Apple is planning to significantly enhance the discoverability of applications in the App Store by introducing AI tagging technology. This innovative feature has been released with the iOS26 developer beta version, aimed at more accurately categorizing and presenting applications.
Although these AI-generated tags are not yet visible in the public-facing App Store and do not currently impact the existing search algorithms, their rollout signals a major transformation in the App Store's search ranking mechanism.
According to a recent analysis by Appfigures, an application intelligence provider, it is suggested that the metadata of application screenshots has started to influence search rankings, and it is believed that Apple may extract text from the screenshot descriptions. The company noted that previously only the application name, subtitle, and keyword list were considered for search ranking.
However, Apple clearly stated at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC25) that while screenshots indeed affect the discoverability of applications, their data extraction method is not OCR technology as Appfigures speculated, but rather based on advanced AI technology. Apple explained that AI will extract information that might have been overlooked from application descriptions, category information, screenshots, and other metadata, thereby assigning more precise tags. This means developers do not need to deliberately add keywords in their screenshots.
Apple stated that this technology will help better categorize applications and promised to eventually give developers control over managing which AI-assigned tags are associated with their apps. Additionally, Apple assured developers that before these tags are officially launched and cover global App Store users, they will be reviewed by professionals.
In the future, developers will need to deeply understand these AI tags and strategically leverage them to maximize exposure and discovery opportunities for their applications.
