Storeboard/How to make App Store screenshots

How to make App Store screenshots (2026)

From raw screen captures to a finished, localized set at Apple's exact pixel sizes — the whole workflow in seven steps, with the conversion research that decides what goes on screenshot one.

Last updated 25 August 2026 · Maintained by the team behind Storeboard

Step 1 — Capture raw screens

Everything downstream is decoration; the screens themselves are the product proof. Capture them deliberately:

• Demo data that flatters. Empty states and "Test 123" entries leak straight into your marketing. Fill the app with realistic, attractive content first.
• Clean status bar. Full battery, strong signal, a tidy time. The iOS Simulator does this for you; on-device, do it manually or crop under a device frame.
• Capture at any decent size. If you're framing the screens inside device mockups (step 5), the frame defines the final geometry — you don't need to capture at Apple's exact export sizes.

Simulator screenshots (⌘S), a real device, or automated capture via fastlane snapshot all work — the two workflows compose.

Step 2 — Know which sizes you owe Apple

Far less than most guides imply. Apple requires one iPhone set at the largest display size you support, and — only if your app runs on iPad — one 13″ iPad set. Everything smaller is scaled down automatically. Mac apps use landscape 16:10 sizes; Apple Watch has its own small set.

The trap: App Store Connect validates dimensions per display bucket. A pixel-perfect 6.5″ image uploaded into the 6.9″ slot is rejected. Exact dimensions for every device are in the screenshot size reference.

Step 3 — Plan the set as a sequence

The single most important fact in this guide: only the first two or three screenshots appear in App Store search results. Most shoppers decide there, without ever opening your product page. So:

• Screenshot 1 carries your strongest claim — the one-line reason your app exists.
• Screenshots 2–3 back it up: the core workflow, the standout feature, social proof.
• Screenshots 4–10 are supporting detail for people already interested — secondary features, settings, edge-case value.

Plan it as one story before designing anything. The most common failure is ten disconnected feature shots in random order — see the full mistakes list.

Step 4 — Write captions that sell

A caption is not a label; it's the ad copy. Three rules cover most of it:

• Benefit, not feature. "Fall asleep faster" beats "Soundscape library". The reader should know what they get, not what you built.
• Short enough to read at thumbnail size. In search results your screenshot is a few hundred pixels tall. Five to eight words, big type.
• One idea per image. If a caption needs the word "and", it's two screenshots.

If writing this copy is the blocker, this is exactly what AI drafting is good at: describe the app in two sentences and iterate on generated captions per screen.

Step 5 — Frame and design

Raw screenshots convert worse than framed, captioned ones for one reason: without a caption, the shopper has to work out the benefit themselves. The standard treatment is a device frame on a designed background with the caption above or below — and the design decisions that matter are set-level, not per-image: one type system, one palette, one rhythm of layouts so the set reads as a sequence.

This is what screenshot templates are for: a designed system (Storeboard ships 20; three free) applied to the whole set in one click, with every caption, color and decoration still editable afterwards. The alternative — assembling frames in Figma — buys unlimited freedom at the cost of doing every device size and language by hand.

Step 6 — Localize

Each App Store localization stores its own screenshot set. Ship English images to every market and shoppers in Japan, Brazil and Germany read captions they may not understand — the biggest ignored conversion leak on the store. Since your captions are the only text on the images, localizing screenshots is really just localizing captions.

Practical notes: German and Finnish run 30–40% longer than English, so translations need to shrink to a line budget rather than overflow the frame; and start with the markets where your app already gets impressions. When localizing screenshots pays back →

Step 7 — Export at exact pixels and upload

Export PNG or JPEG (both accepted; no alpha) at the exact dimensions for each device family, named so you can tell sets apart, and upload per language in App Store Connect. Two things to know before you budget time:

• Screenshots are version metadata. They can only be changed by creating a new version and submitting it for review — no silent swaps on the live listing.
• The cap is 10 per device family per language, and replacing a set means deleting old images first or the upload fails at the ceiling.

Storeboard can also skip the browser entirely and push screenshots and metadata straight to App Store Connect with your own API key.

Which tool should you use?

Longer treatment with named tools and honest trade-offs: screenshot tools compared.

FAQ

Screenshot behaviour in search results and App Store Connect validation rules are Apple's and can change; for a submission-blocking question, Apple's specification page is the final word.

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