The screenshot ASO guide

App Store Optimisation is usually explained as keywords and metadata. That gets you seen. What gets you installed is the gallery — and specifically the first two screenshots, which are the only ones most people ever look at. This guide covers what to put in them.

1. Know what the store actually shows

• Search results display the first two or three portrait screenshots at thumbnail size, often before anyone taps through to your page.
• The product page shows the full gallery, scrollable, with the first screenshot partially cropped at the edge.
• Most people decide in under seven seconds, without reading your description.

Treat screenshots one and two as an ad, not documentation. Everything after them is for the smaller group who are already interested.

2. Lead with the outcome, not the interface

A screenshot of your home screen tells someone what your app looks like. A headline tells them what it does for them. Pair every framed screen with one short line that names a benefit.

• Weak: “Dashboard” — describes the UI.
• Strong: “See every account in one place” — describes the result.
• Weak: “Powerful analytics engine” — vague and unverifiable.
• Strong: “Know where your money went, every Friday” — concrete and specific.

Keep headlines to four to six words. If a line needs two rows of text at thumbnail size, it is too long.

3. Order screenshots as a story

A sequence that works for most apps:

1. The hook — your single strongest benefit, biggest type.
2. The proof — the feature that delivers that benefit, shown working.
3. Breadth — two or three supporting features, one per screenshot.
4. Trust — ratings, press mentions, user counts, or a security claim.
5. The nudge — onboarding ease, free tier, or a direct call to action.

Five to seven screenshots is the sweet spot. Ten half-considered ones perform worse than five deliberate ones.

4. Make it legible at thumbnail size

• High contrast between the headline and the background — no light grey on white.
• One typeface, two weights. Decorative fonts disappear when scaled down.
• Keep the device frame large enough that the screen content reads as a real app, but not so large that the headline is squeezed.
• Stay inside the crop margins documented on the screenshot sizes & safe zones page.

5. Use colour to signal category

Browsers scan galleries at speed and read colour before text. Finance apps lean on deep blues and greens; health and fitness on high-energy gradients; productivity on restraint and white space. Match the expectation of your category, then differentiate within it — a single accent colour pulled from your app icon ties the whole set together and reinforces brand recall.

6. Localise properly

Translating your app but not your screenshots is the most common missed win in ASO. A user browsing a Japanese or German storefront sees English marketing copy and reads it as “not for me”.

• Translate headlines first — they carry most of the persuasion.
• Budget for text expansion: German runs 20–35% longer than English.
• Localise currency, date formats, and any numbers shown inside the framed screen.
• Start with your top five install markets rather than all territories at once.

7. Test, do not guess

Both stores support experimenting on your gallery — Product Page Optimization on the App Store, Store Listing Experiments on Google Play. Practical rules:

• Change one variable per test: the first screenshot, or the headline, not both.
• Run until the result is statistically meaningful, typically one to two weeks.
• Expect modest wins. A 5–15% lift on conversion is a real, compounding result.
• Re-test after a major redesign, and seasonally if your category is seasonal.

8. A pre-submission checklist

• Correct pixel dimensions for every device family you declare.
• No transparency; flattened RGB PNG or JPEG.
• First two screenshots readable at 150 px wide.
• No placeholder or lorem content inside the framed screens.
• No claims the app does not actually deliver, and no mention of other platforms or stores.
• Every headline localised for every storefront you ship to.

Put it into practice

Upload your raw screens and App Mockup Generator AI handles the framing, layout, and export dimensions — leaving you the part that actually moves conversion: deciding what to say. Create a free account or browse the example gallery for reference layouts.