ASO AgencyFood & lifestyle · US iPhone listing
Does their ASO suck?
Listing creative score · first three captured iPhone screenshots
4/10Recognisable. Not convincing.
Tasty shows recipes, community posts and a recipe introduction. The cooking is apparently happening elsewhere. A food app needs to sell more than an excellent scrolling session.
Gab’s verdict · 4/10Gabriel Machuret
One storefront, one language and a dated capture. This is an independent editorial audit, not a client case study.
Gab’s take · Five criteria. Two points each.
The food looks appealing and browsing is recognisable. For a recipe app, that is useful persuasion. The missing part is helping somebody picture themselves actually cooking one of those dishes. Shorten the captions, vary the crops and show one instruction being followed. Give the community a supporting role instead of using two early frames to avoid demonstrating the cooking experience.
Food discovery and recipe breadth give a relevant cooking proposition. A specific meal or cooking benefit would make the opening stronger.
Browsing is visible; following a cooking step is not.
Similar layouts and small headings flatten the visual rhythm.
Two community-led frames delay the actual cooking experience.
Catalogue size and ratings offer little distinctive cooking proof.
0: not earned · 1: useful but incomplete · 2: clearly demonstrated. Judged on the dated opening creative; public metadata provides context. These points assess creative execution, not private conversion or ranking performance. Read the scoring criteria · See all ten verdict levels
Inspect the numbered original, read the problem, then compare the proposed fix. The publisher’s creative stays unchanged.
What the visitor sees → what I’d change
Look at the original: The discovery screen supports browsing and saving recipes across several collections.
Why I’m flagging it: A grid and catalogue count leave the practical cooking advantage vague.
Lead with one dish and a specific, way the app helps prepare it.
What the visitor sees → what I’d change
Look at the original: A community member’s post includes a warm-place dough tip and engagement controls.
Why I’m flagging it: The community post adds inspiration before any instruction has been shown.
Replace this position with a readable recipe step and its useful cooking context.
What the visitor sees → what I’d change
Look at the original: The still presents the recipe introduction and video preview rather than a step in progress.
Why I’m flagging it: A play button and recipe rating do not demonstrate the instruction.
Show a genuine step with readable timing or quantities; keep verified ratings secondary.
Proposed copy for discussion. These are not current listing fields or tested winners.
Observed listing
Meal Planner & Cook Book
Proposed alternative
Video steps & meal ideas
Name 24/30 · Subtitle 24/30 charactersKeep recipes and cooking explicit while giving the subtitle a concrete video-instruction promise. The proposal connects discovery to the task the current third frame only previews.
The tradeoff: Meal-planner and cookbook wording lose prominence, and cooking videos moves out of the name. Research actual query coverage and verify the instruction experience before accepting that tradeoff.
Read the sequence from top to bottom on mobile, left to right on desktop. These are message-layout sketches, not screens from Tasty or tested results.
Proposed headline
Put this in the frame: A current recipe discovery view with one representative dish selected.
Why it earns the space: Give the visitor a manageable starting point.
Proposed headline
Put this in the frame: The same recipe’s verified ingredients, servings and time context.
Why it earns the space: Help the cook assess effort before starting.
Proposed headline
Put this in the frame: An authentic instruction with a useful visual texture or preparation cue.
Why it earns the space: Demonstrate the value of the video and step-by-step mode.
The test: Does an instruction-led third frame improve cooking-task comprehension and qualified acquisition? The sketch gives the designer a direction; the actual product and access conditions decide what can ship.
Bring the listing. I’ll help you decide what to keep, what to fix and what to test.
Observed competitor metadata
Meal Planner & Grocery List
Mealime combines meal plans and recipes with a grocery-list subtitle.
The lesson: Tasty can foreground cooking instruction while keeping planning and shopping as separate verified workflows.
Observed competitor metadata
Organize your recipes
Paprika identifies recipe management and organisation directly.
The lesson: Saved recipes overlap, but Tasty’s publisher and community discovery are a different acquisition story from organising a personal recipe collection.
Observed competitor metadata
Healthy Meals & Shopping Lists
Kitchen Stories names easy recipes, healthy meals and shopping lists.
The lesson: The cooking-help intent overlaps. Demonstrate a specific instruction rather than copying ease or health claims without evidence.
Intent candidates grounded in the listing—not fabricated search-volume or difficulty scores.
Visitor’s job: Find a dish and see how to make it.
Evidence: The current name explicitly names recipes and cooking videos; the third still includes a play control.
Decision: Retain this core intent and demonstrate a real cooking action.
Visitor’s job: Choose meals for a day or week.
Evidence: The subtitle names a meal planner and the interface includes a Meal Plans tab.
Decision: Verify the current planning flow and access before making it the main creative promise.
Visitor’s job: Collect dishes to return to later.
Evidence: Heart controls, a save button and cookbook wording support collection intent.
Decision: Check account and saved-content behaviour; a save control does not establish offline access or permanent recovery.
The unseen keyword field may already cover some of these terms. Build an evidence-backed keyword shortlist before making a metadata change.
Three 2021–2023 accounts were selected for instruction clarity, recipe search and access to saved recipes. They are historical research leads, not current defect claims. Allegations about comment deletion and a young reviewer’s contact request were excluded from the published evidence.
Sample: 3 selected accounts from 8 displayed reviews. Dates: 5 February 2021–11 February 2023. No sentiment percentage is calculated.
1 October 2022 · 1/5 stars
“what each part of the process would look like”
An October 2022 reviewer valued detailed cooking-process videos but disliked what they described as faster, less instructional replacements.
What I’d investigate: Treat this as a clarity research lead. It does not establish the format of every current video or a universal decline in quality.
Listing review source · Review ID 91409498075 February 2021 · 4/5 stars
“more relevant results”
A February 2021 reviewer praised ingredients, instructions and visuals while asking for more relevant search and personalised suggestions.
What I’d investigate: Preserve the generally positive assessment and minor heat-instruction concern. Test current retrieval with real cooking needs rather than infer search failure rates.
Listing review source · Review ID 695551025911 February 2023 · 4/5 stars
“recipes saved on my account”
A February 2023 returning user described login errors that prevented access to saved recipes after reinstalling.
What I’d investigate: Verify current account recovery and saved-content continuity. Do not recommend using another person’s phone number, reproduce the reviewer’s diagnosis or claim the issue persists.
Listing review source · Review ID 9607379969A displayed review can be old, unusually positive or internally inconsistent with its star rating. These accounts suggest questions; they do not establish current defects or typical customer experience. Use the Review Research Desk to keep evidence and interpretation separate.
A grid and catalogue count leave the practical cooking advantage vague.
Deliverable: Lead with one dish and a specific, supported way the app helps prepare it.
Creative brief and current-product checkThe community post adds inspiration before any instruction has been shown.
Deliverable: Replace this position with a readable recipe step and its useful cooking context.
Creative brief and current-product checkA play button and recipe rating do not demonstrate the instruction.
Deliverable: Show a genuine step with readable timing or quantities; keep verified ratings secondary.
Creative brief and current-product checkDoes an instruction-led third frame improve cooking-task comprehension and qualified acquisition?
Check Apple’s current product page optimization guidance and custom product page guidance before configuring a test. Write your experiment brief.
1–3: thumbs down · 4–6: thumbs up and down · 7–10: thumbs up
The basics need a serious rethink.
Too many obvious things have been left unfinished.
There is a useful product here. The listing needs to show it.
Some basics work, but the opening wastes attention and under-explains the benefit.
There is usable creative here, but too much of the sales argument is left to the visitor.
Real strengths, undermined by meaningful gaps in the opening story or execution.
A clear, useful demonstration with specific refinements still needed.
The main promise is clear and supported. Refinement matters more than reinvention.
Clear positioning, thoughtful choices and very few loose ends.
An unusually clear, convincing storefront worth learning from.
An editorial verdict on the captured storefront, not a measured ASO score or an assessment of an agency’s private work.
No private analytics, search-rank dataset or internal keyword field was supplied. Review quotations are short excerpts; explanations are our summaries. App names and screenshots belong to their respective owners. We are not affiliated with Tasty. Read our editorial methodology.
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