Promotional text vs description: which App Store fields you can change without an update

App Store Connect splits your product page into things you can change on the live app and things that wait for the next version. Apple’s table of required, localizable and editable properties marks the properties that “can be localized and edited at any time without submitting a new version of your app.” Everything else changes with a version. Here is the product page, field by field.

Which App Store fields need a new version?

Sources: the editable-properties table above, Apple’s Platform version information reference, its product page guide, and the Add an app icon page, which says changing the icon after publishing means creating and uploading a new version.

Promotional text vs description: what’s the difference?

They sit next to each other on the product page and do different jobs.

The practical rule follows from the third row. Anything that will be out of date in a month (a sale, a seasonal event, a feature that’s coming soon) goes in promotional text, because you can take it out again without shipping. Anything that should stay true for the life of a version goes in the description. Apple also says to leave specific prices out of the description, which is easier to follow once you know the promotional text is the place for a sale.

Putting keywords into promotional text doesn’t help. Apple says so on both its search and product page guides, and the keyword field has its own rules.

What’s the difference between App Information and version information?

App Store Connect has two places for metadata, and the API mirrors them.

App Information is shared across all versions and platforms of the app. In the App Store Connect API it’s an appInfoLocalizations record holding the name, subtitle, privacy policy URL and privacy choices URL, with the categories and age rating on the appInfo itself.

Platform version information belongs to one version on one platform. Its appStoreVersionLocalizations record holds the description, keywords, promotional text, What’s New, support URL and marketing URL, and the version also carries the screenshots, app previews, copyright, version number, App Review information and release settings.

That split explains the first trap. App Information isn’t tied to a version, so it’s easy to assume you can edit it any time, and for most of it you can’t. Apple’s table marks the name, subtitle, categories, age rating and privacy policy URL as not editable at any time, and the product page guide ties subtitle changes to a new version. In the API, while an update is in preparation the app has two App Info records, one for the live version and one for the update, and the update’s record is the one you edit.

The second trap is the promotional text itself. It is a version field, stored right next to the description, yet it’s the only marketing copy you can change on a version that’s already live. Tools that lock every version field once a version is approved get this one wrong, AppMeta included for now (more on that below).

When does a version accept edits?

Apple lists the statuses in which you can upload and submit screenshots for a version: Prepare for Submission, Invalid Binary, Rejected, Metadata Rejected and Developer Rejected (Apple’s screenshot upload help). In other words, a version you’re preparing or one that came back from review. If you spot a mistake after submitting, Apple’s route is to remove the version from review, which sets it back to Developer Rejected; the review starts over when you resubmit (Remove a submission from review).

To start a new version, the current one has to be Ready for Distribution. App Store Connect copies the live version’s metadata into the new one, so a description fix starts from what’s already there (Create a new version). You still need a build: a version can’t be submitted without one, and Apple’s steps include uploading a new build with an incremented build string. So a description-only update is still a full release with a new binary.

What can you change without a new version?

Beyond promotional text, Apple’s editable-properties table marks these as editable at any time:

• Price, pricing start and end dates, availability, the pre-order release date, tax category and the last-compatible version setting
• App Privacy data types (the privacy label)
• App Review information and copyright
• Primary language and the custom license agreement
• The routing app coverage file, for navigation apps
• Accessibility support, for the Accessibility Nutrition Labels
• Phased release, which you can pause within its seven-day window

Several review tracks also run without a new app version once your app has an approved one:

The custom product page rules are on Apple’s submission page, the test rules on its product page optimization page, and the In-App Purchase rule was clarified in Apple’s release notes on August 19, 2026. A product page optimization test can’t change your default page’s screenshots by itself, but if a treatment wins, Apple lets you apply it to the original product page.

How I plan around it

When a version is in Prepare for Submission, I go through every version field and every App Information field in every localization, because that window is the only time most of them open. Between versions, the levers are promotional text and the review tracks above.

Screenshots follow the same window, and the screenshot guidelines post covers what App Review checks in them. The keyword field is the one I plan furthest ahead, because a keyword change waits for a version just like a description change does.

Where AppMeta fits

AppMeta keeps the same split App Store Connect does. App Information fields (name, subtitle, privacy policy URL) and version fields are separate sections, and each push goes to the right API record. When the newest version on a platform is live, in review or waiting for release, AppMeta locks its version fields and says why, and you can create the next version from inside the app, then copy fields over from the previous one. Before anything is pushed, the preview shows the current App Store Connect value next to your change for every field and localization. AppMeta signs in with an API key you create yourself; the setup guide walks through it.

One gap, plainly: AppMeta applies that version lock to promotional text too. To change promotional text on a live version with no update in progress, use the App Store Connect website for now.