Promotional and price claims in a Play listing

Play's metadata policy restricts promotional wording in listing text. It covers four kinds of claim: price and promotion, performance or ranking, anything implying a Google Play programme or award, and a direct call to action.

The policy is about the claim, not about a list of forbidden words, which is why searching for a word list is the wrong approach: the same word can be ordinary English in one sentence and a price claim in the next.

Why it is easy to miss

A listing can sit in the store for years carrying wording the policy restricts, because the consequence is not always a rejection you get told about. That is what makes it worth checking before you submit rather than waiting to be told.

Rewriting it

Replace the claim with the thing that earned it. "Best photo editor" asserts a ranking; "Photo editor with layer masks" states a capability, and the capability is also what someone searches for.

Where it applies

The policy covers the app title and the short description most strictly. Promotional language deeper in the full description is treated more leniently, but the same rewrite usually improves it anyway.

How to tell whether a phrase is a claim

Ask what would have to be true for it to be accurate, and whether a reader could check it. "Sorts your library automatically" is checkable by opening the app. "The best library app" is not checkable by anyone, which is what makes it a ranking claim rather than a description.

Where this comes from: these Play checks come from rejections and warnings measured on our own submissions, not only from the documentation.

Source: Play metadata policy (promotional content), verified 2026-09-15