Setting up a product page for your apps comes with a lot of surprisingly specific details that you have to follow. This is especially egregious with product pages for mobile platforms due to how the Apple App Store and Google Play Store handles them differently. But don’t fret, because we’ve handily prepared this sweet cheat sheet to help you with figuring out how to best tackle the mobile market’s finicky product pages.

Each element of your product page has different requirements depending on the specific platform they are in, so read on to know exactly what to do and what to avoid.

APPLE APP STORE

SCREENSHOTS

The App Store puts screenshots as one of the first things that you see after accessing the product page, they make up a good chunk of a user’s first impression of your product. So always make sure that your screenshots are optimized and your other elements after the scroll follow-up on that impression.

Content-wise, the rules for screenshots are easy to follow: They actually have to be screenshots. Images like real people having fun while looking over a phone’s screen are not allowed. However, the sizes are a bit more specific because you need to have screenshots for multiple types of devices.

A screenshot taken from a minimum 5.5 inch display for iPhones should be included, as well as ones that were taken from at least a 12.9 inch display for iPads. You can have a minimum of one and a maximum of ten for each type, and they can be either in portrait or landscape. Remember that these screenshots are what makes the majority of a user’s first impressions, so displaying screenshots that are both impactful and meaningful will greatly affect how a user perceives your product.

If you’re unsure if your screenshot would fit within Apple’s guidelines, you can check out their official list of screenshot specifications here.

PREVIEW VIDEOS

Much like screenshots, preview videos are also one of the first things that a user sees in the App Store after accessing your product page. These videos are actually located on top of the screenshots, so they are more of an immediate draw than the screenshots. However, these videos will automatically play on mute by default, so you always have to make sure that your videos will draw users in even without the sound turned on.

Like screenshots, preview videos can either be in landscape or portrait, and a complete list of specifications for them can be found here.

APP ICON

When users simply browse the market instead of searching for your app directly on the search bar, an app’s icon will be the first thing that they will be seeing. This is why app icons need to stand out from a sea of similar looking icons. It has to encapsulate your product’s feel in one neat looking icon. Even when the user is scrolling through the app page, these icons will remain atop the page in a sticky header, putting even more pressure on it to deliver your product’s overall quality.

Unlike the screenshots and preview videos, the app icon is pretty simple when it comes to specifications. They either have to be 512 x 512 pixels or 1024 x 1024 pixels, and they can be either in .jpg or .png formats.

PAGE ARTWORK

There are two types of page artwork: product page artwork and developer page artwork. Product page artwork will be needed in case your product is chosen by Apple to have its own artwork on the product page. It’s also needed for some of your product’s crowning moments of being featured in the App Store’s Today tab, which is a tab that highlights specific products in various blog style posts. Developer page artwork, on the other hand, is used to spice up your developer page, possibly leading to the user looking at the other products you have in store for them.

However, no matter which type of page artwork you need, they will usually be cropped depending on what device your users are currently using. So it’s a good practice to have your page artwork’s most important elements be grouped up together in the image in such a manner that they can be framed nicely no matter which device that the page artwork is currently being viewed on. For more specifics on formatting your page artwork, you can view the official guidelines here.

GOOGLE PLAY STORE

SCREENSHOTS

Like the App Store, screenshots in the Play Store are also seen immediately by the user even before they scroll down the product page, so it’s a good idea to have similarly impactful screenshots. You can have a minimum of two screenshots and a maximum of eight in either landscape or portrait formats.

However, unlike the App Store, screenshots for the Play Store are looser in terms of actually being screenshots. You can have promotional artwork for in-product events, a composite of screenshots and elements from your product, and so on, as long as they follow specific requirements. Screenshots for the Play Store should have a minimum dimension of 320 px and a maximum of 3840 px, and the aspect ratio can’t be higher than 2:1 or 1:2.

PREVIEW VIDEOS

Unlike the App Store, videos on the Play Store are optional. However, if you decide to add one on your product page, you’ll find that they are actually YouTube videos that will only play once the user decides to access them. They will be displayed in the Play Store as video thumbnails with a play button overlaid on them.

These videos should have a minimum length of 30 seconds and a maximum of 2 minutes. Since they are formatted as YouTube URLs, the video’s size is actually a bit flexible, but 1920 x 1080 would be a great size to use.

APP ICON

This is where there will be the least number of differences between the two stores. App icons will always be front and center when creating first impressions, so no matter the platform, your app icon should always pack a punch.

However, size specifics are a bit different for the Play Store. They can only be 512 x 512 pixels large with a maximum of 1024 kb in terms of file size, and only png formats with alpha will be accepted.

INSTALLING...

Creating a strong impression for these seemingly tiny details can make all the difference in the world for your product. If any single one of these elements can catch a user’s curiosity, they can turn a browse into an install. And the more iconic any of these elements are, the higher the chances of such an event happening, which, in turn, will mean greater success for your product. Who knows, maybe this would turn any one of your blueprints into actual future endeavors.