At the end of 2024, we started promoting a VR application for Apple Vision Pro. This marked our first experience navigating the new Vision Pro App Store – without access to the standard ASO tools. While we initially encountered several limitations, we developed effective workarounds and achieved some early, measurable results that we're now ready to share.
HaloSphere is an immersive virtual travel app that offers users a blend of iconic destinations and rare, endangered corners of the planet. It combines engaging features such as interactive learning and offline access, delivering a seamless and educational VR experience.
To increase organic impressions and downloads of the HaloSphere app in the VR App Store.
The Vision Pro App Store operates as a separate ecosystem with highly limited marketing capabilities. Notably, it lacks the ability to:
Given these limitations, we developed a step-by-step promotion strategy focused on manual optimization and maximizing the use of available channels.
The first step was to research the ASO services market. Initially, we encountered a complete lack of transparency within the VR section of the App Store, which offered no functionality for:
This is because none of the major ASO services have yet planned to support applications for Vision Pro. However, given the rapid growth of the market and feedback from the ASO community, we anticipate new solutions emerging in the near future.
Because of the absence of tools for competitor research in the VR App Store, we gathered data manually via Google and direct searches within the store. As the niche is still in its early stages of development, this presented us with a strategic advantage.
We manually developed the semantic core.
This provided a solid foundation for textual optimization of metadata.
Initially, the app supported only one localization – English (U.S.). Over time, we updated the metadata three times and gradually expanded localization to 14 languages, covering the key regions where Vision Pro is available.
We localized the Title and Subtitle indexing fields for each region, which expanded potential reach and significantly improved search visibility.
Locations covered:
At this stage, we incorporated cross-localization strategies: for example, recognizing that French is spoken not only in France but also in regions like the United States and Canada. This allowed us to leverage alternate locales to expand semantic coverage. By localizing the app for French in the Canadian App Store, for instance, we improved visibility for French-language terms within that market.
This approach enabled keyword synchronization across countries sharing the same language and allowed us to maximize the use of all available indexing fields.
1600% increase in downloads due to localization: find the details in the Mod-Master case study.
Results
Following the first metadata update, the app began to show a steady increase in organic impressions. The primary driver of this growth was traffic from App Store Search. The peak daily impressions rose from 30 to 92, while the average daily impressions increased from 20 to 60.
The app also began appearing in curated selections and category listings (Browse). While Browse currently accounts for only about 7% of total impressions, its upward trend indicates promising potential for continued growth.
The peak number of impressions per day increased by 206.7%.
The average number of impressions increased by 200%.
Browse (selections and categories) – shows positive growth, about 7% of the total number of impressions.
Before the metadata updates, the app’s peak daily first downloads were just one. After implementing the new metadata, this number increased to five per day.
The average number of first downloads before the updates was around 0.3 per day, rising to two per day by early January.
The peak number of first downloads per day increased by 400%.
The average number of first downloads increased by 566.7%.
In the days immediately following the update, daily downloads peaked at 15, with the average rising to approximately four per day.
The average number of total downloads increased by 300-400%.
The peak number of total downloads increased by about 1400%.
The traditional approach to collecting and optimizing metadata has proven to be effective: textual metadata in the VR App Store significantly influences indexing for key terms and helps boost your app’s organic visibility.
However, without dedicated ASO services for VR applications, continued growth will require ongoing adaptation of traditional ASO techniques. Following our initial efforts, we plan to:
The lack of reliable data on term popularity and indexing makes the optimization process particularly challenging. As a result, we currently rely on our own expertise and the support of professional communities such as ASO Busters. We also continue to test new ideas and hypotheses, which is what drives our progress.
Stay tuned – we’ll continue to share updates on this case and new results in future publications.
