by Cesare Rocchi

Apps need a subtitle in the App Store

tags: app store

With the great news announced by Apple there will be some challenges in renaming applications. David Smith has an interesting post about it.

50 characters for a name is not a lot. Tweetbot - A beautiful Twitter client is 38. I’d have to struggle a bit with Podrover. These all fit:

  • Podrover - Track and collect podcast reviews
  • Podrover - Keep track of podcast reviews
  • Podrover - Stay on top of your podcast reviews

As I was listening to Release Notes today, Joe came up with an interesting proposal: an app should have a subtitle.

Call it, subtitle, payoff, short description. Manton calls it tag line. The name is irrelevant. It should be that “something” that tells me (potential customer) what’s the app about. Some examples:

  • Simple and easy to use Twitter client
  • Write you notes and synch them on any device
  • Easy backup for your pictures

Maybe the limit for this should be around 80 characters. When I browse the App Store I often see truncated titles, which are not helpful at all. The subtitle is a good idea.