App Store preview video specs for 2026

An App Store preview is a short video of the app, captured on a device, that sits on the product page. It is optional. If you make one, Apple’s file rules are tighter than a normal export, and a few of them are easy to miss because they are not the same numbers as the screenshots.

Every spec below is from Apple’s own pages, checked for this post: the app preview specifications in App Store Connect Help, the upload guide, and Show more with app previews. If a number is not on those pages, it is not in this post. The cut itself, once the file is legal, is the App Store preview: one idea, the real app, a poster you chose.

We haven’t shipped a client’s preview. The limits are Apple’s.

The file Apple will take#

That iPhone size is the one to slow down on. Apple’s spec page lists 886×1920 (portrait) and 1920×886 (landscape) as the accepted preview resolution for iPhone with Dynamic Island, iPhone with Face ID, and iPhone Duo. The screenshot for those phones is a different, larger pixel size. Exporting the preview at the screenshot size, because it “matches the phone,” is not what the preview table asks for. Use the accepted resolution on their page, and re-check it when a new phone ships. The table moves.

If the interface is the same across sizes and languages, Apple says to provide the highest resolution you need and let App Store Connect scale the rest. A missing localisation uses the next best language. iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Vision Pro have their own accepted sizes on the same page. macOS, tvOS and visionOS previews are landscape only. iMessage apps don’t get previews.

Where it sits on the page#

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, app previews are shown before screenshots, even if you drag them the other way in App Store Connect. The preview is the first moving thing. Screenshot 1 is the first still. They should be the same idea.

If the preview’s aspect ratio doesn’t match your screenshots, it does not lead the gallery. Apple’s spec page says it appears in the “A Closer Look” section instead. A 16:9 film dropped into a portrait listing is a film most people on the product page will not see first. Match the orientation of the screenshot set. Portrait screenshots, portrait preview.

Apple’s preview guide says previews display and autoplay on the product page and in search results, and that they can be used in Apple Ads. The same page says that by default, app previews play with the sound muted. Plan the cut for silence. Sound can help. It cannot be the only way the preview makes sense.

The poster frame#

The poster is the still people see before the video plays, and the only frame they see if autoplay is off. Apple’s default is five seconds into the file. Five seconds in is often a transition.

Scrub to the frame that shows what the app does, and set that. Do it before the asset is approved. Apple’s preview guide says that if you change the poster on a preview that’s already approved, you need to submit a new version of the preview. The upload guide says poster frames can’t be edited after assets have been approved. “I’ll fix the poster in the morning” can mean a new upload, and processing can take up to 24 hours.

The poster and screenshot 1 should be recognisable as the same moment. Someone who never presses play should still learn what the app does.

What the picture is allowed to be#

Apple’s guide is specific about the footage, and these are the rules that get a pretty video rejected for being the wrong kind of pretty.

Captured on device, and only the app. Previews demonstrate the features, the interface and the content using footage captured on device. They must show only content within the app. Don’t film people holding the phone, an over-the-shoulder angle, or fingers tapping the screen. If you need to show a tap, Apple says you may add a graphic, such as a touch hotspot. Capture the native UI rather than zooming in. Transitions should not imply a feature the app doesn’t have.

Copy, because it is muted. Add context with words on screen. Apple says the text should be legible, easy to understand, and on screen long enough to read. Skip seasonal lines (“new for spring”) and dates. Don’t put a specific price on screen. Pricing and currency vary by region.

Say if money or an account is required. If the preview shows a feature that needs an in-app purchase, a subscription, or a login, you must disclose it. The disclaimer can sit in the footage or on the end frame.

Appropriate for all ages. No violence, adult themes, or profanity in the preview, whatever the app’s age rating. For a game, show more gameplay than cutscenes, so the video doesn’t give a false impression of play.

Rights. Only material you can legally show in marketing, in every territory you ship to. Music, film clips, trademarked characters and brands included.

You can upload the asset on its own, in Asset Library, and submit it for review before it is placed on a version. The practical path for a first launch is still the version page: Product Page Information, then the previews and screenshots for the device. The upload guide lists who can do it (Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing) and the version statuses that accept an upload, including Prepare for Submission, Rejected, and Metadata Rejected.

A cut that can convert, inside those rules#

Apple doesn’t publish a conversion rate for previews, and neither do we. What their guide tells you to do is the brief.

One job. Thirty seconds is enough for the hero moment and the single step that gets there. Their guide says that if you upload more than one preview, each video should show something new. Three is the ceiling, not the target. A second preview that repeats the first with the caption moved is a worse first impression, because the first one already played.

The result, early. Open on the finished thing, with a few words, held long enough to read twice. Then one gesture back to how you got there. Then the result again. The stop-scrolling test is the two-second version of that check, sound off, on a phone.

The same promise as frame one. The preview plays first. If it is about a scanner and screenshot 1 is about a feed, the listing is two products. The longer version of that argument is the preview post.

A real account. Record the build you would show a stranger, with believable content already in it. An empty screen looks broken, and a caption cannot fill it. Clearly fictional is fine. Placeholder grey is not. Tidy the status bar the same way you would for a screenshot.

The launch film is a different cut. It is usually longer than 30 seconds, often the wrong shape, and it often opens on type rather than on the app. How to structure a 45-second launch film is that piece. Rebuild the store cut inside 15 to 30 seconds, in the store’s frame, from footage of the product.

Before you upload#

Screenshot rules are a different page. At least one screenshot, up to ten, jpeg or png, no transparency, and a required iPhone size. The week those files have to exist is the app launch checklist. What a designed set costs is screenshot design cost.

What we do here, scope and price: launch film.

If you have a cut and you want it watched with the sound off, book an intro call. Bring the video.