Can I safely change the PRODUCT_NAME for an app?

Question

A while ago, I was asked to change the name of one of our apps, so I changed the display name in the "General" tab to the new name. That was fine for a while, but then we noticed that our privacy explanations all look like:

${PRODUCT_NAME} uses your location to...

and so they're using the old name. I could go through and update each of them to use the new name, but that would be tedious, so I changed the product name for the app - but not the bundle identifier - and rebuilt it.

In the simulator, I now have two different instances of my app. I'm worried that if I go ahead with this change, end users will end up with two instances of the app. Is that the case, or does Apple do something different when you install an app through the app store?

Answer 1

For Change Product Name Only:

and that's it.

If you want to rename your entire project:

For Change Entire Project Name

then

Answer 2

The bundle name and bundle id is how the app is identified. If you change the bundle name, you have a new app. Anyone installing your app which has a new bundle identifier will find they have the old and new version of the app. Are you sure you didn't change the bundle name? Look at your info.plist file and see how they are defined. The display name is safe to change.

Also: see this link for an explanation of these plist settings in context: Product_Name