App store screenshots: how to frame and order them

Your store listing is a tiny gallery. People swipe through a few images, often without reading a word of the description. Those images do a lot of the convincing.

So treat them as a set, not a pile.

Check the rules first

Each store sets its own requirements for image sizes, how many you can upload and what a screenshot may show. These change from time to time. Look up the current guidance for every store you publish to, and build to those specs.

Everything below is about what goes inside the frame.

The first two do the heavy lifting

Many people only look at the first couple of images before they decide. Make those carry the promise.

• Image one: the main thing your app does, in one line.
• Image two: the result, or the reason people come back.

If someone saw only these two, would they know what the app is for? If not, swap them.

Show the app working

Pick the core action and its payoff. Skip:

• splash and login screens
• permission prompts
• settings
• empty states

For example, a habit tracker might use: today’s habits half ticked, a streak screen, a weekly chart, a reminder and a home-screen widget. Five images, one idea each.

The same screens often end up in a pitch, too. If yours will, see how to present app screenshots in a pitch deck.

One caption per image

Each image gets a short headline. Three to six words is a good range.

Weak	Better
Dashboard	Your week at a glance
Notifications feature	Never miss a dose
Easy to use	Log a meal in two taps

Write the caption as a benefit, and only promise what the app really does. Keep it large, above or below the device. Never over the screen.

Frame it

A device frame says “this is the app, on a phone like yours”.

• Use the same frame on every image.
• Keep it upright, or tilt it very slightly. Captions and screens both need to read.
• Let the phone fill most of the height.

You can also go frameless: the screenshot with rounded corners on a coloured background. Clean, modern, and it gives the screen a little more room. Pick one approach for the whole set.

Make the set feel like one piece

Swiping should feel smooth, not random.

Shared background

One colour or a gentle gradient across the set. Or a slow shift from one brand colour to another as people swipe.

Same positions

Caption in the same place on every image. Device in the same place too. Only the screen changes.

A panorama, if you like

Some sets run one long background across several images, with a device that straddles two of them. Playful, and it invites the next swipe. Keep each image readable on its own, since some views show just one.

Zoom in where it matters

A full phone screen shrinks a lot in a listing. Small text vanishes.

Try:

• cropping into the key part of the screen and enlarging it beside the device
• showing one card or panel big, without the whole phone
• simplifying the staged data so the important bit stands out

Stage the data

Same rules as anywhere else:

• believable names and numbers
• a tidy clock and battery
• no real user details
• no debug flags or half-built features

If your audience is local, let it show. An Indian food delivery app might show familiar dishes, prices in ₹ and neighbourhood names people recognise.

Order it like a story

A reliable running order:

1. The main promise.
2. The core action.
3. The result.
4. The reason to come back.
5. A standout feature.
6. Something reassuring, such as offline use, if your app really has it.

Stop when you run out of strong images. A few good ones beat a full set padded with filler.

Tablets, dark mode and languages

• Tablets: if you support them, make a separate set. Stretched phone screens look wrong.
• Dark mode: pick one look for the set. Light and dark mixed in a row looks unplanned.
• Languages: if the app is localised, localise the captions too. Leave room for longer words, and keep the layout so new text drops in cleanly.

Review at real size

Before you upload, look at the set on an actual phone.

• Can you read every caption without zooming?
• Do the first two images explain the app?
• Does the set look like one family?

Then publish, and refresh the set whenever the app changes. If you designed the app and want to show how it came together, see how to present a UX case study. When you want every screen in a matching device frame, Mockups can do the placing for you.