Quick answer
Localizing an app store listing means adapting the whole listing per market — a translated title and description, localized keywords, and screenshots with captions in the local language — not just a machine-translated blurb. Start with your two or three biggest non-English markets, localize the screenshots and captions first because they move conversion more than body text, then expand. Both stores let you add localizations without resubmitting your app binary.
Why is localizing more than translating your description?
The word 'localization' gets treated as a fancy synonym for translation, and that's where most listings go wrong. Translating your description swaps the words. Localizing the listing adapts everything a user in that market sees and searches — the title, the keyword field, the screenshots, the captions on those screenshots, even which feature you lead with.
Here's why the distinction pays off. Someone browsing the store in Japan or Brazil makes the install decision from the screenshots and the first line of text, and they make it in their own language. If your visuals are still in English, a translated description underneath doesn't rescue the impression — you've localized the part people read least and skipped the part they actually look at.
I learned this after 'translating' a listing and watching the conversion barely move in the new market. The description was fine. The screenshots still shouted in English, and the captions — the short lines that sell each screen — were untouched. Once I redid those in the local language, the numbers moved. So treat localization as adapting the whole shopfront, not find-and-replacing the fine print.
Here's why the distinction pays off. Someone browsing the store in Japan or Brazil makes the install decision from the screenshots and the first line of text, and they make it in their own language. If your visuals are still in English, a translated description underneath doesn't rescue the impression — you've localized the part people read least and skipped the part they actually look at.
I learned this after 'translating' a listing and watching the conversion barely move in the new market. The description was fine. The screenshots still shouted in English, and the captions — the short lines that sell each screen — were untouched. Once I redid those in the local language, the numbers moved. So treat localization as adapting the whole shopfront, not find-and-replacing the fine print.
Which markets should you localize first?
Localizing everywhere at once is a trap — you'll spread yourself thin and maintain a dozen half-baked listings. Pick your first markets with data, not vibes. Open your store analytics and look at where installs and impressions already come from despite an English-only listing. Those are markets pulling you in without any help, and they're the ones that reward localization fastest.
For most indie apps that shortlist is short: a couple of large non-English markets where you're already getting traction. Common early picks are Japanese, German, Spanish, French, or Brazilian Portuguese, but yours depend on your app and audience, so let your own numbers decide.
Start with two or three, do them properly, and measure before adding more. I'd rather have three fully localized listings — visuals, captions, keywords, and description all in-language — than ten that only translated the description. Once the first batch shows a conversion lift, you've got both the template and the confidence to expand. Doing it in waves also keeps the screenshot work manageable, which matters because that's the piece that takes real effort.
One market you can usually leave alone is English itself. Both stores treat your default listing as the fallback, so every English-speaking region already sees your primary listing without any extra work. That frees your effort for the languages that genuinely aren't covered yet. The same goes for regions where English is the common app-browsing language — localizing there is optional, and I'd rather spend those hours on a market where the local language is the real barrier to installing. Let the gap in coverage, not a checklist of countries, decide where the work goes next.
For most indie apps that shortlist is short: a couple of large non-English markets where you're already getting traction. Common early picks are Japanese, German, Spanish, French, or Brazilian Portuguese, but yours depend on your app and audience, so let your own numbers decide.
Start with two or three, do them properly, and measure before adding more. I'd rather have three fully localized listings — visuals, captions, keywords, and description all in-language — than ten that only translated the description. Once the first batch shows a conversion lift, you've got both the template and the confidence to expand. Doing it in waves also keeps the screenshot work manageable, which matters because that's the piece that takes real effort.
One market you can usually leave alone is English itself. Both stores treat your default listing as the fallback, so every English-speaking region already sees your primary listing without any extra work. That frees your effort for the languages that genuinely aren't covered yet. The same goes for regions where English is the common app-browsing language — localizing there is optional, and I'd rather spend those hours on a market where the local language is the real barrier to installing. Let the gap in coverage, not a checklist of countries, decide where the work goes next.
How do localized screenshots and captions change per market?
Screenshots are the heavy lifter, and they change more than you'd think between markets. The obvious part is the caption text — those punchy lines over each screen have to be written in the local language, not machine-translated, because idioms and length both break in translation. A caption that fits neatly in English can overflow the frame once it's in German, where words run long.
The less obvious part is what you choose to show. The feature that sells in one market isn't always the hook in another, so the order of your screens — and which one goes first — sometimes needs reshuffling per region. Screenshot dimensions stay the same across languages, so you're not re-sizing, just re-skinning the same canvas with new text and sometimes a new order.
That's a lot of near-identical variants, which is exactly the kind of repetitive work a mockup tool exists to kill. I build one master layout in PlayMockUp's studio, then swap the caption text per language and re-export, wrapping each in the right device from the frame library so every market's set looks consistent. It turns a full day of fiddly redesign into an afternoon of text edits.
The less obvious part is what you choose to show. The feature that sells in one market isn't always the hook in another, so the order of your screens — and which one goes first — sometimes needs reshuffling per region. Screenshot dimensions stay the same across languages, so you're not re-sizing, just re-skinning the same canvas with new text and sometimes a new order.
That's a lot of near-identical variants, which is exactly the kind of repetitive work a mockup tool exists to kill. I build one master layout in PlayMockUp's studio, then swap the caption text per language and re-export, wrapping each in the right device from the frame library so every market's set looks consistent. It turns a full day of fiddly redesign into an afternoon of text edits.
How do you add localizations in App Store Connect and Play Console?
Both stores are built for this, and neither makes you resubmit your app to do it. In App Store Connect, you add a language under your app's store listing and get a fresh set of metadata fields — name, subtitle, keywords, description, and screenshots — for that language. You fill in what you've localized, and Apple shows it to users whose device is set to that language. Apple's localization overview walks through how it decides which listing a user sees.
Google Play works the same way through 'Manage translations' in your store listing, where you add a language and get its own title, short and full description, graphics, and screenshots. You can even start from Google's machine translation and then fix it, which is a fine draft but a terrible final — always have the captions and title checked by someone fluent.
The practical tip: keep a simple spreadsheet mapping each field to each language so you're not hunting through console screens. It also makes updating everything far less painful when your app changes and the copy needs a refresh across markets.
Google Play works the same way through 'Manage translations' in your store listing, where you add a language and get its own title, short and full description, graphics, and screenshots. You can even start from Google's machine translation and then fix it, which is a fine draft but a terrible final — always have the captions and title checked by someone fluent.
The practical tip: keep a simple spreadsheet mapping each field to each language so you're not hunting through console screens. It also makes updating everything far less painful when your app changes and the copy needs a refresh across markets.
What gets lost when you rely on machine translation?
Machine translation has gotten good, but 'good enough for a chat' and 'good enough for a store listing' are different bars. The first thing that breaks is length. Translated text expands or contracts — German and Finnish run long, some languages run short — and a caption that fit your screenshot in English now overflows or floats in empty space. That's a visual problem no translator flags for you.
The second thing is tone and idiom. App marketing leans on short, punchy phrasing, and that's exactly what machines translate most literally and most awkwardly. A clever English tagline often lands as nonsense or, worse, as something unintentionally odd in the target language. Keyword choice suffers too — the literal translation of your keyword isn't always the word locals actually search.
So use machine translation as a first draft and a time-saver, never as the shipped version. Get a fluent human to pass over the title, the captions, and the keywords at minimum — those three carry most of your conversion and your discoverability. If budget is tight, prioritize the visible stuff over the long description, since almost nobody reads to the bottom of a store listing anyway.
The second thing is tone and idiom. App marketing leans on short, punchy phrasing, and that's exactly what machines translate most literally and most awkwardly. A clever English tagline often lands as nonsense or, worse, as something unintentionally odd in the target language. Keyword choice suffers too — the literal translation of your keyword isn't always the word locals actually search.
So use machine translation as a first draft and a time-saver, never as the shipped version. Get a fluent human to pass over the title, the captions, and the keywords at minimum — those three carry most of your conversion and your discoverability. If budget is tight, prioritize the visible stuff over the long description, since almost nobody reads to the bottom of a store listing anyway.
How do you keep localized screenshots in sync when the app changes?
This is the part people forget until it bites them. You ship a redesign, update your English screenshots, and three months later realize your Japanese and German listings still show the old UI. Out-of-date localized screenshots are worse than none — they promise a version of the app that no longer exists.
The fix is treating localization as a repeatable workflow, not a one-time project. Keep your master screenshot layouts saved and organized so a UI change means updating the base design once, then re-exporting each language's captions on top. When your source layouts live in one place, syncing a change across ten markets is a text pass, not ten redesigns from scratch.
I keep every language's set built from the same master files in the studio precisely so updates don't spiral. When the app changes, I edit the master, refresh the captions per language, and push new sets everywhere in one sitting. If you're just setting up your first localized screenshots, my guide to the differences between App Store and Play Store screenshots is a good companion, since the two stores handle localized sets slightly differently.
The fix is treating localization as a repeatable workflow, not a one-time project. Keep your master screenshot layouts saved and organized so a UI change means updating the base design once, then re-exporting each language's captions on top. When your source layouts live in one place, syncing a change across ten markets is a text pass, not ten redesigns from scratch.
I keep every language's set built from the same master files in the studio precisely so updates don't spiral. When the app changes, I edit the master, refresh the captions per language, and push new sets everywhere in one sitting. If you're just setting up your first localized screenshots, my guide to the differences between App Store and Play Store screenshots is a good companion, since the two stores handle localized sets slightly differently.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to resubmit my app to add a localized listing?
No. Both App Store Connect and Google Play let you add a new language's metadata and screenshots to your existing listing without a new binary or a full review of the app itself. You can localize the store presence independently of shipping app updates.
Should I localize screenshots or the description first?
Screenshots and their captions first. People decide to install from the visuals and the first line of text, usually before reading the description, so localized screenshots move conversion more. You can build localized variants quickly from one master in [the studio](/create) and refine the description afterward.
Is machine translation good enough for an app store listing?
As a first draft, yes; as the final version, no. Machine translation breaks caption length and mangles short marketing phrases and keywords. Use it to save time, then have a fluent speaker check the title, captions, and keywords, which carry most of your conversion.
How many markets should a small app localize for?
Start with two or three where your analytics already show installs despite an English-only listing. Doing a few markets fully beats doing ten halfway. Expand only after the first batch shows a measurable conversion lift.
Do localized screenshots need different dimensions?
No — the pixel sizes stay the same across languages, so you're re-skinning the same canvas with translated captions, not resizing. That's what makes it fast to produce language variants once your master layout is set.
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