iOS app localization in 2026: which locales to ship first, and how App Store search treats them

Apple treats your listing and your app as separate jobs. Its App Store Connect help puts it plainly: "Languages on the App Information page in App Store Connect are part of your app's metadata. This differs from adding languages to your app in Xcode when you localize your binary."

The listing is what gets you found; the app is what keeps the people you found. Do the listing first for reach, and translate the app for the markets where reach turns into real users.

Apple supports 50 listing languages — it added 11, mostly Indian languages, on March 31, 2026 — across 175 storefronts. Its help page explains what a localization does, using French as the example:

If you localize your app metadata in French, the French localization displays to users whose language setting is in French. The French localization also displays to users in countries or regions where the App Store supports French but not English. Users can search for your app using localized keywords in all countries or regions where the App Store supports French.

The last sentence is the ASO lever. Each storefront has a default language and, often, additional supported languages. Apple publishes the full list in its App Store localizations reference. For the storefronts that matter most to indie apps:

Read that table again and one language shows up almost everywhere. Across Apple's full list of 175 storefronts, English (U.K.) is the default or an additional language in 172 of them — every storefront except the US, Canada and Japan.

According to ASOitis's count of Apple's App Store localizations table (checked October 6, 2026), English (U.K.) is the default or an additional language in 172 of 175 storefronts, which makes a separate U.K. English listing the cheapest localization an English-language indie app can add.

It costs no translation. Write a second keyword field for English (U.K.) with words that aren't already in your US name, subtitle or keywords — British spellings, synonyms, secondary features. You've added a second set of searchable keywords in most of the world without changing a line of code.

How much weight those extra keywords carry in ranking isn't documented. AppTweak and Phiture tested it with made-up keywords such as "enuk1201" in an English (U.K.) localization and tracked where they ranked; MobileAction notes that the behavior is "based on industry observation", not Apple documentation. Apple's help does confirm the core of it: localized keywords are searchable wherever the App Store supports that language. Keep them relevant — keywords for things your app doesn't do break Guideline 2.3.

Apple's 2025 ecosystem study, by Analysis Group, estimates spending on digital goods and services through apps by region. These aren't App Store billings — the study notes they include digital purchases made elsewhere but used in apps — but they're Apple's own figures for where people pay for digital things on iPhone.

Downloads tell a different story. AppTweak's estimates of iOS downloads for November 2024 to November 2025 put the US at 22.5% of the total, China at 13.8%, Japan at 4.7%, Brazil at 4.5% and the UK at 4.1%, with Brazil growing 18% and India 22% year on year. For a subscription app, spending matters more; for an ad-supported app, download volume does. Japan stands out on spending: Apple's study says digital goods and services were 28% of overall spending there, against about 15% in the US and Europe.

Swap by what your app earns from. Korean is next by spending ($2.6B) and is also an additional language in the US; Portuguese (Brazil) makes more sense when download volume matters more than spending, since Brazil's iOS downloads grew 18%. Hold off on Simplified Chinese unless you're ready for the paperwork: Apple says an ICP Filing Number matching your App Store metadata "is required for your Simplified Chinese localization" for apps that need one, and games need a license from China's National Press and Publication Administration.

• String Catalogs. Since Xcode 15, .xcstrings files collect your strings and track translation progress per language. Xcode extracts strings from SwiftUI views automatically.
• Permission prompts. Add an InfoPlist.xcstrings file to localize your app's display name and every usage description — the text in the camera, location and notification prompts. Untranslated prompts are the most visible gap in a half-localized app.
• Translation comments. Xcode 26 can generate comments for translators from your source code, so a translator knows whether "Save" is a button or a discount.
• Pre-fill a new language. Xcode 26.4 can pre-fill String Catalogs for a new language from an existing one, which keeps shared strings like brand names consistent.
• Agent translation. In Xcode 27, agents can translate String Catalogs, and Xcode marks the results "Machine Translated". Have a native speaker review the paywall, onboarding and anything legal before you ship.

Apple's product page guidance asks you to "localize your app description, keywords, app previews, and screenshots, for each of the markets in which you offer your app." Screenshots matter most: their captions are the first text people read in search results.

Apple's localization page suggests using App Analytics to look at "Product Page Views, App Units, Sales, and Active Devices, filtered by territory" to find markets worth localizing for. Use the same view afterwards: compare four weeks before and after a localization goes live, per territory, and look at impressions from search as well as downloads. Our page on app impressions explains what those numbers count.

Expect a range of results. The best-known study, by Distimo in 2012, followed about 200 iPhone and iPad apps in 12 countries and found iPhone downloads rose more than 128% in the week after adding a native language, and revenue about 26%. Distimo itself cautioned that "most applications experience an increase in downloads and revenue after an update", and saw no significant change on iPad. Treat it as a sign of the upside, not a forecast.