The listing's searchable fields were chosen before Vault became an authenticator with duress features, and without evidence:
- Name: "Vault – Open Source Backup". Nobody searches "open source authenticator" or "offline backup" (Apple suggests neither, even typed in full).
- Subtitle: "2FA & Encrypted Notes".
- Keywords:
2fa,backup,secure,note,authenticator,totp,authy,paper,pdf,qr,code,encrypted. They spend bytes on unsearched words ("paper", "pdf", "qr") and repeat "2fa". They also include "authy", another app's trademark, which App Review rejects under guideline 2.3.7.
The name, subtitle and keywords are the only listing text Apple indexes. The description and promotional text aren't.
Research (US store, 2026-09-29)
With no paid ASO tool, I used two free sources, which give order but no absolute volumes:
- Demand: Apple's search suggestions (
MZSearchHints). For each phrase, the shortest prefix at which Apple suggests it, and its position there.
- Competition and intent: the iTunes Search API's top results, with their rating counts.
| Phrase |
Suggested at |
Leading apps (ratings) |
Verdict |
| authenticator app |
"au", #1 |
Microsoft 703k, Google 1.19M, Duo 2.29M |
Must be in the name; ranking top-5 is out of reach, but relevance counts |
| 2fa authenticator |
"2f", #1 |
2FAS 35k, Google, Microsoft |
Name |
| authenticator |
"authe", #5 |
as above |
Name |
| one time password |
"one ti", #1 |
One-Time Password 0, "2FA Vault" 4 |
Keywords: weak competition |
| password notes |
"password n", #1 |
Secure Notepad 13k, P-Note 0 |
Keywords (with "notes" in the subtitle) |
| otp / otp authenticator |
"otp", #4 / #2 |
OTP Auth 476, TOTP Authenticator 170 |
Keywords: weak competition |
| totp |
"totp", #2 |
TOTP Authenticator – Fast 2FA 3.9k |
Keywords |
| mfa |
"mf", #2 |
MFA Authenticator 112 |
Keywords |
| two step verification |
"two s", #3 |
VIP Access 139, Step Two 188 |
Keywords |
| secure / private / secret / hidden notes |
"x n", #2 |
Secure Notepad 13k, Standard Notes 3.7k, Locked Notes 375, Notesnook 657 |
Subtitle + keywords: winnable |
| encrypted notes |
"encr", #7 |
Standard Notes 3.7k, Notebox 6 |
Keywords |
| duress |
"dure", #9 |
"Duress" 1, "duress safe app" 0 |
Keywords: tiny, but exactly Vault's audience |
| vault, secure vault, hidden vault |
"vau", #1 |
photo-hiding apps, 1.0M and 383k |
Wrong intent; "vault" is in the name anyway |
| password manager |
"pas", #2 |
Passwords 801k, 1Password 41k |
Skip: Vault isn't one, and saying so would mislead |
| seed phrase, recovery phrase, paper backup, pdf backup, offline backup, backup codes |
never suggested |
— |
Skip: no demand |
Apple combines the name, subtitle and keywords when matching a search, so "one time password" matches with "one", "time" and "password" anywhere in them, and a word needn't appear twice.
Change
- Name:
Vault – 2FA Authenticator (25 of 30). It carries the top three phrases. The iTunes Search API finds no app with this name, and the home-screen name stays "Vault".
- Subtitle:
Secure Notes & Offline Backups (30 of 30).
- Keywords:
otp,totp,mfa,one,time,password,two,step,verification,private,secret,encrypted,hidden,codes,duress (98 of 100 bytes). No word repeats one from the name, subtitle or company name, and none is another app's name.
Later, not in this ticket
- Each extra localisation adds a keyword field, and the US store also indexes some, such as es-MX (see GPS-11).
- Check real impressions in App Store Connect's analytics about 4 weeks after launch, and revisit.
Done when
fastlane/metadata/en-US/name.txt, subtitle.txt and keywords.txt hold the above, and fastlane lanes still passes. It reaches App Store Connect with the next release, or a metadata upload.
