ASO for your first app: what to do before and after launch

You are about to ship your first app. You know what it does, but you have not yet decided what to call it, what to put in the subtitle or which words people will use to find it.

• No data of your own. A new app has no ratings and no ranks, so you learn from competitors.
• Limits you discover late. The name and subtitle are 30 characters each, the keyword field takes up to 100 bytes, and Apple advises against repeating name, subtitle or category words in the keyword field.
• Uncertainty about what is worth doing. Fields and strategies are many; the first release should pick a few.
• Fear of breaking something. Uploading by API sounds risky.

1. Install and activate LocalASO. You need no App Store Connect key for research.
2. Use Brainstorm: write your app in one sentence. The AI proposes keywords and LocalASO checks demand and difficulty in the countries you select.
3. Add three to five competitors by name or link and read what they rank for on the board. Their Losing to lists show who dominates each keyword.
4. Keep keywords with some demand and difficulty below 80. If every top 10 is full of big apps, narrow the phrase.
5. In Optimize, compare name and subtitle options and check the character counts with the character counter.
6. Paste the text into App Store Connect. Later, add an API key if you want draft uploads, which never submit for review.

After launch, plan to change the promotional text at will (it can be updated without a new version) and to re-check ranks weekly. The keyword research guide and the keyword field guide are the plain-language references.

• It will not predict downloads. Volume and difficulty are estimates from rating counts of other apps.
• It will not write the app's screenshots, icon or onboarding.
• It will not give ranks for an app that has no listing yet. Add the live listing after it is published.
• It uses your own AI; no credits are included.

Skip the secondary fields until the basics are done. A first release does not need ten languages, a perfect description or a complete competitor map. Get a name, a subtitle and a keyword field that you can defend with data, publish, and leave the rest for the first update. Apple lets you update the description and What's New with each version, and the promotional text at any time, so nothing you skip is locked in.

Start with the name and subtitle, because an app is searchable by its name and subtitle. Download LocalASO or read pricing. Next: if the app is not new, see relaunching an old app, or how to use an AI agent.