Store screenshots are the highest-leverage images most apps have: they're seen by everyone who considers installing, at a size where detail is invisible.

Apple App Store

Apple requires screenshots for specific display sizes and derives the rest:

  • 6.9" iPhone: 1320 × 2868 px (portrait) — the current required set.
  • 6.5" iPhone: 1284 × 2778 or 1242 × 2688 px.
  • 12.9"/13" iPad: 2048 × 2732 px, required if you support iPad.
  • Up to 10 screenshots per device size; the first three appear in search results.
  • App icon: 1024 × 1024 px, no transparency, no rounded corners (iOS applies its own mask).

Google Play

  • Phone screenshots: minimum 320 px, maximum 3840 px on any side, with a 16:9 or 9:16 ratio recommended; 1080 × 1920 is the practical standard.
  • Minimum 2, maximum 8 screenshots.
  • Feature graphic: 1024 × 500 px — required, and shown prominently. Do not put important text near the edges; it gets overlaid.
  • App icon: 512 × 512 px, 32-bit PNG.

Both stores reject screenshots containing device frames that mimic a different platform, pricing claims that aren't accurate, or content not present in the app.

Design Rules That Matter More Than Size

  1. The first two screenshots do the work. Most users never swipe. Put your single strongest benefit in screenshot one.
  2. Add captions. A bare screenshot of your UI is unreadable at browse size. A short headline above each screenshot — three to five words — is standard practice for a reason.
  3. Make text huge. Caption text should be legible in a thumbnail roughly 25% of full size. That means very large type and high contrast.
  4. Show the benefit, not the interface. "Track spending in seconds" with a simple, cropped UI beats a full, dense screen dump.
  5. Use a consistent visual system — same background color, same caption placement, same device frame (or none) across all screenshots.
  6. Consider a continuous background flowing across screenshots so swiping feels designed.

The Localization Trap

Caption text is baked into the image, so every language needs its own full set. Ten screenshots × eight languages = eighty images. Two ways to keep it sane:

  • Build the screenshots from a template where only the caption layer changes, then export the whole set programmatically.
  • Or keep captions extremely short so translation is fast and layout never breaks.

Export Settings

Export PNG (both stores accept it and it keeps UI text crisp), sRGB, at exactly the required pixel dimensions — stores reject mismatched sizes rather than scaling them. Keep the source files, because required dimensions change with every new device generation, and rebuilding from a layered source is the only sane way to keep up.