How to Localize for Russian in the App Store

Apple's keyword reference allows 100 bytes, not 100 characters. Counted as UTF-8, the example below contains 1 one-byte and 46 two-byte characters (separators excluded). At two bytes a letter the field holds at most 50 letters of keywords, 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:

привычки,трекер привычек,цели,напоминания,мотивация

That is 51 characters and 97 bytes: 93 bytes of keywords plus 4 commas, leaving 3 of the 100 bytes free. The byte counts assume UTF-8; confirm the final count in App Store Connect before you save.

In Russia, Russian is the default and the additional languages are English (U.K.) and Ukrainian. In Ukraine, English (U.K.) is the default and the additional languages are Russian and Ukrainian. That makes Ukrainian a language both rows carry, which matters if you target both storefronts. See the Ukraine keyword page; LocalASO has no Russia page.

The United States row also lists Russian as one of nine extra languages. Apple's locale code is ru.

Apple's table reads these rows as follows: Russian is the default in 1 and an additional language in 2. None of the default storefronts lists it alone.

Every Cyrillic letter takes two bytes, so 100 bytes hold up to 50 letters when you spend nothing on commas. A Russian field is therefore about half as long as an English one in letters, though Russian words are not half as long, so the loss is smaller than it sounds.

Apple does not document how Russian word forms (cases, plurals) are matched, which matters because Russian inflects heavily. The honest approach is to test one form at a time. The same two-byte cost applies to Greek and Arabic.

LocalASO checks keywords in 52 App Store storefronts, each in the storefront's local language, so you can compare your Russian 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. Neighboring languages: Ukrainian, Greek, Arabic, English (U.S.).