A Major App Store Algorithm Shift Has Arrived — Here’s What It Means for You

Last week, Apple made one of the biggest adjustments to the App Store's search algorithm, which caused certain apps to soar while others fell in the rankings.

After carefully analyzing thousands of terms over the past few days utilizing Appfigures tools and my own custom AI, I have strong reason to think I know what Apple changed, why it's making such a large difference, and—most importantly—what you need to do now to reap the rewards for your app.

What's happening?

Apple now treats the text that appears in the screenshot captions of your app as part of your keyword metadata.

Yes, exactly. Screenshots can now be used for more than just conversion. They now have an impact on discovery.

Previously, search rankings were determined solely by the name, subtitle, and keyword list of your app. However, that is no longer true. In order to rank your apps, Apple now reads some* of the text that is shown in your screenshots.

What I've Learned So Far: Screenshot captions now matter

For your screenshots to rank, they must contain active keywords. Many apps already have features, so they naturally receive a boost, not because Apple is rewarding apps that do it or punishing those that don't.

You most likely have keywords in your screenshots that match the rest of your metadata if your ranks have significantly grown over the past week (as I've mentioned in recent live streams). Those are now visible in the algo update.

It's likely that you don't, or that the keywords in your captions don't match the rest of your information, if your ranks have significantly declined in the past week.

To learn more about which keywords increased, which decreased, and which keywords the algorithm is ranking you in but you are unaware of, use the Keyword Performance and Ranked Keywords reports.

Captions' Keywords Boost Essential Keywords and Add New Ones

From what I've seen thus far, keywords that appear in screenshots don't compete with keywords from the name, subtitle, or keyword list. Apple anticipates that you will use the same keywords in the screenshots.

Even so, you should use the most crucial keywords in your screenshots to make them stronger rather than repeating them throughout all of the conventional metadata areas.

There's more, though! Many of the apps I've seen rank for terms that are only present in their images. Since the signal doesn't seem to be as strong on its own, I would advise you to keep considering all of your app's metadata as a unified set and to utilize the screenshots to add other keywords that complement the primary ones.

For instance, to reinforce "photo editor" and add "ai" to the set, title one of your screenshots "AI Photo Editor" (which has a popularity score of 55) if the phrase "photo editor" appears in the name of your program.

Placement of Captions Is Important, Too!

This section is speculative, however after creating a little AI agent to aid in my research, I became aware of how challenging it is to read text from photographs using AI or OCR, particularly when there is an app user interface. It becomes very difficult to obtain useful keywords, and the output becomes a muddle.

Although Apple's vision technology and algorithms are far superior to my small prototype, I can understand why they would only read the top and bottom of the screenshot, which are more likely to carry a caption.

To make sure your app is as algorithm-ready as possible, I suggest putting your captions at the top of your screenshots. I don't yet have a decent way to demonstrate this.

How About Videos of App Previews?

Although it's possible, I don't believe Apple is now reading the captions from App Preview Videos.

How About Descriptions?

No signs that app descriptions are being indexed have come to my attention. Apple has historically avoided the description, and it appears that they are currently doing so.

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What You Must Do Immediately

If you haven't already, you should start adding captions to your screenshots immediately.

Making your screenshots algorithm-ready so Apple can interpret them and switching out passive keywords with active ones are the two things you need to do to take advantage of this shift and keep your keyword ranks from plummeting.

Here's how:

Get Rid of Passive Words

Don't continue using subtitles like "All-in-one" or "Easy to Use."

Every character matters now that Apple is scanning keywords from captions. Use captions that correspond to actual terms that users are searching for rather than filler.

For instance, the caption "Track Sleep Patterns" is highly active and provides the keywords "track sleep," "sleep patterns," and "track sleep patterns," which are searched for. "Wake Up Refreshed" isn't, though, as nobody is looking for that.

I suggest adding long-tail variations after reinforcing the keywords that are already in the name and subtitle of your app.

Prepare Your Screenshots for Algorithms

The most crucial thing is this: It won't matter what Apple says if it can't read your content.

Make sure your screenshots are understandable by both humans and the algorithm by following these guidelines:

Employ High Contrast Text: Steer clear of dark text on a background or bright text on a light background. Text with little contrast is difficult for AI algorithms to isolate. Additionally, don't put text over subtle gradients or busy app UI as these could hide your caption.

Here's an extreme illustration:

Select Legible typefaces: Avoid very tiny, extremely compressed, or stylized typefaces that are difficult for machines to read.

Make Sure the Text Size Is Adequate: Make sure the font size is sufficiently large for the human eye to read. Apple can't read it on a phone if you can't. Cut down on the number of words in the caption if there isn't enough room to increase the font size.

Steer clear of layered or shadowed text. While subtle shadows are acceptable, fuzzy blurring shadows and bright neon outlines detract from authenticity.

Concentrate Each Screenshot on a Single Keyword Theme: One screenshot corresponds to a single, distinct keyword or phrase. Avoid packing too many concepts into a single caption. I offer the same guidance for app names.

"Fast, Private, and Easy" is a bad thing.

✅ Positive: "Easy to Use," "Private Storage," and "Quick Photo Edits"

Don't Repeat the Same Caption: It appears that stating keywords once in a screenshot is more helpful than repeating them. Given Apple's position on recurrence, I advise against using the same keywords again, though I'm actively investigating this.

How to Get the Correct Screenshot Captions Fast(er) There is a very simple method to determine what to do if your keyword ranks are declining or if you wish to benefit from this shift.

Examine the actions of the top-ranked applications in your category. These could be direct rivals, comparable applications, or even nearby ones:

Find a relevant keyword by going into Keyword Inspector. Apps with appropriate captions are already ranking highly by this point.

To view their screenshot in the App Intelligence section, click on each of the top results individually.

Keep track of their location, the content of their captions, and how it connects to the app.

To obtain information even more quickly, you can also import many apps from Keyword Inspector into the Competitors Report and compare their screenshots side by side in the Creatives page.

You don't want to disregard this significant development or try to figure it out on your own.