Your app or game's store listing is the first thing a user sees when they browse or search Google Play for their next great app or game experience.
High-quality and policy-compliant store listings help to establish user trust, which benefits the entire Google Play developer community. This article discusses some common issues and best practices related to Google Play’s store listing policies. It doesn’t represent an exhaustive view of our policies. For a complete list, see the Google Play Developer Policy Center.
Guidance for creating compliant app descriptions and elements
Guidance for complying with related policies
Common violations and steps to resolve them
Guidance for creating compliant app descriptions and elements
After you upload your app or game to Google Play Console, it’s time to create a great store listing. Users read your store listing to learn about your app or game — and to decide whether to try it. Well-written descriptions that communicate valuable information provide a high-quality experience for users, both with your app and across the platform. For an overview of issues to avoid when creating your description, watch Store Listing and Promotion policy video.
App descriptions
- Make sure your app’s description accurately describes its functionality and content.
- Highlight what’s great about your app. Include interesting facts to help users understand what makes it special.
- Keep your app’s description succinct and straightforward. Users may only read the first few sentences.
- To establish trust with users, provide an attributed or clear source for any endorsements or quotes. Don't include unattributed or anonymous user testimonials in your app’s description.
- Enter text for your short description and full description fields. Each text field contains a counter to help you stay within character limits.
- A full description allows for 4,000 characters. A short description should convey your app or game's message in 80 characters or less.
- Give users a summary of your app's biggest benefits in your short description.
- Don't repeat your short description in your full description.
- Make your store listing suitable for a general audience.
- Avoid using profane, vulgar, or other languages that’s inappropriate for this audience.
- Avoid excessive length, detail, improper formatting, and repetition of words.
- For example, don’t use this kind of repetition and detail in your description:
- "Car racing, car driving, race cars, car races, race track, driving, drive, race, cars, vehicles, automobiles, trucks"
- For example, don’t use this kind of repetition and detail in your description:
- Don’t use words or phrases in your app description that can mislead users about your app’s relationship to someone else or another app.
- Don't include misleading or irrelevant references to other apps or products.
- Make sure your app’s store listing doesn’t include descriptions or graphic depictions of violence or violent threats to any person or animal.
- Your store listing shouldn’t include text that indicates store performance or ranking, such as "App of the year," "#1," "Best of Play 20XX," "Popular," award icons, and so on. Also, your images and text should not indicate the price and promotional information, such as "10% off," "$50 cash back," "free for a limited time only," and so on.
- Remember that the Metadata policy and our other policies apply to all translations of your Google Play store listing.
App title
- Make sure your app’s title accurately describes its functionality and content.
- Your app title, icon, and developer name are particularly helpful for users to find and learn about your app.
- Make sure your title is unique, accessible, and avoid common terms.
- Your app title must be 30 characters or less.
- Avoid profane or vulgar language. Make your store listing suitable for a general audience.
- Make sure your title and developer name don’t mislead users or cause them to mistakenly download the wrong app.
- Don’t falsely imply a relationship to another company, developer, entity, or organization.
- Don’t use text elements to promote deals. Words like "Free" and "No Ads" promote deals and don’t belong in app titles or developer names.
- Your store listing shouldn’t include text that indicate store performance or ranking, such as "App of the year," "#1," "Best of Play 20XX," "Popular," award icons, and so on. Also, your images and text should not indicate the price and promotional information, such as "10% off," "$50 cash back," "free for a limited time only," and so on.
- Don’t use CAPS unless your brand is capitalized. Avoid using emojis, emoticons, and special character sequences that are irrelevant to your app.
- For example, don’t do this:
- App title: Crane: travel PLANNER!! 🌞
- For example, don’t do this:
- Remember that the Metadata policy and our other policies apply to all translations of your Google Play store listing.
Feature graphic, icon, and video
- Avoid graphic violence prominently depicted in app icons, promotional images, or videos. Content must be suitable for a general audience.
- Make sure your app’s store listing doesn’t include graphic depictions of violence or violent threats to any person or animal.
- Imagery or videos with sexually suggestive content are inappropriate.
- Don’t use icons that could mislead users or cause them to mistakenly download the wrong app, such as icons that are similar to those of existing products or services. Similarly, don’t use a logo of a business entity to suggest that it’s an official app of the business. Avoid any icons that falsely imply a relationship with another company, developer, entity, or organization.
- To create a consistent experience for users, use similar or complementary elements, styles, and color themes across your store listing graphics.
- Minimize your use of text.
- Avoid profane or vulgar language.
- Don’t add images or text that indicate store performance or ranking, such as "App of the year," "#1," "Best of Play 20XX," "Popular," award icons, and so on. Also, your images and text should not indicate the price and promotional information, such as "10% off," "$50 cash back," "free for a limited time only," and so on.
- To ensure your store listing looks great on multiple screen sizes, design for scale and keep important elements toward the center of graphics.
- Consider including a YouTube video trailer to get users excited about your most compelling features.
- Review the Intellectual Property and Impersonation policies before uploading new graphics.
- Remember that the Metadata policy and our other policies apply to all translations of your Google Play store listing.
Screenshots
- Reach a broader potential user base by including screenshots on all of the supported device platforms, in multiple orientations.
- Highlight the best features of your app using screenshots of the in-app experiences that make your app special.
- Use taglines in your screenshots if absolutely necessary to convey the key characteristics of the app or game or to tell a story. But keep text to a minimum.
- For screenshots that contain text, provide separate screenshots and promotional videos for each language that you support.
- Avoid profane or vulgar language. Make your store listing suitable for a general audience.
- Don’t add images or text that indicate store performance or ranking, such as "App of the year," "#1, "Best of Play 20XX," "Popular," and text should not indicate price and promotional information, such as "10% off," "$50 cash back," "free for a limited time only," and so on.
- Remember that the Metadata policy and our other policies apply to all translations of your Google Play store listing.
Guidance for complying with related policies
To keep Google Play a trusted source for apps and games, keep the following policy guidelines in mind when creating your store listing and your app itself.
Deceptive behavior
- Make sure that you don’t use false or misleading information or claims to describe your app, including:
- Misrepresentations or unclear descriptions of functionality
- Misrepresentations of current status or performance on Google Play
- Misleading or potentially harmful health-related functionality
- Functionality that’s impossible to implement
- Choose the app type and category that best represent your app’s primary purpose. Don’t improperly categorize your app.
- Don’t misrepresent your app with graphic assets that don’t accurately or clearly depict its functionality.
- Don’t claim an impossible functionality as "a prank" or "for entertainment purposes" (or other synonyms). Doing that doesn’t exempt your app from needing to comply with our policies.
- Don’t use or depict unverified or real-world phone numbers, contacts, addresses, or personally identifiable information of non-consenting individuals or entities.
- For more information, review Deceptive Behavior and User Ratings, Reviews and Installs policies.
Impersonation
- Don’t use another app or entity’s title or name in a manner that may mislead users.
- Don’t imply endorsement or relationship with another entity where none exists.
- Don’t falsely claim to be the "official" app of an established entity.
- Don’t use graphic assets that are identical or so similar to existing products or services that users may be misled.
- For violation examples, see Impersonation policy.
Restricted content
- Make sure your store listing doesn’t describe, depict, or promote inappropriate content, including:
- Sexually explicit content
- Child endangerment
- Gratuitous violence
- Dangerous activities
- Bullying and harassment
- Hate speech
- Illegal activities
- Don’t publish content that lacks sensitivity toward or capitalizes on a natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or any other tragic event.
- Secure the rights to all elements that aren’t your original work.
- Unless your app meets certain requirements (see Real-Money Gambling, Games, and Contests), don’t promote content or services that facilitate online gambling.
- Remember that any content you include must comply with all of the policies in the Google Play Policy Center.
Common violations and steps to resolve them
Here are common mistakes made in store listing descriptions and some best practices to consider instead.
General audiences vs target age groups
No matter what your app content rating is, your store listing should be suitable for a general audience. This helps create a safe, consistent, trusted Google Play experience. In addition, make sure your app’s title, description, graphics, icons, and other visual treatment align with your target audience. For example, if your store listing contains elements that appeal to children but you haven’t included children under 13 in your target age group, consider changing your target audience.
Unintentional appeal to children
We want to make sure that apps with a content rating below T that are not designed for children don’t inadvertently attract them.
If your app is not designed for children but your listing contains marketing elements that may appeal to them (such as youthful animation or young characters in the graphic assets), you may declare child age groups in your target audience or remove those elements.
Anonymous user testimonials
To help foster user trust, we don’t allow unattributed or anonymous user testimonials in the app’s description. Saying that something is the "best" or "#1 rated" or comparing it to another app isn’t permitted. Rather, keep your description focused on your app’s functionality and highlight its unique features.
Repetitive, excessive, or irrelevant word blocks
Don’t fill your app description with lists of words that are unrelated to your app or game. Remember that a block of words in a list isn’t helpful to users. Instead, be natural. Provide a well-written, succinct description of your app and what makes it special. Give an overview of your app or game using everyday language, not a list of keywords.
Misleading references
Don’t include misleading or irrelevant references to other apps, products, or people. Also, don’t compare your app or game to other apps or games. Instead, stay focused on what’s great about your app. We want Google Play users to trust your app or game and know what they’re getting when they download it.
Related content
- Google Play Developer Policy Center
- Store Listing and Promotion policy video
- Intellectual Property policy video
- Impersonation policy video
- Create a Google Play Store Listing Play Academy
- Comply with Google Play store listing policies Play Academy
- Engage potential users with your app or game description Play Academy
- Google Play Store Listing Certificate Play Academy