App Store Tags and Search: What You Control and How to Check

• Tags appear in search results and as clickable terms on the product page and on the Search landing page. Tapping a tag shows related apps and games.
• They are generated from your App Store metadata, with AI and human curation. Search results may include tags generated with large language models from the metadata you provide.
• In the app information section of App Store Connect you can manage which selected tags appear.
• The roles allowed to manage tags are Account Holder, Admin, App Manager and Marketing.
• Currently, tags are only supported and displayed in the United States.

Apple's search documentation says search results rest on text relevance (title, subtitle, keywords and primary category) and user behavior. It does not say that tags are a ranking factor. Treat tags as a presentation and discovery feature until Apple says more.

• You cannot type your own tags. Apple's page describes managing selected tags, not authoring them.
• Tags do not exist outside the US today, so a non-US storefront is unaffected for now.
• Apple does not document how a tag is chosen from your metadata, so no one can promise a tag by adding a word.
• Whether tapping a tag changes your rank or traffic is not published.

Your metadata is the only input Apple names on your side. The practical consequence is clarity: name, subtitle, description and category should state what the app is, so a model reading them reaches the right summary. Apple indexes the primary and optional secondary category for search, and advises against filler in the keyword field.

1. Open App Store Connect and find the tag settings in the app information section. Confirm you have one of the four roles.
2. List the tags shown for your app and which ones you can switch off.
3. Search your main keyword in the US App Store and record the tags you see on your result and on competitors.
4. Change one metadata element at a time, such as the subtitle, and record the date.
5. Recheck after 24 hours or more. Apple says metadata changes may take up to 24 hours to appear.
6. Record the new tags. If they change, you have an observation, not proof of cause.

A hypothetical habit tracker would add one row per change. Treat a single change in tags as a hint. Repeating the pattern over several changes is the only way to see a real relationship.

• Writing for the tag instead of the reader. If a subtitle reads badly to a person, it will not help.
• Stuffing words into the description. Apple advises against unnecessary keywords there.
• Assuming a US-only feature applies to your other storefronts.

The metadata that tags are built from is the same metadata you already optimize. Work on the title and subtitle and the keyword field first. LocalASO helps you write and compare listing variants and check keywords per country; see the Optimize docs.