Short posts about screenshots, App Store rules, and what I am building. Written by one indie dev. No SEO filler.
Apple's 6.9-inch iPhone slot accepts 1260×2736, 1290×2796, and 1320×2868 portrait screenshots. Here is when to use each.
Apple's PPO compares up to three treatments against your live page. Here is the workflow, the limits, and what to test first.
If your app supports iPad, do not stretch phone art. Use an iPad master and show the value of the larger canvas.
The feature graphic is 1024×500, JPEG or 24-bit PNG, no alpha. Here is what belongs in it and what Google warns against.
CPP gives you up to 70 alternate App Store pages, each with its own URL. Use them for ad creatives, segments, and seasonal pushes.
Apple app previews run 15 to 30 seconds, max 500 MB, up to 30 fps. Use this checklist before you edit.
Higher quality on dense Asian scripts. Better text fitting on long German lines. Live for all paid plans today.
Custom store listings can target country, install state, keyword, campaign, or unique URL. Here is the indie workflow.
From upload to delivery in seven steps. What lokal does, what it sends to AI providers, and what it does not.
Product Page Optimization, Custom Product Pages, and Play experiments all optimize store pages, but each has a different job.
Text overlays can explain value, but claims, rankings, prices, and calls to action can get you in trouble.
Both write good text. Neither gives back a real screenshot. I ran the same test on both and saved the results.
App Store metadata and app binary languages are different. Fallbacks are useful, but they can ship English assets by accident.
Google wants tablet and Chromebook screenshots that show the real large-screen experience, not resized phone captures.
Auto-translation, shrinking text to fit, reusing English images, wrong number formats, and untravelable icons.
The subtitle sells to humans. The 100-character keyword field helps search. Here is how to use both without risking rejection.
Google Play gives you 30 characters for app name, 80 for short description, and 4000 for full description. Use them cleanly.
App Store Connect asks for many sizes. iPhone 16 Pro Max. iPhone SE. iPad. Here is the short list and what to use.
SKStoreReviewController can prompt up to three times in 365 days. Spend those prompts after real user success.
Apple privacy details include your app and third-party partners. If data leaves the device, map it before you submit.
Every published Google Play app needs a Data safety form. SDK collection counts, and the declaration is global for the package.
Native A/B testing built into Play Console. Up to five localized experiments at once. Tests graphics, text, or both.
Google Play preview videos use YouTube URLs. Public or unlisted, embeddable, not age restricted, and localized when possible.
Apple allows up to 70 additional product page versions. Use them for campaigns, segments, and localized feature pages.
I am an indie dev. Every launch I spent days translating App Store screenshots by hand. So I built a tool to do it for me.
Apple says the first one to three screenshots can appear in search. Design those as your strongest store pitch.
What's New appears on the product page and Updates tab. Write useful release notes, not placeholder copy.
Google recommends concise alt text for preview assets. Here is how to describe screenshots in 140 characters or less.
App Store Connect ships only two Spanish locales. Xcode adds a third. Here is what that means for Spain, Mexico, and Latin America.
Apple gives your localized app name two to 30 characters. Use it for clarity, brand recall, and one natural category signal.
Promotional text appears above the App Store description and can mention current features without a new app submission.
Apple's description field is long, localizable, plain text, and useful for web search results after release.
Seven reasons App Store reviewers reject screenshots, ordered by how often it really happens.
Apple's keyword field is 100 bytes, not a dumping ground. Remove repeated names, competitor names, and low-intent filler.
Google Play icons need a 512×512 32-bit PNG under 1024 KB. The policy traps are usually in the design, not the export.
Google lets you add up to five tags. Choose the obvious, relevant tags users can verify from the listing or first app session.
Google Play content ratings use IARC. If your app content or features change, the questionnaire may need to change too.
15 to 30 seconds. H.264. 886×1920 for the Pro Max class. Up to three per locale. Here is what actually moves conversion.
Apple age ratings are required, app-wide, and now documented across newer and earlier OS rating systems.
Apple requires a support URL that leads to real contact information. Treat it as part of the product experience.
Google's metadata policy covers title, icon, screenshots, descriptions, and promotional images. Audit claims before review.
Localized listings convert about 2x better. The first three screenshots do most of the work. Here is what to put on them.
Your App Store category should match what the app actually does. Primary category, secondary category, and subcategories all matter.
Apple review notes are not visible to customers, but they help reviewers reach the right flows without guessing.
Apple phased release rolls an update out over seven days to users with automatic updates on. Use it when monitoring matters.
Apple lets you reset the overview rating with a new version, but written reviews remain and the old rating cannot be restored.
English has two plural forms. Russian has four. Arabic has six. CLDR's six categories explain why hardcoded copy breaks abroad.
Copyright and license agreement fields are not ASO copy, but they still need the right owner, year, and legal treatment.
Google Play requires a privacy policy in Play Console and in the app, even when the app does not collect sensitive data.
If reviewers need login, membership, location, QR, or paywall access, Play Console needs reusable instructions that actually work.
Target audience settings can trigger extra Families policy requirements. The declaration must match the real app and listing.
Google Play gives you a 4000-character full description, but repetitive or irrelevant keywords can hurt review and trust.
Google Play can localize listing text and graphic assets. If graphics are missing, users may see default-language images.
A short pre-submit checklist: read aloud, check overflow, verify CJK, match in-app reality, confirm dimensions.
One appeal per rejection. Five to seven business days for a response. What goes in the email, when to use it, when not to.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean each break Latin layout in their own way. Density, line height, punctuation, and hangul.
Same 1320×2868 as the 16 Pro Max. Same 6.9 display class. If you already have the master, you are done.
Right-to-left is not just flipping the text. Layout, numbers, and arrows all change. Here is what to watch for.
Latin, CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic — one family covers most of them: Noto Sans. Plus Inter and SF Pro for marketing copy.
Same screenshots, different rules. Counts, sizes, locales, and review behavior compared on one page.
ASO tools cost money. A free three-step workflow gets 80 percent of the value: search bar, competitors, App Store Connect.
If you can localize for only a few markets, do these first. US, China, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Korea — and why.
A practical seven-step checklist for shipping an app in more than one language without losing your weekend.