01
Verb + object + outcome
“Split any bill in four taps”
The workhorse. Concrete action, concrete result, no adjectives.
Copywriting
Twelve headline formulas for store screenshots
The device frame is solved. The line above it is not, and it is the part carrying the persuasion. Twelve patterns, six rewrites, and a list of words to delete on sight.
Reading time: about 6 minutes
The formulas
02
Time collapse
“A month of expenses in 30 seconds”
Names the effort you remove. Strong for anything replacing manual work.
03
The everything-in-one-place
“Every account on one screen”
Works whenever fragmentation is the pain. Overused, so it needs a specific noun.
04
Named moment
“Know where your money went, every Friday”
A habit and a time. Concrete beats aspirational.
05
Objection killer
“No account needed to start”
Best used on frame four or five, once someone is interested but hesitating.
06
Number as proof
“Tracks 12,000 foods, offline”
Only if the number is real and current. Do not round up.
07
Before / after
“Sixteen tabs became one list”
Reads as a story in five words. Excellent as an opening frame.
08
Direct second person
“You will never miss a refill”
Confident, and easy to overpromise with. Make sure the app delivers it.
09
Category contrast
“A budget app that never nags”
Positions against the category convention. Good when your differentiator is a subtraction.
10
Sensory outcome
“Fall asleep before the story ends”
For wellness, sleep and meditation, where the benefit is a felt state.
11
Permission / relief
“Skip a day. Keep the streak.”
Removes a fear. Very strong late in a habit-app gallery.
12
The plain nudge
“Start free, no card”
Last frame only. It is a call to action, not a benefit.
Six rewrites
All six make the same mistake in a different costume: they describe the product instead of the person’s result.
Weak
Dashboard
Strong
See every account on one screen
Names the UI, not the result.
Weak
Powerful analytics engine
Strong
Know which product made you money
Vague, unverifiable, and about you rather than them.
Weak
Seamless experience
Strong
Two taps from open to paid
"Seamless" survives no scrutiny and says nothing.
Weak
AI-powered recommendations
Strong
Suggests the recipe you already have food for
Names the technology instead of the benefit.
Weak
Manage your tasks efficiently
Strong
Tomorrow, already planned
Generic verb, generic noun, generic adverb.
Weak
Welcome to the future of fitness
Strong
Your rings, closed by lunch
Category-level marketing language nobody reads.
Six rules about length and form
- Four to six words
- Fits one line at thumbnail size in English. Longer lines wrap and shrink.
- One idea per frame
- If the line has an "and" in it, it is probably two screenshots.
- Sentence case, not title case
- Reads faster and looks less like an advertisement.
- Front-load the meaning
- The first two words are the ones seen at 150 px wide. Put the noun there.
- No terminal punctuation
- A full stop adds nothing and eats a pixel of line length.
- Budget for translation
- German runs 20–35% longer. If a line only just fits in English, it will not fit at all in German.
Delete on sight
None of these words survive scrutiny, and all of them cost you a word out of six. If one is in your headline, the sentence underneath it is usually the real headline.
- seamless
- powerful
- revolutionary
- next-generation
- cutting-edge
- game-changing
- effortlessly
- unleash
- elevate
- supercharge
- best-in-class
- intuitive
Headline questions
How long should an app screenshot headline be?+
Four to six words in English. That is what fits on a single line at the size the store shows your first screenshots in search results. If a line needs two rows at roughly 150 px wide, it is too long.
Should every screenshot have a headline?+
Every screenshot that is doing persuasion work, which is usually the first four or five. A late frame that is purely a visual — a wide feature shot or a brand moment — can carry no text at all, and the contrast makes the earlier headlines land harder.
What is the most common headline mistake?+
Describing the interface instead of the result. "Dashboard" tells someone what they will look at; "See every account on one screen" tells them what they get. The rewrite table on this page is six versions of that same error.
Should headlines match my App Store description?+
They should agree, not repeat. The description is read by a small, already-interested minority; the headlines are read by everyone. Say the strongest thing in the headlines and let the description elaborate.
Can the generator write the headlines for me?+
Yes — it proposes headline copy from your screens and your category, and you can override any line. You can also ask the AI agent for a punchier version of a specific frame, which costs nothing until you apply it.
What order to put the finished frames in is covered in the screenshot ASO guide, and what the whole gallery is worth in app store conversion rate.