iOS app: keep old application name as keyword?

Question

I need to rename my application's name.

Is it possible to store some metadata of its old name somewhere? Users may try to search its old name in the iPhone's search option.

Is there any designated value in the plist file or elsewhere so that its bundle display name is the new name, while the old name is still searchable?

Answer 1

To achieve this your application has to be launched atleast once, and in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: of your AppDelegate you can index your Core Spotlight searchable item like below:

CSSearchableItemAttributeSet* attributeSet = [[CSSearchableItemAttributeSet alloc] initWithItemContentType:@"myApp.image"];

attributeSet.title = @"My Old App";
attributeSet.contentDescription = @"This application help you in acheiving so & so";
CSSearchableItem *item = [[CSSearchableItem alloc] initWithUniqueIdentifier:@"myApp" domainIdentifier:@"com.myapp" attributeSet:attributeSet];
// Index the item.
[[CSSearchableIndex defaultSearchableIndex] indexSearchableItems:@[item] completionHandler: ^(NSError * __nullable error) {
    NSLog(@"Search item indexed");
}];

You can even add thumbnail image to be shown when the app with old name is searched; You need to add following code before creating the searchableItem

UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"MercC"];
NSData *thumbNailData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(image);
attributeSet.thumbnailData = thumbNailData;