App Ops Desk · Issue #21

Localization freeze for store and app

A half-translated release is worse than an English-only release. Solo founders get crushed when app strings, screenshots, and store metadata update on different clocks.

Read time: 6 min Localization Metadata Pairs with Issues #3 and #13
One action this week: Pick locales in scope for the next version. Everything else stays on the previous frozen set — including screenshots.

One freeze, three surfaces

  1. App strings in the binary
  2. Store metadata (description, keywords, What’s New)
  3. Screenshots / previews per locale

If any surface is incomplete, either finish it or exclude the locale from this version’s update.

Failure modes

  • New English screenshots with old translated screenshots
  • What’s New translated, description not
  • App partially localized so reviewers see mixed UI
  • Machine translation pushed without a native pass on paywall/legal

Locale checklist

Locale: de
[ ] App strings complete for changed features
[ ] Store description / keywords updated
[ ] What’s New updated
[ ] Screenshots match binary UI
[ ] Support URL still valid
[ ] Paywall/legal readable

Bottom line

Locales ship as a set. Incomplete localization is a product decision — freeze or finish, do not freestyle per file.

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