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Specifying Synonyms for Your App Name

Provide alternative names for your app that are more familiar or easier for users to speak.

Overview

When engaging your app’s services through Siri, users must include the name of your app in any spoken requests. To simplify those requests, you can provide Siri with a list of synonyms for your app name.

To define synonyms for your app name, include the INAlternativeAppNames key in the Info.plist file of your iOS app or WatchKit extension. (watchOS apps don’t inherit the synonyms of their iOS app, so you must declare them explicitly in both places). Place this key at the top level of your property list, configure it as an array of dictionaries, and add the following additional keys to each dictionary:

INAlternativeAppName

(Required) A string containing the alternative name by which users may refer to your app. Alternatively, specify a variable name that’s present in your app’s localized InfoPlist.strings files.

INAlternativeAppNamePronunciationHint

(Optional) A string containing a pronunciation hint for the alternate name, formatted in a “sounds like” format. Alternatively, specify a variable name that’s present in your app’s localized InfoPlist.strings files.

To localize your app name and pronunciation hints, specify variable names (instead of actual values) for the INAlternativeAppName and INAlternativeAppNamePronunciationHint keys of each entry. In your app’s InfoPlist.strings files, include the variable names as localization keys and set their values to appropriately localized strings. For example, you might set the value of the INAlternativeAppName key to APP_NAME_SYNONYM_1 and include an entry in your InfoPlist.strings file such as the following:

APP_NAME_SYNONYM_1 = "Localized Name 1"

If you use a variable name for a key, you must provide an entry in your app’s base localization at a minimum. If the system can’t find a specific value for the key in the current localization, it uses the base localization as a fallback.

You may specify no more than three dictionaries in the array associated with the INAlternativeAppNames key. This limit is per localization, so each localized version of your Info.plist file may have its own set of alternatives.

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