🌍 App Store ASO Localizer (The Global App Publisher)

Breaking language barriers for app developers—reach billions of users worldwide with professionally localized app metadata.

📖 What is this?

The App Store ASO Localizer is an AI-powered Apify Actor designed to help app developers and marketers expand their global reach by automatically translating and optimizing app store metadata (titles, descriptions, keywords) into multiple languages.

It takes your Android app's Google Play Store URL or manual metadata and returns professionally localized content that fits within App Store character limits—all while preserving SEO value and marketing appeal.

Pro tip: Always review AI translations before publishing to ensure cultural appropriateness and brand consistency!

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🌟 Key Features

• 🌐 Universal Input Methods:

  • Mode A: Scrape directly from Google Play Store URL
  • Mode B: Manually input your app metadata
  • Mode C: Auto-mock mode with sample data for testing

• 🧠 Powered by Lingo.dev AI:

  • High-quality, context-aware translations
  • Preserves marketing tone and SEO keywords
  • Supports 100+ languages

• 📏 Smart Character Limit Validation:

  • App Title: Max 30 characters (App Store)
  • Subtitle: Max 80 characters
  • Auto-fixes text that exceeds limits with AI-powered shortening
  • Retries up to 2 times to fit constraints

• 🎯 Context-Aware Translation:

  • Specify app category, target audience, and tone
  • Improves translation quality and cultural relevance

• 🛡️ Fault Tolerant Design:

  • Robust error handling and retry logic
  • Detailed status reporting for each language
  • Continues processing even if one language fails

• 🚀 Multi-Language Support:

  • Process multiple target languages in a single run
  • Default support for Japanese, French, Spanish, German, and more

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🚀 How It Works

1. Input: Provide your Google Play Store URL or manual app metadata
2. Scraping/Loading: Actor fetches app title, subtitle, and description
3. Translation: Lingo.dev translates content into target languages
4. Validation: Checks character limits and auto-fixes if needed
5. Output: Returns structured JSON with all translations and validation status

Google Play URL → Scrape Metadata → Translate (Lingo.dev) → Validate Limits → Localized Output

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🛠️ Input Parameters

Field	Type	Description	Default
lingoApiKey	string	Your Lingo.dev API Key (required for real translations)	Required
googlePlayUrl	string	Google Play Store URL (Mode A: Scrape)	-
manualData	object	Manual app metadata (Mode B: Manual Input)	-
targetLanguages	array	List of ISO 639-1 language codes (e.g., ["ja", "fr", "es"])	["ja", "fr"]
appContext	object	Contextual info: category, audience, tone	See below
useMockTranslation	boolean	Enable mock mode for testing (no API calls)	false

App Context Object:

{
  "category": "Utilities",
  "audience": "General User",
  "tone": "Professional"
}

🌐 Supported Languages:

Language	ISO 639-1 Code
English	en
Spanish	es
French	fr
German	de
Japanese	ja
Korean	ko
Chinese (Simplified)	zh
Portuguese	pt
Arabic	ar
Hindi	hi
Russian	ru
Italian	it

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👷🏻‍♂️ How to Use?

Step 1: Get Your API Key

1. Visit Lingo.dev
2. Sign up / Sign in
3. Navigate to Developer Dashboard
4. Copy your API Key

Step 2: Configure Input

Option A - Scrape from Google Play:

{
  "lingoApiKey": "your-lingo-api-key",
  "googlePlayUrl": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.calculator",
  "targetLanguages": ["ja", "fr", "es"],
  "appContext": {
    "category": "Utilities",
    "audience": "General User",
    "tone": "Professional"
  }
}

Option B - Manual Input:

{
  "lingoApiKey": "your-lingo-api-key",
  "manualData": {
    "title": "My Awesome App",
    "subtitle": "The best productivity tool",
    "description": "A comprehensive productivity app that helps you manage tasks, track time, and collaborate with your team."
  },
  "targetLanguages": ["ja", "ko"],
  "appContext": {
    "category": "Productivity",
    "audience": "Professionals",
    "tone": "Casual"
  }
}

Step 3: Run the Actor

$apify run

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📊 Sample Output (JSON)

Here's an example output for a Calculator app translated to Japanese:

{
  "language": "ja",
  "original_title": "Calculator",
  "original_subtitle": "A simple calculator utility for Android",
  "original_description": "Perform basic and advanced calculations with ease...",
  "translated_title": "電卓",
  "title_length_status": "✅ Valid (2/30)",
  "title_attempts": 1,
  "translated_subtitle": "Android用のシンプルな電卓ユーティリティ",
  "subtitle_length_status": "✅ Valid (23/80)",
  "subtitle_attempts": 1,
  "translated_description": "基本的な計算から高度な計算まで、簡単に実行できます...",
  "description_status": "✅ Translated"
}

Status Indicators:

• ✅ Valid: Text fits within character limits
• ⚠️ Auto-Fixed: Text was shortened automatically
• ⚠️ Needs Manual Review: Text still exceeds limits after retries

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🎯 Use Cases

1. Global App Launch: Translate your app metadata into 20+ languages before launch
2. ASO Optimization: Improve app discoverability in international markets
3. A/B Testing: Generate multiple translation variants for testing
4. Competitive Analysis: Analyze how competitors localize their apps
5. Localization Quality Check: Validate existing translations against character limits

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💡 Best Practices

• ✅ Use generic app descriptions for better translation quality
• ✅ Provide context (category, audience, tone) for more accurate results
• ✅ Review translations for cultural appropriateness
• ✅ Test with mock mode first to verify workflow
• ⚠️ Some languages (e.g., Chinese, Japanese) may require fewer characters
• ⚠️ Always consult native speakers for final review

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⚠️ Limitations

• Character limits are based on iOS App Store guidelines (30 for title, 80 for subtitle)
• Translation quality depends on source text clarity and context
• Some languages may naturally expand or contract text length
• The actor does not replace human translators for nuanced content

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🧪 Testing Mode

Want to test without using API credits? Enable mock mode:

{
  "useMockTranslation": true,
  "googlePlayUrl": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music",
  "targetLanguages": ["ja", "fr"]
}

Mock translations will be prefixed with language codes: [JA] Your Text

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📚 Technical Details

Architecture:

• Web Scraping: google-play-scraper for metadata extraction
• Translation: lingo.dev SDK for AI-powered localization
• Runtime: Node.js with Apify SDK
• Validation: Custom constraint checking with auto-retry logic

Error Handling:

• Graceful degradation if one language fails
• Detailed error messages in output
• Automatic retry for length constraint violations

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🚀 Deploy to Apify

Option 1: Connect Git Repository

1. Go to Actor creation page
2. Click Link Git Repository
3. Follow the prompts

Option 2: Push from Local Machine

# Login to Apify
apify login

# Deploy your Actor
apify push

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📖 Documentation & Resources

• Lingo.dev Documentation
• Apify SDK Documentation
• App Store Character Limits
• Google Play Store Guidelines
• Join Apify Discord Community

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🤝 Contributing

Found a bug or want to add a feature? Contributions are welcome!

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⚖️ License

Apache 2.0 License - See LICENSE file for details

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is a tool to assist with app localization. AI translations should always be reviewed by professional translators or native speakers before publishing to app stores. The accuracy and cultural appropriateness of translations cannot be guaranteed.

Always consult with localization experts for production releases!

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Made with ❤️ by the Apify community