Keywords and Localization
If you have an application in the iTunes App Store then you might be considering localizing it to improve sales outside the US. In addition to translating the application’s user interface, you’ll need to translate the App Store description and keywords. There’s a gotcha when you try to submit keywords for the multibyte languages (Chinese and Japanese).
According to Apple’s documentation (pdf), Keywords can be single words or phrases and the text field is limited to 100 characters. In fact they mean to say 100 bytes. This is a minor point, but when you translate your keywords into Chinese or Japanese, they will more than likely exceed 100 bytes. I had to trim mine down, for example, to 41 characters in Simplified Chinese, to fit into the 100 byte limit.
I haven’t attempted to exceed this, but the 255 character limit on your application’s name is possibly also 255 bytes. Likewise, the application description is probably 4000 bytes instead of the documented 4000 characters.
Keep it mind when planning your localization, especially if you are getting estimates for the translation of your application’s descriptions and keywords. Hopefully you won’t have to pay for something that you can’t even use.
Update: Kirby’s comments remind me that this problem is only apparent after you update the application. If you merely add the description and keywords when appending a new language translation, you won’t see the problem. That is to say, you’ll think the keywords were accepted, but they are probably truncated if more than 100 bytes.
I submitted a bug report to Apple regarding this issue. I encourage others to do the same. Also note, the bug only occurs when submitting a new update for the existing app and only when the existing app already has the other languages and keywords defined. For example, I added Japanese to an existing in-store app. The keywords are:
陣痛,タイマー,ストップウォッチ,出産,マスター,赤ちゃん,時間,間隔,トラッカー,記録,予定日,カウンター
This 55-character keyword list was accepted when I added the new language to the existing app. But when I tried to update the app a few days later with a new release, iTunes Connect reported the previously saved Japanese keywords as being too long.
Thank you for the note! Hopefully Apple will fix this soon.
By the way, here’s a tutorial for how to translate your app’s interface: http://iphone-i18n.com/how_to_translate_my_app
@kirby: Great point. I mentioned this to you yesterday, but need to update the post to be clear that this problem only occurs when updating the app. When simply adding a new localization for the description and keywords, they appear to be accepted, but are probably being truncated.