Google Play app description formatting
AndroidFormattingGoogle PlayAndroid Problem Overview
I've made an Android application that is available on Google Play. Now I want to add some more formatting to my app description (eg. indent, links, lists..). But I cannot find any website where possible formatting is listed. Google Help pages cannot help me either on this subject. There exists a lot of different formats and I don't really know which one to use (eg. HTML or wiki formatting..)
I could test it with trial and error, but that would take some time, because Google Play only refreshes after 2-3 hours. And while I'm testing, my app description would be rather ugly if the wrong format was used.
tl;dr Is there a list of all possible formatting I could use in the app description for Google Play?
Android Solutions
Solution 1 - Android
Experimentally, I've discovered that you can provide:
- Single line breaks are ignored; double line breaks open a new paragraph.
- Single line breaks can be enforced by ending a line with two spaces (similar to Markdown).
- A limited set of HTML tags (optionally nested), specifically:
<b>…</b>
for boldface,<i>…</i>
for italics,<u>…</u>
for underline,<br />
to enforce a single line break,- I could not find any way to get strikethrough working (neither HTML or Markdown style).
- A fully-formatted URL such as
http://google.com
; this appears as a hyperlink.
(Beware that trying to use an HTML<a>
tag for a custom description does not work and breaks the formatting.) - HTML character entities are supported, such as
→
(→),™
(™) and®
(®); consult this W3 reference for the exhaustive list. - UTF-8 encoded characters are supported, such as é, €, £, ‘, ’, ★ and ☆.
- Indentation isn't strictly possible, but using a bullet and em space character looks reasonable (
• 
yields "• "). - Emoji are also supported (though on the website depends on the user's OS & browser).
Special notes concerning only Google Play app:
- Some HTML tags only work in the app:
<blockquote>…</blockquote>
to indent a paragraph of text,<small>…</small>
for slightly smaller text,<big>…</big>
for slightly larger text,<sup>…</sup>
and<sub>…</sub>
for super- and subscripts.<font color="#a32345">…</font>
for setting font colors in HEX code.
- Some symbols do not appear correctly, such as ‣.
- All these notes also apply to the app's "What's New" section.
Special notes concerning only Google Play website:
- All HTML formatting appears as plain text in the website's "What's New" section (i.e. users will see the HTML source).
Solution 2 - Android
Currently (July 2015), HTML escape sequences (• •
) do not work in browser version of Play Store, they're displayed as text. Though, Play Store app handles them as expected.
•
So, if you're after the unicode bullet point in your app/update description [that's what's got you here, most likely], just copy-paste the bullet characterPS You can also use unicode input combo to get the character
Linux: CtrlShiftu 2022
Enter or Space
Mac: Hold ⌥ 2022
release ⌥
Windows: Hold Alt 2022
release Alt
Mac and Windows require some setup, read on Wikipedia
PPS If you're feeling creative, here's a good link with more copypastable symbols, but don't go too crazy, nobody likes clutter in what they read.
Solution 3 - Android
As a matter of fact, HTML character entites also work : http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/entities.html.
It lets you insert special characters like bullets '•' (•), '™' (™), ... the HTML way.
Note that you can also (and probably should) type special characters directly in the form fields if you can enter international characters.
=> one consideration here is whether or not you care about third-party sites that collect data on your app from Google Play : some might simply take it as HTML content, others might insert it in a native application that just understand plain Unicode...
Solution 4 - Android
This is not bullet but you can consider it. As there is nothing like big dot.
I used below symbol in the description and its working fine.
⚫ Black Circle
New Moon
Full Moon
Diamond With a Dot
Small Orange Diamond
⚙ Gear
Black Flag
White Flag
▶ Play Button
⏩ Fast-Forward Button
⭕ Heavy Large Circle
✴ Eight-Pointed Star
◼ Black Medium Square
◽ White Medium-Small Square
◾ Black Medium-Small Square
⬛ Black Large Square
You just need to copy and paste it over description. Below is the result.
Solution 5 - Android
Currently (June 2016) typing in the link as http://www.example.com will only produce plain text.
You can now however put in an html anchor :
<a href="http://www.example.com">My Example Site</a>
Solution 6 - Android
Include emojis; copy and paste them to the description:
Solution 7 - Android
Title, Short Description and Developer Name
-
HTML formatting is not supported in these fields, but you can include UTF-8 symbols and Emoji: ✓☆
Full Description and What’s New:
- For the Long Description and What’s New Section, there is a wider variety of HTML codes you can apply to format and structure your text. However, they will look slightly different in Google Play Store app and web.
- Here is a table with codes that you can use for formatting Description and What’s New fields for your app on Google Play (originally appeared on ASO Stack blog):
Also you can refer this..
Solution 8 - Android
<br>
seems to be the best and only way that currently works on the app version to create a new line break. I have tried it successfully in a review, as well as unsuccessfully tried all other Unicode/HTML newline-related characters that the Wikipedia page for newlines would tell me.
I used <br>
with |
immediately on either side, using no closing tag, and it magically created a single line break without revealing the source or screwing anything up.
TLDR: <br>
lets you successfully utilize single line breaks in Google Play app -- unlike everything else I tried (a lot).
P.S. I have no clue how to make the thing show source instead of being used as source. !^( Now I do, and I know it works on both the desktop and mobile sites. !!
Additionally, upon searching for how to make it show the source, I stumbled upon this. <del></del>
Solution 9 - Android
Another alternative to cut, copy and paste emojis is: