Welcome to this month’s edition of ASO Monthly — your go-to update on what’s moving the needle in App Store Optimization.
We break down the latest algorithm changes, trends, and experiments across app stores, alongside CRO insights, tool updates, and developer platform news.
📬 Subscribe to our newsletter to get ASO Monthly in your inbox every month:
Subscribe to the ASO Monthly Newsletter
Get the latest ASO updates straight to your inbox, once a month.
January 20
Google Play Testing “Try Before You Buy” for Paid Games
Google Play appears to be working on a new “Try before you buy” feature for paid Android games, uncovered through an APK teardown of the Play Store version 49.6.19-29. The feature would allow developers to opt in and offer users a time-limited free trial of the full game, with the trial period beginning once the user launches the app. After the allotted time expires, users would be prompted to purchase the game to continue playing, and importantly, any progress made during the trial would carry over upon purchase. From an ASO perspective, giving users temporary access to paid content could significantly increase installs and conversion rates, as hands-on experience lowers purchase hesitation and drives stronger monetization potential.
Source: Here
Apple Removes Blue Background from App Store Search Ads
Apple began testing a redesigned App Store search interface in January that removes the light blue background from sponsored results making it significantly harder for users to distinguish paid advertisements from organic app listings. Spotted on iOS 26.3 beta, the change means promoted apps now look almost identical to organic listings, with only a tiny “Ad” label next to the app icon serving as the differentiator. If this actually rolls out widely, it may result in much higher brand cannibalization as well as traffic going to competitors bidding on your app’s branded keywords.
Source: Here
Source: 9to5Mac
Expanded Ad Placements Coming to App Store Search Results
Apple officially confirmed that starting March 3, 2026, App Store search results will feature more than one ad placement. Ads will no longer be limited to the top position. They will also appear further down within organic results. The rollout begins in the UK and Japan, and by the end of March, it will expand globally to all Apple Ads regions. Once this rolls out, it may be a blessing in disguise for apps investing heavily in organic defense campaigns because this might actually reduce cannibalization.
Source: Here
Google Play Console Adds “Save for Later” to Publishing Workflow
In January, Google introduced a Save for later feature in the Play Console’s publishing workflow that gives developers more granular control over when specific changes are sent for review and publication, instead of bundling all pending updates together. With this update, teams can now hold back selected changes that aren’t ready (such as marketing tweaks or experiments) while still submitting urgent fixes or ready-to-release updates, and those held-back changes remain editable and can be re-added to the review queue later. This also works alongside Play Console’s pre-review checks so developers can address flagged issues without delaying unrelated updates, ultimately helping streamline release timing and reduce the impact of review rejections.
Source: Here
Major Algorithm Shifts Observed in the UAE App Store
During January, Apple appears to have significantly adjusted its App Store ranking algorithm in the UAE, leading to noticeable visibility fluctuations across multiple categories. While the exact mechanics are still under investigation, early patterns suggest that several apps lost rankings on loosely relevant generic keywords while gaining traction on others, indicating a possible refinement in relevance weighting. If your app is live in the UAE storefront, it’s important to closely monitor keyword visibility trends, category rankings, and overall performance metrics to assess the impact and adjust your ASO strategy accordingly.
Source: AppTweak Algorithm Monitoring Tool
Interesting Reads/Listens/Watches
The Evolution of Mobile Growth: What’s Changed in 2025 | AppTweak
Why Apple and Google are pushing companies to respond to low app ratings | AppFollow
ASO with Experts:
If you haven’t integrated AI into your ASO workflow yet, you’re likely spending time on manual work that can be automated. Tools like Perplexity Deep Research can help you identify seasonality, cultural trends, and shifting user preferences to proactively shape your creative strategy reducing the need for constant reactive testing. During metadata ideation and analysis, models like Gemini and ChatGPT can accelerate keyword clustering, sentiment analysis, and semantic behavior understanding, helping you create most effective metadata. Many teams are also building AI-powered dashboards to automate metadata generation and prevent cross-localization errors, for example, instantly flagging keyword duplication between US, Arabic, Russian, Chinese Simplified and Spanish instead of manually reviewing each field.
Talha Mumtaz, Growth Manager
