Can You Use Competitor Names in App Store Keywords?

• The field reference says names of other apps or companies are not allowed in the keyword list.
• Apple calls improper keyword use a common reason for rejection.
• Guideline 2.3.7 says Apple may modify inappropriate keywords at any time or take other steps to prevent abuse. The same guideline tells you to choose a unique name and not to pack metadata with trademarked terms, popular app names, pricing information or other irrelevant phrases.
• Subtitles must not reference other apps either.

So the rule covers the name, subtitle and keywords, not just one field.

A hypothetical habit tracker, Streakly, sees that a larger rival ranks for "habit" searches and adds the rival's name to the keyword list. That entry is a competing app name. A permitted version is habit,tracker,streak,routine, which uses only descriptive terms. Also do not repeat your own name there; Apple says the app is already searchable by app name and company name.

1. Look at competitors' public listings to learn which descriptive terms they target. See the keyword research guide.
2. Use the generic terms those listings share.
3. Check that your own name, subtitle and keywords do not overlap with the cannibalization checker.

Format the clean list correctly: see spaces after commas and the minimum keyword length. For the unit that limits the list, read bytes versus characters.