AI answers often start by grouping apps into categories: habit trackers, screenshot tools, budgeting apps, keyboard utilities, meditation apps, or creator tools. If your category is unclear, your app is harder to place.
This is similar to App Store positioning, but broader. The system may care less about Apple’s official category and more about the user’s job: “best app to make invoices”, “app to plan cycling routes”, “tool to track app keywords”, or “app for meal planning with macros.”
Category is not only the App Store category
Apple’s category is broad. AI recommendations usually care about the job the user asked for, the audience, the platform, and the problem being solved.
A finance app can be a budget planner, bill tracker, subscription manager, investment tracker, or invoice maker. A productivity app can be a calendar, task manager, focus timer, note app, or habit tracker. The specific job matters more than the broad shelf.
Use natural category language
Your website, metadata, docs, and comparison pages should describe the app in words users actually use. “Mac ASO workspace” is clearer than a generic “growth platform.”
Use category language in the first visible places: App Store title/subtitle, first screenshot, homepage headline, docs introduction, and comparison pages. If the category appears only in a paragraph near the bottom, the positioning is too weak.
Show proof inside the category
Ratings, reviews, screenshots, use cases, and comparisons help establish that the app belongs in the category and deserves to be recommended.
Avoid category drift
Category drift happens when a product tries to sound bigger by using broad language. “Growth platform” may sound impressive, but “App Store keyword research and competitor tracking for indie iOS founders” is easier to understand and match to a search.
Audit your category from the outside
Ask what category a stranger would put your app in after seeing only the first screenshot and the first paragraph of your website. If the answer is not the category you want, fix those surfaces before writing more content.