App Store Localization for Croatian: Storefronts, Bytes, Keywords

Apple's localizations table never names Croatian as a default language. It appears as an additional language in 4 more: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The default language listed next to it is English (U.K.) in 4.

Apple's keyword reference allows 100 bytes, not 100 characters. Counted as UTF-8, the example below contains 55 one-byte characters (separators excluded). Every letter costs one byte, so the field holds up to 100 characters, commas included. The words below are a hypothetical keyword list for a habit tracker called Streakly; they are illustrations, not validated search terms, and each has at least three characters.

Joined with commas and no spaces after them, the field is:

navike,rutina,ciljevi,podsjetnik,motivacija,planer,disciplina

That is 61 characters and 61 bytes: 55 bytes of keywords plus 6 commas, leaving 39 of the 100 bytes free. The byte counts assume UTF-8; confirm the final count in App Store Connect before you save.

Apple's list of metadata languages has Croatian but no Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin entry. The table nevertheless lists Croatian for Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, so those three rows use hr as their only local-language option. That is what the table shows; Apple does not say on that page why.

Only Croatia has a country page here: Croatia. For the others, check the storefront yourself before assuming that Croatian words match local searches. Neighbors in the same table pattern are Polish and Czech.

Croatian adds č, ć, đ, š and ž, two bytes each. Most of the example is ASCII: navike, rutina, ciljevi, podsjetnik, motivacija, planer and disciplina cost one byte per letter. Words that carry a caron or a stroke cost one more byte per such letter.

Apple does not document whether a search typed without the special letters matches a keyword that has them, and many people type that way. Treat the plain and the accented form as a test, not a given.

LocalASO checks keywords in 52 App Store storefronts, each in the storefront's local language, so you can compare your Croatian candidates with the English ones in one place. Keywords, ranks and listings stay in a database on your Mac. LocalASO is a one-time $29 purchase and the app needs a license key to run; the setup is in the localization docs and the price is on the pricing page. To test the field you just built, use the keyword field checker, or browse every language page. Related languages: Polish, Czech, English (U.K.), Ukrainian.