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Hero Screenshot

The hero screenshot is the first screenshot Apple shows in your App Store listing. It carries the most conversion weight because it appears in search results and category browses before users tap into your page.

The hero screenshot is the first image in your App Store screenshot gallery, and when you have no App Preview it is the first visual users meet. It surfaces well beyond your product page: in search results, category and Today browses, and editorial cards. On an iPhone search results page, Apple shows the first three portrait screenshots (or one landscape), so the hero plus its two neighbors are visible before anyone taps in. Industry conversion studies attribute 60-70% of total screenshot-driven install impact to that first frame. A high-performing hero communicates one core value proposition at a glance (a bold, legible headline, a single focal device mockup or UI moment, high contrast), rather than a raw, unlabeled screen. It is a device-specific asset uploaded at each required size, 1320×2868 for the iPhone 6.9" slot.

Why It Matters

The hero is where install decisions are won or lost, yet most teams over-polish screenshots 4-10 that most users never scroll to. Because Apple shows the first three portrait shots directly in search results, a weak hero costs conversions before the listing even opens, and it does so at your highest-traffic surface. Localization multiplies the stakes: a translated hero typically lifts conversion 20-40% over an English-only image in non-English storefronts, since the headline is the one piece of copy every browsing user actually reads. Text expansion bites hardest here (a German or Finnish headline can overflow a box tuned for English), so the hero must be designed with the worst-case locale in mind.

Example

A budgeting app replaces a generic dashboard hero with a focused layout: the headline "Save $400/month automatically," a single iPhone 17 mockup, and a coral accent, exported at 1320×2868 for the 6.9" slot. In Apple's PPO test across 30 days and roughly 25,000 visitors per treatment, the new hero converts 18% above the old one at 95% confidence. When localized, the German hero must fit "Sparen Sie 400 $ pro Monat automatisch" (about 30% longer), so the designer drops the headline from 96px to 76px and widens the text box rather than let it truncate. The German storefront then posts a further 24% lift over the English-only hero.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much conversion impact does the hero screenshot have?

Industry data suggests 60-70% of total screenshot-driven install impact comes from the first screenshot alone. Users decide whether to keep scrolling (or to install) largely based on the hero, which is why it deserves more design and testing attention than any other frame in the gallery.

Should the hero be a UI screenshot or a marketing graphic?

Apple allows both. The strongest performers usually blend a device mockup with a bold value-proposition headline. Pure UI screenshots without context underperform because a browsing user cannot decode a raw screen in the half-second it gets in search results. Lead with the benefit, not the interface.

Does the hero screenshot need to be localized?

Yes, especially for non-English markets. The headline is the one line of copy nearly every browsing user reads, so localized hero screenshots typically lift conversion 20-40% over English-only versions in non-English locales. Plan for text expansion so the translated headline does not truncate or shrink into illegibility.

How many screenshots appear before a user taps into my listing?

On the iPhone App Store, search and browse results preview the first three portrait screenshots, or the first single landscape one. That means your hero and the next two do the selling in-feed, so the strongest apps design shots 1-3 as a coherent trio with the core value proposition front-loaded on the hero.

What size should the hero screenshot be?

It is a standard screenshot, so it uses the same device-specific dimensions: 1320×2868 (or 1290×2796) for the iPhone 6.9" slot and 2064×2752 for the iPad 13" slot, in PNG or JPG, RGB. Apple auto-scales it to smaller devices, but because the hero carries the most weight, many teams craft a dedicated version per device rather than rely on scaling.

Learn More

Related Terms

Custom Product Pages (CPP)
Apple Custom Product Pages let you create up to 35 alternate App Store product pages with unique screenshots, videos, and promotional text. Each variant gets its own URL for paid campaigns.
Product Page Optimization (PPO)
PPO is Apple's native A/B testing feature inside App Store Connect. You can run up to 3 alternate treatments against your default page and Apple declares a winner based on conversion rate.
App Preview Video
An App Preview is a short video (15-30 seconds) Apple shows in the App Store that auto-plays muted. Up to 3 are allowed per device size and they sit above your screenshots in the listing.
ASO (App Store Optimization)
ASO is the process of optimizing an app store listing to rank higher in search and convert more downloads. It covers keywords, screenshots, ratings, and retention signals.

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