Guideline 2.3.7: App name, subtitle & keyword abuse

Guideline 2.3.7 - Performance - Accurate Metadata

We noticed that your app's metadata includes the following
inappropriate or irrelevant content: keywords that reference other
popular apps or trademarked terms.

Attempting to game the system by packing your metadata with
trademarked terms, popular app names, pricing information, or other
irrelevant phrases is not appropriate for the App Store.

Next Steps

Please remove all inappropriate or irrelevant terms from your app's
name, subtitle, keywords, and description, and choose a unique app
name that accurately describes your app.

What it actually means

Apple checked the words around your app (its name, subtitle, keyword list, screenshots, and description) and found something that's there to win search results rather than describe the app. The guideline asks for a unique name and keywords that "accurately describe your app," and bans packing metadata with trademarked terms, popular app names, pricing information, or irrelevant phrases "just to game the system."

The concrete rules, straight from the guideline: app names are limited to 30 characters. Names, subtitles, screenshots, and previews must not include prices or terms that don't belong to that metadata type, so no "Free!" in the name. Subtitles must not reference other apps or make unverifiable product claims ("the #1 tracker"). And Apple reserves the right to quietly edit your keywords or "take other appropriate steps", so some violations get silently stripped rather than rejected, which is worse for you, because you never learn what happened.

Why AI-built apps hit this

The most common version is baked into the name itself. Apps get called "GPT Journal" or "ChatGPT for Fitness" because the AI feature felt like the selling point, but "GPT" and "ChatGPT" are another company's brand, and Apple treats trademarked terms in your metadata as gaming the system. The same goes for stuffing "Instagram," "Notion," or any competitor into your keyword field hoping to catch their search traffic.

AI tools make it worse in two quiet ways. Ask one to "write my App Store keywords" and it will happily produce a list padded with big app names and irrelevant high-volume terms; it's optimising for the search ranking you asked for, not for Apple's rules. And AI-suggested names skew long and descriptive ("MealMind: AI Meal Planner & Grocery Assistant"), sailing past the 30-character limit you may not have known existed.

How to fix it

1. Find the flagged term. Re-read the rejection; Apple usually quotes the specific word or phrase. If it doesn't, scan your name, subtitle, and keyword list for any other company's brand or app name.
2. Rename if the name is the problem. Pick a unique name of 30 characters or fewer that describes your app without borrowing anyone's brand. Describe the capability, not the technology behind it: "AI writing assistant" is fine; "ChatGPT" is not.
3. Rewrite the keyword field. Keep only terms a real user would type to find your app. Delete competitor names, celebrity names, and trending words that don't apply. Fewer accurate keywords beat a stuffed list Apple will edit anyway.
4. Sweep the rest of the metadata. Check the subtitle for references to other apps and claims you can't verify, and remove any pricing ("free," "50% off") from the name, subtitle, and screenshots. Price belongs in the price field.
5. Update and resubmit. In App Store Connect, open My Apps → your app → the current version page. Edit the name and subtitle there; the keyword field is on the same page under App Information for the version. Save, reply in Resolution Center, and resubmit.

What to write in Resolution Center

Adapt this to what you actually changed; don't send it unmodified:

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback. We've revised the app's metadata:

- Renamed the app from "[old name]" to "[new name]" ([N] characters),
  which no longer includes [the trademarked term / another app's name].
- Removed [terms] from the keyword list; remaining keywords describe
  only this app's actual functionality.
- Reviewed the subtitle and screenshots and removed [references to
  other apps / pricing language].

The metadata now describes the app accurately without referencing other
brands. We'd appreciate another review.

Thank you,
[Your name]

How to avoid it next time

Name the app for what it does for the user, not for the model or trend powering it; technology brands date quickly anyway, and the fastest route through review is metadata with nothing to argue about. When you ask an AI tool for keywords, add one line to the prompt: "no other app names, no trademarks, no pricing, only terms that accurately describe this app." That single constraint removes almost everything 2.3.7 rejects.

Related guides: 2.3.3: Screenshots that don't show the app (the other common metadata rejection) and 4.3: Spam (when the whole app, not just the metadata, reads as a copy of others).