Designing screenshots for your app can feel like shooting in the dark; you never know what’s going to hit and you’re surprised when you do. At LaunchMatic, we design iOS and Android app screenshots full-time, so it’s our duty to take the guessing out of it.

I manually went through the top 200 apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, searching for clues that could help us build a framework for designing better screenshots. That framework has yet to be finalized… but I did find some interesting data that might assist your next design iteration.

Games and Apps are shown together within the top 200 so I separated my findings between both.

Data on Apps

We looked at data secured from an app’s first 3 screenshots.

Text Captions

• 94% of iOS Apps have text captions
• Average length of a single text caption is 6 words, or 35 characters
• Apps with over 10 words per text caption typically have a focus “keyword” with subtext below

App Preview

• Only 23% of iOS apps have an app preview video

Text Captions

• 90% of Android Apps have text captions
• Average length of a single text caption is 5.9 words, or 35 characters
• Apps with over 10 words per text caption typically have a focus “keyword” with subtext below

App Preview

• 29% of Android apps have an app preview video

Data on Games

We looked at data secured from an app’s first 3 screenshots.

Text Captions

• Only 47% of iOS Games have text captions
• Average length of a single text caption is 3.7 words, or 23 characters

App Preview

• 77% of iOS games have an app preview video

Text Captions

• Only 41% of Android Games have text captions
• Average length of a single text caption is 3.2 words, or 20 characters

App Preview

• 51% of Android games have an app preview video

Summary & fun facts

• Keep your captions short and sweet, while also making sure they are legible from Apple Search results (large and bold)
• Caption length between iOS and Android are almost identical (also b/c we are dealing with many of the same apps)
• Of the iOS top 200, 119 are apps and 81 are games
• Of the Android top 200, 96 are apps and 104 are games

Grab the Google Sheet to parse the data yourself.

I captured screenshot data from the top 200 iOS and Android apps and this is what I found was originally published in LaunchMatic Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Update 10/15/20: You can now automatically translate your screenshot text captions with LaunchMatic. Create a free account and test it out!

With multiple devices to design for and over 80 languages to localize for between iOS and Android, app screenshots can quickly spiral out of control.

If you’re just starting out, here is a rough calculation on how many screenshot templates you will need to export:

As a mobile marketer and designer, I know that caption translation is the largest culprit when it comes to time consumption.

Many of us smaller shops can’t afford to pay 20+ translators to localize our captions, so Google Translate is the next best thing.

My Google Translate workflow was as follows:

This process needed automation. That’s why I created a free Screenshot Translation Google Sheet that automatically translates your English captions for all major iOS and Android supported languages.

Using the sheet is simple: enter your EN caption and Google Translate will automatically translate it for every language listed below.

To get the sheet, just go to:

File > Make a copy…

and save it to your Google Drive.

Get the Translation Google Sheet.

Here are a few tips to get you started making great screenshots:

Keep your captions short and sweet

Make your caption font large and stick between 1–2 lines so that they are easy to read. This will also help when localizing, as many languages have increased character counts when compared to English (I’m looking at you, 🇩🇪).

Highlight your core value props and features

Users should know exactly what your app does within the first 3 screenshots. Be concise in the value provided and how it differs from the competition.

Emphasize the User Interface

If you want to bring attention to a core feature or value, popping out the user interface will help bring focus.

Interconnected Screenshots Perform

Having devices and assets carry over from screenshot to screenshot helps create a visual flow. This small visual design gimmick will help set you apart from the competition & will increase your conversion rate, which in-turn helps keyword rankings.

Need help designing and localizing your screenshots?

I started LaunchMatic to help App Makers, Marketers and Designers build beautiful screenshot templates for every language at scale.

Our screenshot templates are created by an ASO Expert and UI/UX Designer, utilizing many ASO practices that help boost organic and paid conversions.

Get a free screenshot consultation for your app by emailing me at tim@launchmatic.app with the subject “Free Consultation” and a link to your iOS/Android app!

App Screenshot Translation: Localize your iOS and Android captions for free was originally published in LaunchMatic Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.