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I'm working on a new iOS App, and it has a pretty long name, so I display a shortened version on the homescreen by chaing the Bundle Display Name value in the Info.plist file. However, I want to display the full name when the user searches for it through spotlight. How can I implement this?

Thanks

rmaddy
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Gavy
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1 Answers1

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Your app can have two names:

  • Bundle Display Name, which is the name that is displayed on the home screen (Springboard)
  • iTunes Connect name, which is the name you give apple when you submit your app to the Appstore

Spotlight indexes both names for search. so you can have the longer name as your iTunesConnect name and the shortened version on the bundle display name. And both will be searchable.

ABros
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    Spotlight (on an iOS device) does not index the app name as shown in iTunes. One of my apps has a longer name in iTunes (as shown to the user in the app store) and a short name under the icon. A spotlight search only finds the short name. – rmaddy Nov 25 '13 at 00:43
  • Can someone explain why this answer is being upvoted? Unless I'm mistaken Spotlight has no knowledge of the app name in iTunes. – rmaddy Nov 25 '13 at 05:47
  • it does. example: "Zoopla Property Search" is the full name app but on springboard it only shows as Zoopla, a search for "Property Search" in spotlight also returns Zoopla as first result. More than happy to provide screenshots if needed! – ABros Nov 25 '13 at 17:03
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    Thanks but oddly, on my own iOS device (running iOS 7), I don't see this behavior with my own app. I'm not convinced we are talking about the same thing. – rmaddy Nov 25 '13 at 17:07
  • The method proposed here seems to be valid. Agoda is one of the main competitors from Booking when it comes to hotel reservations. If you download Agoda app on you phone, and search for Booking in spotlight, you will get Agoda in the search results. Funny thing is Agoda's name on the App Store is "agoda - hotel booking in 56,000 cities worldwide" – Esteban Bouza Mar 12 '15 at 03:01
  • @ABros Is this documented somewhere? – Clay Bridges Jan 11 '18 at 16:54
  • Seems to be incidental, but incorrect. Rightmove also has Property Search in AppStore listing and they don't show on the same search for "Property Search" in Spotlight – Alex Ioja-Yang Jul 26 '18 at 09:48