android app indexing api description field

Question

The official tutorial explains very clearly how to get an app's specific page to appear in google autocomplete. When I follow the description I can go from the autocomplete suggestion back to the page in the app. The autocomplete suggestion has the app icon along with the name that was set in .setName(mTitle). It is not clear to me, though, what role .setDescription(mDescription) plays. Where is this description visible? Is it shown in the search results if the app is listed as a result?

Joijoice

Answer 1

Google indexes both the title and the description to populate autocompletion results. So, even if you search for some content which is not there in the title but there in description, that page will show up in the auto completion results. The description is not directly shown (to answer your second question), but the page is shown as usual. Take a look at this page for more info.

Aarhus

Let's clarify: there are two types of search results: (1) autocompletion when typing and (2) actual results when the search button is clicked. In my original post I asked "Where is this description visible? Is it shown in the search results if the app is listed as a result?" You are saying that description is only used for case 1 even though it's not visible. But the link you referenced says: "Google Search renders this in search results or autocompletions." with this referring to description field. This proves your poinrt about case 1. But it also seems to say that the same applies for case 2 – Joijoice

Yes. That is correct. It will be used for regular search results also. But I didn't mention it because I assumed you will let Google index the whole page and not just Title and Description for actual search results. Which is the case for almost all the people who would want app indexing, and so in this case, the entire page will help you figure in the search results. – Aarhus

By default will Google index the whole app page? – Joijoice

As of now, Indexing App only content is not public. So, for now each screen in the app should have a corresponding page on a website. Google indexes the content from that page and links it to your app screen. (as far as I know). – Aarhus

I upvoted one of your comments, but I am hesitant to select your answer because (a) I don't see any proof and (b) in my experience "there in description, that page will show up in the auto completion results" was not true on my device. – Joijoice

Agree with @Joijoice , I set both title and description fields for app indexing. But when I type a keyword from a title,the auto suggest result appears. But if I type a keyword from description, the auto suggest result doesn't appear. – Connective