How to translate App Store metadata

Translating App Store metadata is how your listing keeps up when you ship new features across many storefronts. This guide focuses on the translation pass itself: field order, skip words, verification, and how AI localization in Helm fits a careful human workflow.

Translate after the story is stable

Do not translate marketing copy that is still changing daily. Lock the base locale for the release (or for a metadata-only update), then fan out. Otherwise you pay twice for every edit.

If you are still deciding structure and keywords, start with localize your App Store listing.

Suggested field order

1. Subtitle
2. Keywords
3. Description
4. What’s New
5. Promotional text
6. In-app event text when an event is in flight
7. IAP display names and descriptions when those products ship with the release

Screenshots with baked-in captions are a separate art pipeline. Translate those assets with enough lead time for design.

Build a skip list

Brand names, product names, and coined features should often stay in the original form. Maintain a skip list so assisted translation does not “helpfully” rewrite them into something unrecognizable.

Examples: app name, flagship feature trademarks, hardware accessory names, deep link path segments that must stay exact in support docs.

Human vs assisted translation

Use human review for regulated claims, medical or financial wording, humor that depends on culture, and anything that could mislead about pricing or data use.

Assisted translation works well for straightforward feature descriptions, What’s New bullets, and filling empty locales when you still spot-check the output.

Helm’s Pro translation tools can translate across locales, limit work to empty fields, improve tone, and verify on-device that the saved language matches what you asked for. Bring your own OpenAI key if you prefer; see AI help.

A concrete Helm workflow

1. Open the app and locale set for the release.
2. Confirm the base language text is final.
3. Run translation for empty fields only when you are backfilling.
4. Or translate specific fields you just changed for this version.
5. Skim each high-traffic locale for truncation, odd tone, and keyword comma rules.
6. Save, then preview the product page and search presentation in store listing.

For bulk pipelines, helm-asc can download and upload localizations while credentials stay with the Mac app via App Group.

Keywords need special care

App Store keywords are comma-separated and invisible on the page. Translating them word-for-word from English often wastes characters. Prefer research per storefront: how real users search, which competitors rank, which synonyms fit your category.

After any automated pass on keywords, have a native speaker or fluent teammate tighten the list.

Quality checklist per locale

• No untranslated placeholders left behind
• Character limits respected (especially subtitle and keywords)
• Brand terms match the skip list
• What’s New matches the binary
• No contradictory pricing or “free” claims
• Support sites linked from the listing still speak that language or fail gracefully

Cadence

• Every release: What’s New in all maintained locales
• Every major feature: description and screenshots for tier-one markets
• Quarterly: keyword refresh in the top storefronts
• When expanding: full pass for the new locale before you spend on acquisition

Related reading

• AI localization in Helm
• Localize your App Store listing
• Localization glossary
• Helm Pro pricing
• Set up the Helm CLI