmit at no cost.