Akinator is an app that claims it can read users’ minds and guess the character or celebrity they’re thinking of. It uses a series of questions to identify a person or character from its expansive database and challenges users to try stumping it. While Akinator claims to be a web genie, App Store Optimization requires a different kind of magic. For this week’s App Store Spotlight, we look at Akinator and see if it has the power to climb up the App Store rankings.
On the Apple App Store, Akinator is ranked 46th in the Entertainment category. While it ranks #1 for a large number of terms, most of them are misspellings of its own name, including “acanator.” “akinatoe” and “akinstor.” It is still the top-ranked app for “genie,” “guess the character” and “mind reader,” while it holds other top ten ranks for keywords such as “mind reading free” (#6) and “genius app” (#8). There are still rankings that it can improve, such as “trivia” at #64, “mind puzzles” at #28 and “mental games” at #29.
Akinator’s App Store page begins with a video showing the app in action. It shows the app asking basic questions to guess “Albert Einstein,” then showcases other features such as Aki Points and the language options. The video is voiced to narrate what the app does, providing a quick and effective overview.
The remaining five screenshots show similar features, such as the questions and Hall of Fame. It also shows a Daily Challenge board, which says it showcases the top five Disney villains, but the character spots are blank. This is likely to avoid copyright complaints, which the other screenshots avoid by using historical figures.
As there is room for five more screenshots, it could showcase more features. The description mentions features such as customizing the background and earning Aki Awards, which the video quickly touches on, but including a screenshot of those could provide further information.
Additionally, none of the screenshots include callout text. This could be used to highlight what each image represents, such as “Guess the character” or “Try to stump Akinator.” Without the callout text, the images are less eye-catching and are presented without context.
The app’s name is simply “Akinator,” which uses eight characters. This leaves the app with 22 blank spaces, which could be used to provide more information. For instance, the app could be called “Akinator: Mind Reading Genie” or “Akinator: Character Guess Game,” which would add more keywords the app can index for while offering more information about it.
Similarly, Akinator does not include a subtitle. This leaves the app with 30 blank spaces that could be used for keywords and telling the user about the app. Adding a subtitle like “The character guessing genie” instantly tells users what the app is while adding important terms to the keyword bank.
Akinator’s description does many things right. It presents the value right up front, stating “Akinator can read your mind and tell you what character you are thinking about.” It also includes multiple feature sets that delve into different aspects of the app.
There are still areas where it has room to improve. The lines are not spaced apart, turning three separate lines into one large block of text which is harder to read at a glance. The description could also delve more into the different kinds of characters and individuals it can guess – cartoon characters, celebrities, movie characters, book characters and so on. Highlighting these would appeal to more users if they think they can find a character from a series they enjoy within the app.
The feature sets can also be reformatted to be easier to read. Turning the lengthier text blocks into short bullet lists can make them easier to read at a glance, providing information to users as they scroll through the listing. The features should also list the main aspect of the app to reiterate the value stated in the introduction.
On Google Play, Akinator is the 19th ranked app in the Entertainment category. It’s the top ranked app for “guess that character,” “guess that person” and “guessing,” as well as the fourth highest for “guess who” and eighth for “character.” Its rankings fall a bit for “guess the celebrity” at #19 and “challenge your friends” at #45.
Akinator’s creative set is similar to its iOS ones. The video shares many similar aspects, but instead of displaying gameplay only, it includes the game alongside accompanying text and animations.
The screenshots are identical, although Google Play includes two additional photos – one of the Aki Awards and one of the language options. As with iOS, they do not include callout text, leaving the images to stand on their own.
Akinator’s description is identical on both stores. As such, it is not written with a focus on the keywords.
The description could start with lines such as “Psychic mind-reader” or feature set headings like “Character guessing game.” That would help the app index for those terms, which it’s currently unranked for. Including lower-ranked terms like “Guess the celebrity” could help it improve its rankings for those terms as it gains more clicks.
Turning feature set text into bullet lists is particularly helpful here. Google Play finds keywords from the front of each line, so creating multiple lines that begin with important keywords helps index the app for those.
With a bit of description restructuring, Akinator could improve its indexation and ranking for a number of important terms.
Akinator is a popular app, but for all its mind-reading prowess it has yet to fully uncover the secrets of App Store Optimization. If it were to focus on improving its metadata, both for its iOS title/subtitle and its Google Play description, it could index for more terms. Adding more screenshots with eye-catching callout text and reworking the description to be easier to read at a glance could improve its click through rate and conversions.
As it is, Akinator has a respectable ranking on both stores but has room to improve. With App Store Optimization, it could rise further up the charts and wow even more users.
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