ASO & keywords
App Store Screenshots & Icons: 2026 Sizes + What Top Apps Do
App Store and Google Play screenshot and icon sizes for 2026, from Apple's and Google's own pages, plus data: top apps use 8 screenshots, not 5, and change them 3x as often.
App Store screenshots need one required size in 2026: iPhone with Dynamic Island (medium display), 1179 × 2556 pixels. Add 13-inch iPad screenshots (2064 × 2752) if your app runs on iPad; Apple scales every other size from those. Google Play wants 2 to 8 screenshots per device type between 320 and 3840 pixels, plus a 1024 × 500 feature graphic. The bigger difference is in how top apps use them: the top 10 apps in each US Top Grossing App Store category show a median of 8 screenshots, against 5 for other apps, and change them about three times as often.
Sizes below are from Apple’s and Google’s own help pages, checked on October 20, 2026. The data on top apps comes from our data-backed ASO study (October 18, 2026).
App Store screenshot sizes and rules
| What | Rule |
|---|---|
| Screenshots | 1 to 10 per device size; .jpeg, .jpg or .png, no transparency |
| iPhone, required | iPhone with Dynamic Island (medium display): 1179 × 2556 px portrait (1206 × 2622 also accepted) |
| iPhone, sometimes required | Face ID large display (1284 × 2778 or 1242 × 2688) if you don't provide Dynamic Island large-display screenshots |
| iPhone, optional | Dynamic Island large (1320 × 2868, 1290 × 2796, 1260 × 2736) and older sizes; missing sizes are scaled from the next size up |
| iPad | iPad 13-inch: 2064 × 2752 or 2048 × 2732 px, if the app runs on iPad |
| App previews | Up to 3 per device size and language, 15–30 seconds, up to 500 MB; shown before screenshots |
| App icon | 1024 × 1024 px, square layers (the system rounds the corners), full-bleed opaque background layer |
| Testing | Product page optimization: up to 3 alternate pages (icon, screenshots, previews) against the original |
Source: Apple’s screenshot specifications, app preview specifications and app icon guidelines.
Google Play screenshot, icon and feature graphic sizes
| What | Rule |
|---|---|
| Screenshots | JPEG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha), 320–3840 px, long side at most twice the short side; up to 8 per device type, at least 2 to publish |
| For recommendations | At least 4 screenshots at 1080 px or more (16:9 or 9:16) to be eligible for Google Play's recommendation formats (3 for games) |
| App icon | 512 × 512 px, 32-bit PNG with alpha, up to 1024 KB; full square, Google Play applies the mask |
| Feature graphic | 1024 × 500 px, JPEG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha), required |
| Preview video | One YouTube URL (public or unlisted, ads off); the first 30 seconds autoplay |
| Testing | Store listing experiments: up to 2 variants per experiment |
Source: Google’s preview assets guide and icon design specifications.
How top apps use screenshots
Meeting the size rules is the floor. Here’s what the apps at the top of the charts do with them:
| Top 10 per category | Top 100 per category | Other active apps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Store, median screenshots | 8 | 7 | 5 |
| App Store, changed screenshots since March 1, 2026 | 35% | 26% | 10% |
| Google Play, median screenshots | 18 | 17 | 10 |
| Google Play, changed screenshots since July 20, 2026 | 37% | 25% | 10% |
| Google Play, changed icon since July 20, 2026 | 15% | 13% | 5% |
GetAppNiche, US Top Grossing charts vs a sample of apps updated in the last 12 months, October 18, 2026. A change counts only when the image itself changed.
This doesn’t prove that new screenshots move an app up the charts; leaders have bigger teams. It does show the habit: top apps treat screenshots as something to keep improving, not a launch task.
How to make screenshots that sell
- Use more than the minimum. Top apps show around 8 on the App Store. Every extra slot is another chance to show a feature someone searched for.
- Make the first three count. Your first screenshots (or your preview video) are what people see in search results, before they ever open your page. Lead with the main thing the app does, in big readable words.
- Show the result, not the menu. A finished budget, a clean photo, a completed workout reads faster than a settings screen.
- Localize the words. If your listing is localized, translate the captions on your screenshots too.
- Test, then keep changing. Run Apple’s product page optimization (up to three alternates) or Google Play’s store listing experiments (up to two variants), and refresh screenshots when you ship a feature people care about.
App icon tips
Your icon is the one image people see in every search result. Keep it to one simple shape, avoid text that turns illegible at small sizes, and give it a color that stands out from the competitors you rank next to. On Google Play, top apps changed their icon 15% of the time since July 20, 2026, against 5% for other apps: worth testing, rarely worth doing on a whim.
To see what the apps ranking for your keywords show in their listings, look them up in the free App Store keyword tool. For the full ASO picture, read our App Store optimization guide.