Own your searches in a broad category.
ASO for lifestyle apps is about finding the right neighbors in a broad category: on the App Store, Lifestyle spans real estate, hobbies, parenting, fashion and home improvement, while Google Play splits several of these into their own categories such as House and Home, Parenting and Beauty.
What makes ASO different in this category?
- 01
Lifestyle is broader on one store
On the App Store, Lifestyle is for general-interest subjects and services: real estate, crafts, hobbies, parenting, fashion, home improvement. On Google Play, Lifestyle covers style guides, wedding and party planning and how-to guides, while real estate and home improvement sit in House and Home, pregnancy and childcare in Parenting, and makeup and hair in Beauty.[1][2]
- 02
Primary and secondary category
On the App Store you choose a primary and a secondary category. The primary one decides where the app appears when people browse or filter search results. Apple suggests weighing the app's purpose, where users naturally look for it and how similar apps are categorized; choosing inappropriate categories is against the App Review Guidelines.[1]
- 03
Up to five tags on Google Play
On Google Play you can add up to five tags next to your category. Google wants tags whose relevance is obvious even to someone who does not know the app, and recommends changing them only after significant changes to content or functionality. Changes can take up to 24 hours to show on the store page.[2]
- 04
"For Kids" wording in parenting apps
Under Guidelines 2.3.8 and 5.1.4, terms like "For Kids" and "For Children" are reserved for the Kids category. An app outside Kids cannot use terms in its name, subtitle, icon, screenshots or description that imply its main audience is children, so an app written for parents needs to phrase its copy with that in mind.[3]
- 05
Standing out in well-established kinds
Guideline 4.3(b) names some kinds of apps, such as fortune telling and wallpaper, as well established on the App Store; new submissions are not accepted unless they offer a meaningfully different or improved experience, and apps that are not updated or do not attract customers may be removed.[3]
Features that matter most
Keyword hunt
Finds the searches that belong to you in a broad category from store autocomplete and your rivals' top 10 terms, measured for popularity and difficulty.
MoreKeyword radar
Reads your rank daily on the searches you found, with 1-, 7- and 30-day changes.
MoreAI echo
Asks an AI model questions like "What is the best … app?" every day and records whether your app is named and in what position.
MoreCopy workshop
Drafts your title, subtitle, keyword field and short description with live character limits, keyword coverage and repeated words.
MoreThis category's charts
The free Chart Movers tool shows this category's top 10 today, the climbers, new entrants and launches of the last 90 days.
App Store · Lifestyle
US · Chart Movers
Daily: a category's top 10 in a country, the climbers, new entrants and apps launched in the last 90 days.
Open toolGoogle Play · Lifestyle
US · Chart Movers
Daily: a category's top 10 in a country, the climbers, new entrants and apps launched in the last 90 days.
Open toolKeyword Atlas
Measures one search term in up to 10 countries on both stores: popularity, difficulty and each market's top 3 apps in one table.
Open toolQuestions
Should a home decor app be Lifestyle or House and Home on Google Play?
Google Play lists home improvement and interior decoration among the House and Home examples; Lifestyle is for style guides, wedding and party planning and how-to guides.
Can I change my category later?
Yes. On Google Play, category and tags are changed in the store settings in Play Console and can take up to 24 hours to show. To compare your chart position before and after, check the top 10 in the Chart Movers tool.
Read more
Choosing an app category and reading top charts on both stores
How to choose a primary and secondary category on the App Store and a category plus 5 tags on Google Play, and how to read category top charts.
Read the guideApp keyword research: a step-by-step method with free data
A repeatable ASO keyword research method using free store data: find searches, score relevance, popularity and difficulty, then place them in the right fields.
Read the guideGuideline 4.3 spam rejections: 4.3(a) vs 4.3(b) and how to fix them
What App Review Guideline 4.3(a) and 4.3(b) Design Spam say word for word, how they differ, the evidence that sets an app apart, and a reply skeleton.
Read the guideThe App Store keyword field: fill all 100 bytes without waste
How to fill the App Store Connect keyword field: Apple's rules, byte counting, a before/after example, dedupe against name and subtitle, and second locales.
Read the guide