You built the app. It works. Then you open App Store Connect and it asks for screenshots, and you realize the thing standing between you and "submit" is a design problem you have no idea how to solve.

I've shipped a bunch of apps solo. The store listing visuals used to be the part I dreaded most. Not the code. The marketing screenshots. The ones with the phone frames and the big "Track everything in one place" headline that every successful app has and yours suddenly needs to compete with. This post is the exact workflow I use to make those without hiring anyone, including where an ASO visuals generator saves you when you don't even have clean design files yet.

No fluff. Just the steps, the store sizes, and the caption rules that actually move installs.

First, what these screenshots actually are

The screenshots on your App Store and Play Store listing are not screen recordings of your app. They are marketing creatives. Usually a phone mockup with the app screen inside it, a short headline on top, a background color, and maybe a little annotation pointing at a feature.

People decide whether to install in about three seconds of scrolling. Your first two screenshots do most of the work. This is the core of ASO (App Store Optimization) on the visual side. The store algorithm cares about keywords and ratings. Humans care about whether your screenshots look like an app they trust.

So the job is: make 4 to 6 of these, make them look like one cohesive app, and get them out at the right pixel sizes for both stores.

The workflow

Here's the loop. Four steps.

1. Get the screens

This is where most guides assume you already have polished design files sitting in Figma. A lot of solo devs don't. You built the app in React Native or SwiftUI, it looks fine on a device, but you have no clean mockup-ready frames.

You've got two honest options:

• Use your real app screens. Take clean captures on a simulator at the right resolution. Hide any test data, real names, low battery, weird timestamps. This is free and accurate, but your in-app UI is often denser than what looks good on a store listing.
• Generate listing-ready screens. If your real UI is messy, or you're pre-launch and want listing visuals before the app is even done, you generate clean screens that match your brand. This is the part I lean on tools for now. Daisy can generate App Store screenshots straight from your app screens so the visuals look like one app even if your actual codebase is held together with tape. Worth it when you're pre-launch and need the listing to look finished.

Either way, by the end of step one you should have 4 to 6 clean screen images, one per feature you want to sell.

2. Frame them in device mockups

Now you drop each screen into a phone frame. There's a whole category of tools that do just this part well, and they're genuinely good at it: AppLaunchpad, AppMockup, AppScreens, and similar. You upload a screenshot, pick an iPhone or Pixel frame, and it sizes everything for you. Most have free tiers.

The thing to understand is the lane. Those tools take screens you already have and frame them. They don't make the screens. So if you walked out of step one with clean images, a framing tool is all you need here. If you didn't have clean screens to begin with, framing an ugly screenshot in a nice phone just gives you an ugly screenshot in a nice phone.

Tips for this step:

• Keep the same frame style across all screenshots. Don't mix a flat iPhone on one and a perspective angle on the next.
• Leave breathing room. The phone should not touch the edges.
• Pick a background that comes from your app's palette, not a random gradient.

3. Add the headlines and captions

Every screenshot gets a short headline. This is the highest-leverage text on your entire listing.

Caption do's:

• Lead with the benefit, not the feature. "Hit your goals without the guesswork" beats "Goal tracking screen."
• Keep it to 3 to 5 words. People are scrolling. Long headlines don't get read.
• Make the first one a hook. Your number one screenshot should answer "what is this and why do I care."
• Use a verb. "Plan", "Track", "Save", "Build". Verbs imply the reader doing something.

Caption don'ts:

• Don't repeat your app name on every slide. They already see it.
• Don't put a paragraph. If it wraps to three lines, cut it.
• Don't use hype words like "revolutionary." Nobody believes them.
• Don't let the caption cover the important part of the UI.

4. Export at store sizes

This is the boring part that trips people up at submission. Both stores are picky about dimensions.

Apple App Store (the sizes you actually need):

• 6.9 inch iPhone (the current large size), portrait: 1290 x 2796 px. This is the required one. If you only do one set, do this.
• 6.5 inch iPhone is still accepted by many setups: 1242 x 2688 px.
• iPad 13 inch only if you ship an iPad app: 2064 x 2752 px.

Apple now upscales from the largest iPhone size to fill smaller devices, so a single 6.9 inch set usually covers iPhone. You can upload up to 10 screenshots per device. Use at least 3, ideally 5 to 6.

Google Play:

• Phone screenshots: minimum 320 px on the short side, max 3840 px, and the long side can't be more than twice the short side. A safe target is 1080 x 1920 px or 1242 x 2208 px.
• You need 2 to 8 phone screenshots.
• Play also wants a 1024 x 500 px feature graphic. Don't forget this one, it's the banner at the top of your listing.

Export as PNG or high-quality JPG. Keep file sizes reasonable so your listing loads fast.

Screenshot order matters more than you think

Put them in priority order, because most people only see the first two without scrolling.

A pattern that works:

1. The hook. Your strongest benefit, cleanest screen.
2. The core action. The main thing people open the app to do.
3. A "wow" feature. Whatever makes you different.
4. Social proof or results. A stats screen, a streak, a before/after.
5. Onboarding or setup, to show it's easy.

Don't bury your best screen at position five. Nobody gets there.

A note on localization

If you're shipping in more than one country, the stores let you upload a different screenshot set per language. You don't always need to redo all of it. Often just translating the headline captions is enough, since the UI inside the frame reads as "an app" regardless. Start with your top one or two markets. Don't translate into twelve languages before you have a single install.

FAQ

Do I need Figma or Photoshop for this?
No. You can do the whole thing with a browser-based framing tool plus clean screens. The skill that matters is writing good captions and picking the right order, not pushing pixels.

Can I just use raw screen recordings?
You can upload plain screenshots, and for some utility apps it's fine. But framed screenshots with headlines almost always convert better because they tell the buyer what they're getting.

What if my app isn't built yet?
You can still make listing visuals from designed or generated screens. An ASO visuals generator is the move here, since you don't have real captures to frame yet. Useful for pre-launch landing pages and "coming soon" listings too.

How many screenshots should I make?
At least 3, ideally 5 to 6. More than that and the extras rarely get viewed.

The honest takeaway

The hard part of store screenshots was never the design software. It's having clean screens to start from and writing captions that make someone tap install. If you've got real, tidy app screens, a free framing tool finishes the job in an afternoon. If you don't, generate the screens first, then frame and caption them.

Either path gets you a professional listing without a designer on payroll. Pick the one that matches what you actually have today and go submit.

Salim, Founder