How to work with the App Store Manager?
The App Store Manager allows managing, translating, editing, and transferring app descriptions (metadata, screenshots, icons, feature graphics) to Google Play Console and App Store Connect.
It offers many functions to save ASO managers, app publishers, and app developers as many repetitive and cumbersome steps as possible. Maintaining the Google Play Console and App Store Connect consumes much time. Use this time more wisely and better. However, frequent updating and adjustment of the store entries are necessary for the best possible marketing of an app. The App Store Manager helps with this through various automation and easy-to-access and understand functions.
The following instructions will help you with the setup, the transfer, and the first transfer of titles and descriptions.
Important:
You require a developer account for App Store Connect and Google Play Console.
The app already exists within the respective store (draft or published)
Set up an app
After logging in to the App Store Manager, the front page shows surveys on new product features, news, and quick access to various application areas.
The first step consists of creating an app. Click on "My apps" on the front page. In our example, we already have a few apps configured. In the App Store Manager context, apps represent either an Android or iOS app and consist of at least one or more app descriptions. They are the counterpart to the respective app configurations in App Store Connect or the Google Play Console.
Select “New App” in the app overview for this.
The app configuration includes a few pieces of information to allow store access.
The platform: is it an Android or iOS app that should be created
A name: this is arbitrary. Use the real app name to keep the overview
The package name (Android) or the bundle ID (iOS). These are the technical identifiers of the respective app. These must be the same as in the app's code and stored in the respective stores.
If you are unsure of the package name or bundle ID, look it up in the Google Play Console or Apple App Store.
Enter the information accordingly. However, access without valid data is not possible.
Add an existing app
Apps that are already accessible via the stores can also be created very easily and quickly via search. This requires the title, or parts of the title, as well as the specification of the platform and the language.
Title: the name of the published app
Platform: Android or iOS
Locale: in which store language was your app published, and can it be found?
Press enter or click “Search” to proceed and find your app.
The App Store Manager lists the search result and displays the title, author, app icon, and package name/bundle ID. Select the applicable, already published app and click on “Finish.”
If the desired result is not there. Try the following:
Write out the title in full.
Did you spell the title correctly?
Are you searching for an already-published app? The search retrieves only published apps.
Have you selected the right platform?
If further attempts fail, use the manual creation of the app described above.
After selecting an existing or adding an app manually, the App Store Manager creates the app for you within the application.
App Overview
The app overview shows the new app. On the left are the Android apps, and on the right are the iOS apps. Click on the app entry to open it. You will find the following additional functions:
Open – Opens the app
Edit – Allows changing the app configuration
Delete – Deletes the app permanently
Creation of an app description package
An app description package represents a set of assets.
It consists of titles, long descriptions, screenshots, etc., for all configured languages.
Apps can have multiple app description packages.
This allows packages for different occasions or eveapp-configuredcreated, retained, and reused. For example, in addition to a package for regular operation, one can also be made for Christmas, Halloween, or a summer special.
The App Store Manager manages these packages and enables the transfer of individual packages to the respective store.
The assets of an app description package are:
App descriptions: title, short description, long description for Android. Name, subtitle, keywords, description, and promotional text for iOS apps
Screenshots (planned): the minimum required screenshots for an app
Icons: the icon set for the app
Marketing and privacy URLs (planned)
All assets can be localized (translated automatically or manually) and be translated and transferred to the stores.
To create an app description package, navigate to the respective app. Open the app and click on “New package”.
The application creates a default name for the package. Change it to something easily remembered—a short content description. Click on “Save” after you have adjusted the name. The package settings view lets you delete the package (it can not be undone) and provides an overview of the translated characters if you have used the translation feature. You will find the other package assets, and the package logs on the left side.
Create an app description
Navigate to the “App descriptions” menu item. The app's text information is maintained in all languages there. Generally, the languages do not have to be created in the stores. If they have already been made, they can be omitted or overwritten during the transfer.
Important: All information must be transferred to Google Play when creating a new language. For example, the title, short description, and description are then mandatory fields.
The view generally shows whether a field has already been filled or not. Filled fields are displayed in bold. Switching between the individual languages is possible using the list on the left side. The filter above allows quick access to languages that are filled, have incorrect values, or are empty.
The information can be entered here manually or copied and pasted from other sources. In addition, data can be added via file import, an import from the associated store, if the app already exists there. In addition, translation into other languages is possible here.
Import descriptions from an existing app
The app already exists in one of the two stores, so its description can be imported. The retrieval is started via “Import” with the corresponding icon of the respective store (App Store or Google Play). The app must be configured correctly, and the access data must be provided for retrieval. How to configure the access is described for Android and iOS here.
The process starts once everything is entered correctly and “Import” is clicked. This is an asynchronous process. Depending on the server traffic, the retrieval may take time. A loading spinner shows how long the process is running.
As soon as the process is complete, the view is available again. It displays all the languages and contents that are configured in the store and have been retrieved.
Viewing this data using selection (checkmark) to choose those that should be added to the new descriptions is possible.
After “Add to descriptions” has been clicked, the view changes again from the import mode to the regular view, where the descriptions can be customized per language.
App description file import
Another import option is file import. You will also find a file template with the required (JSON) format in this. You can import translations created by external partners in this format. The successful import is also displayed again in an intermediate step, and the desired content and languages can be taken over.
Translate app descriptions
An essential function of the App Store Manager is automatic translation. Select the “Translate” button under “App Descriptions”. In the “Source Language” drop-down list, select the source language. This is the language from which you want to translate into other languages. Note: to proceed, maintain at least one language in the parent view (“App Descriptions”). Next, select the languages you want to translate into and click “Translate”.
The translation also happens asynchronously. That is, a loading spinner indicates the process duration.
As soon as the result is there, it will be displayed again. Please select the desired content and include it in the new descriptions.
Upload descriptions to the stores
Transfer all the desired imported, translated, edited, and validated descriptions to the corresponding store. To do this, switch to the “Upload to…” tab. The summary displays the prepared languages. You can use the selection box to decide which language should be transferred. An exclamation “!” mark indicates the incorrect terminology. Resolve such errors to proceed. The App Store Manager will only accept valid languages for an upload. To do this, return to the “App descriptions” and use the “!” filter to select and correct the incorrect languages. Most of the time, the translation exceeds some field lengths.
Important: When performing an upload, you overwrite the selected languages in the respective store. A restore is not possible. Therefore, create a backup beforehand.
Select the right release track (Android only), like production, internal, alpha, or beta. The store can still be prepared this way if an app is not yet in production.
Prepare the credentials described here for App Store Connect and Google Play Console.
Start the upload
Next, you can upload the selected languages.
Observe the following instructions:
With the upload, you overwrite your app description metadata accordingly
Empty fields do not overwrite values in the stores
Apple transfers are only live as soon as the release has been manually requested in App Store Connect
Google changes can go live directly after the review by Google and, depending on the setting
Once the loading spinner has disappeared, you can check the finished result either in the relevant store or in the log area of the App Store Manager. The notifications (top right) also provide information about the successful transfer.
If an error occurs, check the message and adjust the configuration accordingly. See the FAQ for further assistance. If this does not help, please get in touch with support.
Conclusion
App Store Manager helps to translate and deploy app descriptions. Eliminate the repetitive, time-consuming tasks imposed by the stores and save time that you can use for more meaningful activities. In addition, using optional automated translations helps you test new markets before importing and transferring professional translations to the stores with App Store Manager.
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