Way back in 2024 we got an email from Shopify, it said:
Update your app name to something unique.
Our app names were already unique at this time. The next part of the email said:
Using a generic descriptor as an app name doesn’t comply with our requirements.
Our app names were descriptive of their functionality, and not some nonsensical cutesy pap like: Stocky which, is pretty generic to me —diminutive form of stock— nevertheless, it never underwent a name change.
At this time one of the suggestions made to developers was to prefix your app name with your business name: “Foo: Stocky”. We objected. We spent years building our brand name and we were being forced to change it or add some silly prefix that makes it unrecognizable or look like an imitation. It’s as if the popular N. American product Hamburger Helper was now called “General Mills: Hamburger Helper”. This would cause confusion as it’s true it’s owned by General Mills, but no one knows this. In N. America General Mills is has 0.0 association with hamburgers! It’s primarily —if not exclusively— know for cereal, and could very well be brand suicide for them to prefix their product name with their company name.
So we changed the name and added the company prefix, as did 100s of other apps that were forced to. Let’s say our apps were previously called X and Y. We were forced to change them to “My Company: X” and “My Company: Y”. And, guess what happened? Customers started calling all our apps “My Company”! We’d get emails or phone calls “Hi, I need help with the My Company app” Uh well that could be 5 different apps, please be more specific.
Disaster.
Meanwhile as the months go by, we see all sorts of fake imitation apps pop up. Some recent examples:
- Concern: App name duplication and brand confusion in Shopify App Store
- Competitor using my app name in their app title
So after all this, you’re now saying:
A Better, Clearer App Store for Everyone … Use a unique name for your app. It’s a straightforward change, but it addresses something that matters a great deal to both merchants and developers: clarity
I just don’t get it. This was done in 2024 and resulted in 100s of app name changes. This is really outrageous to see this posted in 2026 as if it’s something new and improved when it already happened in 2024 and, from my end, resulted in nothing but brand confusion.
