TLDR
- Design screenshots for the store, not simply as raw captures from the app.
- Start with the current Apple App Store and Google Play specifications.
- Put your strongest feature or benefit in the first few screenshots.
- Keep text short enough to read on a phone.
- Build separate exports for iOS and Android rather than assuming one file set fits both.
- Check every image on an actual phone before publishing.
An app-store screenshot is technically a screenshot.
In practice, it is closer to a tiny landing page.
A potential user may look at the icon, read a line or two of copy, swipe through a few images, and decide whether the app deserves another 30 seconds of attention. That makes how to prepare App Store screenshots for an iOS and Android app launch a product-marketing problem as much as a design problem.
The first step is not opening Photoshop.
It is checking the current store requirements.
Check the Current Screenshot Specifications
Do not build your screenshot templates from an article written four years ago.
Apple currently allows one to 10 screenshots and accepts JPEG, JPG, and PNG files without transparency. It maintains specific accepted dimensions for different iPhone and iPad display classes.
You can check the current requirements directly through Apple’s App Store screenshot specifications.
Google Play has its own rules. As of September 2026, Google requires at least two screenshots across device types for a store listing and accepts JPEG or 24-bit PNG files without alpha. Screenshots must meet Google’s current dimensional requirements as well.
Review Google Play’s current preview-asset requirements before exporting.
Requirements change.
Your master design file should be easy to resize when they do.
Decide What Each Screenshot Is Supposed to Say
Do not start with:
Screenshot 1 = Home screen.
Screenshot 2 = Settings.
Screenshot 3 = Profile.
That describes the interface.
It does not explain why somebody should download the app.
Instead, create a sequence.
For example:
Screenshot 1: The main reason to use the app
Screenshot 2: The strongest feature
Screenshot 3: How the workflow becomes easier
Screenshot 4: Secondary feature
Screenshot 5: Useful customization or social feature
The screen capture supports the idea.
It does not have to be the idea.
A software studio such as 9M Media lives at the point where product design, interface decisions, and the way those features are presented to users meet. Store screenshots are one of the clearest examples of that overlap.
Keep the Headline Short
App-store screenshots are small.
Even on a large phone, a seven-line headline will make the actual interface look like an afterthought.
Try to communicate one idea per image.
Better:
Track every workout
Than:
The easiest and most innovative way to comprehensively track all of your daily workouts
The second version may contain more information.
It communicates less.
Show Real Parts of the App
Decorative graphics can help frame a screenshot.
But users still want to know what the app looks like.
Use real product screens whenever possible.
Show:
- Main workflow
- Important feature
- Useful output
- Search
- Dashboard
- Editing interface
- Social or sharing function
Do not fill the entire screenshot sequence with abstract graphics while hiding the product.
The customer is deciding whether they want the software.
Let them see it.
Clean Up the Source Data
Before capturing screens, remove anything you do not want appearing publicly.
Check for:
- Employee names
- Test emails
- Personal phone numbers
- Debug information
- Placeholder text
- Fake transactions
- Internal project names
- Notifications
- Low battery indicators where distracting
Create clean demo data that looks plausible.
If the app has a financial dashboard, do not show:
Test Account 000000
If it has a social profile, do not let the hero screenshot feature:
Firstname Lastname test@test.com
Small details change how finished the product feels.
Design iOS and Android Deliberately
You can use the same marketing concept on both platforms.
That does not mean you should blindly upload the same image files.
Different devices have different screenshot specifications and interface conventions.
Build a master layout that lets you:
- Swap device frames
- Resize backgrounds
- Move headline blocks
- Replace screenshots
- Export platform-specific dimensions
That is much easier than rebuilding every image from scratch.
Think About Localization Early
If you expect to localize the listing, do not bake long English phrases into complicated flattened artwork before testing other languages.
A short English phrase may become substantially longer in German, French, Spanish, or another language.
Leave room.
Keep the marketing copy in editable layers.
And make sure the app screen shown matches the language of the surrounding headline when localized versions are available.
Do Not Let the Screenshots Become Fiction
Store images are promotional assets.
They should still represent the product accurately.
Do not imply that the app has:
- Features it does not have
- Integrations that are not available
- Results it cannot produce
- Screens that do not exist
Clean presentation is fine.
Inventing the app you hope to build three releases from now is not.
Review the Sequence on a Real Phone
Export the images.
Put them on a phone.
Then look at them at roughly the size someone will actually see.
Ask:
- Can I read the headline immediately?
- Can I tell what the app does?
- Is the interface large enough to understand?
- Are the first three screenshots strong?
- Do several images basically say the same thing?
- Is any screenshot trying to explain too much?
If the design only works when enlarged on a 32-inch monitor, it is not finished.
Make Every Screenshot Earn Its Place
Learning how to prepare App Store screenshots for an iOS and Android app launch is mostly about editing.
Check the current technical requirements.
Choose the product story.
Use real interface screens.
Write less.
Then review everything on the device where customers will actually see it.
Ten available screenshot slots do not mean you need ten mediocre screenshots.
Five clear ones can say much more.