Screenshots are the largest thing on most store pages, and most visitors judge an app on them without reading a word of the description. They also feed other marketing: in Apple Ads, an ad is built from your product page, so your screenshots appear in the ad too. This guide starts with the current specifications for both stores, then covers how to design screenshots that persuade.
Check before you upload
These specifications were read from Apple's and Google's own help pages in October 2026. Both stores revise them as new devices arrive, so confirm against App Store Connect and the Play Console documentation before a release.
App Store screenshot sizes
You provide 1 to 10 screenshots per device size, as .jpeg, .jpg or .png, with no transparency or alpha channel. Sizes that matter most:
- iPhone 6.9 inch display, required for iPhone apps: 1320 x 2868, 1290 x 2796 or 1260 x 2736 pixels in portrait, and the same pairs reversed in landscape.
- iPhone 6.5 inch display, required only if you do not provide 6.9 inch screenshots: 1284 x 2778 or 1242 x 2688 pixels in portrait, and reversed in landscape.
- iPad 13 inch display, required if the app runs on iPad: 2064 x 2752 or 2048 x 2732 pixels in portrait, and reversed in landscape.
If your interface is the same across sizes and languages, you only need the largest required set. App Store Connect scales it down for smaller devices. If you provide size-specific images, a missing size falls back to scaled screenshots from a related display class.
Design at 1320 x 2868 and you have what most iPhone apps need. Upload a separate iPad set only if you can show the app properly on iPad, because a stretched phone layout looks careless on a large screen.
Google Play screenshot sizes
Google is more flexible on dimensions and stricter on the shape:
- Formats: JPEG or 24-bit PNG, with no alpha.
- Dimensions: each side between 320 and 3840 pixels, and the longer side can be at most twice the shorter side.
- Quantity: at least two screenshots across device types to publish, and up to eight per device type.
- Large screens (tablets and Chromebooks): at least four screenshots, 1080 to 7680 pixels, in 16:9 landscape or 9:16 portrait.
- Feature graphic: 1024 x 500 pixels, JPEG or 24-bit PNG with no alpha. It is required to publish.
- App icon: 512 x 512 pixels, 32-bit PNG with alpha, at most 1024 KB. No badges or text that suggest a ranking, price or Play category.
Extra rules for games on Google Play
Games get their own guidance, because Google Play shows groups of recommended games in a large format built from your media. To be eligible, provide at least three 16:9 landscape screenshots at a minimum of 1920 x 1080, or three 9:16 portrait screenshots at a minimum of 1080 x 1920. Screenshots should show the actual in-game experience. A preview video is also required for a game to appear in certain parts of Google Play: it is a YouTube link, public or unlisted, with ads turned off, not age-restricted and embeddable.
A practical export set
Most mobile teams can work from a small master set:
- iPhone: 1320 x 2868 portrait.
- iPad, if supported: 2064 x 2752 portrait.
- Google Play phone: 1080 x 1920 portrait, which also meets the game rule when you provide at least three.
- Google Play feature graphic: 1024 x 500.
- For a landscape game, the equivalent landscape sizes, ideally 1920 x 1080 for Play.
How to design screenshots that convert
Treat the first one or two as a billboard
Search results show only the first few images, cropped to what fits. Many visitors never scroll, so your first screenshot has to do the job on its own: what this is, and why they should want it. Save supporting detail for later frames.
Write benefits, not features
Each frame gets one short message. For an app, that means the result the user gets: Track every invoice in one place, rather than Invoice management module. For a game, it means the fantasy or the feeling: Build your own island, rather than Many buildings to unlock.
Make it readable at thumbnail size
People see these images far smaller than you see them on a design tool. Keep captions to a few large words. Hold your design at phone size, at arm's length, and check it can still be read. Contrast matters more than a beautiful font.
Tell a story across the set
Think of the set as one short ad. Lead with the strongest promise, then show proof, then depth. Connected panoramic backgrounds that run from one image into the next encourage swiping and look deliberate, but only if each image still works alone.
Show the real product
For games, Google Play asks for the in-game experience, and players notice if the screenshots show something the game does not deliver. Disappointed installs produce bad reviews and poor retention, and those hurt store ranking. The same honesty rule that applies to ads applies here, as covered in why mobile game ads are called fake. A designed frame around a real screen is fine: use a real screen inside it.
Match the ads that send people here
A person who tapped on a puzzle ad and lands on a page showing combat assumes they are in the wrong place. Custom product pages let you make different versions of the store page for different campaigns, so the screenshots continue what the ad started. See custom product pages for playable ads.
Localise the words, then the content
Captions in the visitor's language are usually a cheap win, and you can localise screenshots per language in both consoles. Beyond words, some markets respond better to different characters, colours or themes. Prioritise by how many visitors each language brings.
Test instead of guessing
Both stores offer built-in testing. Apple's Product Page Optimization tests alternate icons, screenshots and previews. Google Play's store listing experiments do the same, including by language. Test one clear idea at a time: a new first screenshot, a different headline, or a character against a gameplay frame. Let it run until the console reports a confident result, because store traffic moves with the day of the week and with whatever ads you are running.
Your ads are also a fast, cheap research tool. If one message wins clearly in a video or playable ad test, turn it into a screenshot caption. Paid tests get results in days, and store tests can take weeks with low traffic.
Common mistakes
- Uploading raw, uncaptioned screen grabs with no message.
- Too many words, which vanish at thumbnail size.
- Using only device frames, which shrink the actual product. A frame is optional and uses space you could give to the interface.
- Spending the first frame on a logo, an award or a title card instead of the main reason to install.
- Leaving old screenshots live after a redesign, so the store shows an app that no longer exists.
- Showing mechanics or art the game does not contain.
- Forgetting that a landscape game needs landscape images, not portrait ones with black bars.
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