French App Store Localization: Storefronts and Keyword Bytes

Apple's own illustration of how localization displays uses French. A French localization shows to users whose language setting is French and to users in countries or regions where the App Store supports French but not English, and users can search with localized keywords in all countries or regions where the App Store supports French. That is the strongest documented statement about reach across storefronts, and it is the reason a French listing is not only a France listing.

Apple gives that example for French. It does not repeat it for other languages, so treat the same reach for them as something to test.

• Default language in 4: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, France and Gabon.
• Additional language in 28: Algeria, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Laos, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United States and Vanuatu.

Every default storefront also lists another language (English (U.K.) in 4), so French is never the only localization there.

Where French is an additional language, the default beside it is English (U.K.) in 26, German in one and English (US) in one.

Apple's keyword reference allows 100 bytes, not 100 characters. Counted as UTF-8, the example below contains 66 one-byte and 2 two-byte characters (separators excluded). Only the accented letters cost two bytes, so the field holds between 50 and 100 letters depending on how many accents you use. 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:

habitudes,routine,objectifs,rappel,motivation,suivi quotidien,persévérance

That is 74 characters and 76 bytes: 70 bytes of keywords plus 6 commas, leaving 24 of the 100 bytes free. The byte counts assume UTF-8; confirm the final count in App Store Connect before you save.

The App Store Connect locale for France is fr-FR, and Canada has a separate fr-CA; see French (Canada) for the Canadian storefront. The 28 additional-language storefronts include places that also list Arabic (Arabic), such as Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, so those markets involve two local-language listings and an English one. Switzerland lists French beside a German default, and Belgium lists it with Dutch (Dutch). The United States row lists French as one of nine extra languages.

Because French accents cost two bytes, a French keyword list holds fewer words than an English one of the same length. The next section counts it.

LocalASO checks keywords in 52 App Store storefronts, each in the storefront's local language, so you can compare your French 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. See also: French (Canada), Arabic, German, Dutch, Italian.