Your app's description

Your app's description consists of multiple sections. Learn how to create a great description to encourage customers to download your app.

Note  To see how an app listing appears to customers, check out How your app appears in the Windows Store.

Description

A good description makes your app stand out and helps potential customers decide to buy it quickly. Here are some ideas to help you write a description that will catch a shopper's eye.

Follow your two-sentence hook with additional benefits, in-app purchase opportunities, and other details about your app that your customers will want to know. Make sure you include any disclosures or information that you are required to provide under the law in the countries where you are distributing your app. For example, you may need to let customers know that your app features in-app purchases, or provide info on how customers can contact you.

• Grab attention in the first sentences. The first words in your description are the most important, so make sure they grab and hold a shopper's attention. Think about what you can say in one or two sentences to explain your app and make someone decide they want it.

• Use lists and short paragraphs. Potential customers may just glance quickly at your app's to decide if it's something they're interested in. Breaking up the content by using lists (when appropriate) makes it easier to scan.

  Note  Adding a list of app features is also a great way to make it easy to immediately tell what your app does. This list appears directly below the app description.

• Avoid dry language. Write your description using engaging language. Be sure the wording clearly describes what your app does, but try to say it in a way that doesn't sound boring. For many apps, a casual and friendly tone works well.

• Use a length that is just right. A good description reads quickly, but also includes enough info to get the reader interested and explain what the app does. A complex app will need more sentences to describe it; a simple app may need only a few. In most cases the right length is somewhere over 200 words, but well under 3000.

• Be clear about trial periods and in-app purchases. If you offer a free trial of your app, be sure to explain how that trial works, so that customers understand how long they have to use the app and/or which features are limited. It's also a good idea to mention what types of in-app purchases are available, particularly if they have significant impacts on your app's functionality. (See Plan for monetization for more info about business models.)

• Get ideas by reviewing descriptions of similar apps in the store. Take a look at how other developers describe their apps. This also helps you figure out what you can emphasize that is different about your app.

• Don't forget to check the spelling and grammar. A description with lots of misspelled words or mangled sentences doesn't reflect well on the quality of your app. Be sure to review your description (or have someone else take a look) to check for errors.

App features

These are short summaries of your app's key features. They are displayed to the customer as a list in the Overview tab of your app's listing page in the Windows Store. Keep these brief, with just a few words per feature.

Keywords

Keywords are single words or short phrases that are not displayed to customers, but can help your app appear in search results related to the keyword.

When deciding on what keywords to use, think about the words that customers might use when searching for apps like yours. Be sure not to use any keywords that are not actually relevant to your app.

Description of update

For an updated version of an app that has already been listed in the Windows Store, you should provide a description of the new functionality added to the updated release, or other information about what has changed.

It is important to be clear and complete when describing these changes. If the information in this field does not clearly describe the updates, your app's new release could fail certification.

The information is shown in the Release Notes section of the Details tab of your app's listing page in the Windows Store. The update description is also available to customers who already have your app and want more info about the latest release before updating.

Additional license terms

Leave this field blank if you want your app to be licensed to customers under the terms of the Standard Application License Terms (found at the end of your App Developer Agreement).

If your license terms are different from the Standard Application License Terms, enter them here. If they don't fit in this field, enter a URL where customers can read them. These terms are displayed in the Overview tab of your app's listing page in the Windows Store.

Screenshots

Screenshots are images of your app that are displayed to your customers in the Overview tab of your app's listing page in the Windows Store. This lets you show what your app looks like and illustrate its key features.

Screenshot images must be at least 1366 x 768 pixels (or 768 x 1366 pixels, for portrait orientation) and stored as a .png file that is smaller than 2 MB. Each image must have a caption that is 200 characters or less.

Your screen shots should show your app doing what it does best, in situations that reflect the way people use it. Use images to communicate the flow of your app's UI and the main screens or elements that the user will see. Especially for games, use screen shots that are exciting and that hint at the story or mechanics in a way that builds interest.

See Choosing your app images for more guidelines for screen shots.

You must provide at least one screenshot. If you want to provide more than one screenshot, upload them in the order you would like them to appear in the app listing overview (from left to right).

Tip  You can change the order in which the screen shots appear in the app listing overview by deleting the images from the Description page and uploading them again in the order you'd like them to appear. However, if you do this after your app has been listed in the Store, you'll need to submit your app for certification again to make those changes show up.

Promotional images

The Windows Store editorial team uses promotional images when they feature your app in the Windows Store. Providing promotional images for your app doesn't guarantee that your app will be featured, but not providing them means that it won't be considered for promotion. See Choosing your app images for more guidelines for screen shots.

Recommended hardware bullets

Describe the hardware configurations that your app requires to run. This is especially important if your app requires hardware that might not be available on every computer. This info is displayed to the user as a list in the Details tab of your app's listing, so be keep the item descriptions as brief as possible.

App website

Enter the URL of the web page for your app. This URL must point to a page on your own website, not your app's web listing in the Windows Store. This is displayed to your customers in the Overview tab of your app's listing.

Note  .

Tip  Your website can link directly back to the app listing by using the Windows Store protocol.

Support contact info

Enter the URL of the web page where your customers can go for support on your app (or an email address to contact for support). This is displayed to your customers in the Overview tab of your app's listing.

Important  Microsoft doesn't provide your customers with support for your app.

Privacy policy

Any app that enables the Internet capability (or otherwise collects or transmits any user’s personal information) requires a privacy policy. Enter the URL for your privacy policy here, if your app needs one. This is displayed to your customers in the Overview tab of your app's listing.

Note  To pass certification, apps that require a privacy policy also need to provide access to the policy in the Settings pane.

If possible, the privacy policy should be in the same language as the description page.

Important  Microsoft doesn't provide a default privacy policy for your app. Likewise, your app is not covered by any Microsoft privacy policy. If your app requires a privacy policy, you must provide one. To determine if your app requires a privacy policy, review the App Developer Agreement.

In-app offer description

If your app provides in-app offers, provide the description that your customers will see when your app presents the offer to customers for purchase.

Enter these elements for each in-app offer:

Note   If your app supports more than one language, make sure to provide in-app offer descriptions in each language.

See How to enable in-app purchases from your app for more info on how to add the identifier to your app's code.

Build date: 6/20/2013