iOS 11 App Previews — How to create video for the latest iOS App Store

Know the App Store video guidelines

Before you start working on your iOS App Previews, read the App Preview guidelines carefully. We’ve mentioned most of the points in this post, but some things might change and you want to make sure you know what you can do, what you can maybe do and what you sure can’t do.

If you try things in the grey area, make sure you have a backup plan. Don’t let it be a problem if your App Preview is rejected, instead plan ahead to make sure it’s easy remove the elements that could be cause for rejection in order to not mess up your approval timeline.

Start strong

Catching viewer’s attention is always important in video.

When you’re dealing with autoplay video, it is absolutely critical.

This is why you want to start the video with something very visual: either a text animation or one of your app’s features that looks best.

If using a text, make sure it is easy to read even when the video is at a reduced size (especially for portrait apps where the first App Preview is displayed along two screenshots). Do not make it static, otherwise people could miss out on the fact that they are watching a video.

If using something very visual from your app, you can also use a text overlaid on the UI to give more context.

Optimize for silence

App Previews autoplay, but they autoplay in mute. And a lot of people have their phones on mute or low volume anyway.

The only way people will hear the sound of your video is if they tap on the video to view it full screen from the App Store listing. So that’s not going to happen too often.

This means you need to make sure your video can be understood and engaging even without the sound on.

And that’s where using short (and easy to read – we’ll never say it enough) copy proves very useful.

Add text screens/interstitials in-between showing your app’s benefits or gameplay, as well as a couple of text overlaid over the UI when it adds value.

Plus, what is great with text screens is that you can experiment and add some animations on them. Or live action in the background. The focus is still on the text, but it can allow you to set up the atmosphere. While still kinda respecting Apple’s App Store video guidelines (and if any problem, you just remove it – it’s an easy fix).

Show the most relevant content

It might seem obvious to show your app in its best light, but this is sometimes overlooked and can also be quite time-consuming.

Optimize your poster frame

The poster frame was absolutely critical before iOS 11.

Less so now, but it is still important for the first App Preview because it shows up in the following cases:

Since the second and third App Previews are only displayed on the App Store page, they only show before you put them “in focus”.

This is what Apple says about poster frames:

When defining your video, think from the beginning about what your poster frame should be.

You should think about your poster frame almost as much as you think about your screenshots. Think of it as an ad banner!

Want to learn more about poster frames? Check out this post: everything you need to know about App Preview video poster frames.

Look at what others do

Whether it’s for the poster frames or the actual App Previews, check out apps from your niche (or somewhat related) on the App Store to get inspiration on what could work for you.

Get a sense of what Apple seems to allow and not allow. If you see something that’s clearly out of the guidelines, check again a few weeks later to see if the video is still the same or if Apple went back and asked the developer to take it out.

Portrait apps: pay attention to the middle part

As we’ve discussed earlier, sometimes the portrait App Previews are displayed in landscape mode (some featured list, or Apple’s test in the “A Closer Look” section on the App Store page).

This means that before the visitor taps on the video to open it full screen, they only see the middle part. So keep this in mind when showing your first text or feature.

A different video for the iphone x

As mentioned, one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that App Previews are device specific.

And since Apple introduced a new screen ratio with the iPhone X, it means that you can have an optional iPhone X App Preview.

An app update is still required

To update your App Store Previews or your poster frames, it is still required to submit a new version (update) of the app.

App preview videos are device-specific

No change regarding this basic principle: App Previews are still device-specific.

When Apple launches new devices, they sometime introduce new App Store Preview video resolutions (like with the new iPad or iPad Pro) but the resolution ratios so far were staying the same. However with the recent iPhone X, they introduced a new resolution for the device and therefore the corresponding iPhone X App Preview dimensions: 886×1920. Thanks for making it easy on everyone, Apple.

App previews now autoplay…

This is one of the most exciting changes with iOS 11: App Preview videos autoplay in mute, in loop!

That’s pretty big.

Apple encourages copy in your app store video

Apple used to frown a bit upon using text in App Previews, because the videos had to be “mostly based on captured footage” and “show off a lot of the app’s content/UI”.

It was still possible though, and this is what we were told in 2021:

Yes, its ok to have interstitial-like screens but I would try to minimize these as much as possible.

But with mute autoplay Apple is now almost encouraging the use of copy:

Giving context? Driving interest?

You can see anything when reading that.

And what we want to read is that Apple might be more flexible and let us present the app/game content almost the way we want. Maybe allowing us to do something that would be closer to an ad (or game trailer) in some aspects: using text, having something more dynamic.

Best practices

You’re probably getting a sense of what we believe are the best practices by reading the sections above. But we might as well point them out explicitly!

Could the app store video guidelines be getting loser?

It sure seems like it! At least in some regards.

As you’ll see in the section just below about planning for your App Preview, Apple says to “resist the urge to overproduce the video”. But we don’t think that means not making it as great as possible (of course, one could say we’re biased)!

Do not show ui outside of your app in your app preview

This can be a bit unfair to some apps, especially if a big part of their added value comes from being integrated in other applications.

Showing any UI outside of an app is only possible when there is a core functionality of the app using something like Safari, etc. See below what Apple shared with us back in 2021 (no changes to this to my knowledge)

“Typically, the exceptions to showing any UI outside of an app is when there is core functionality of the app that requires sometimes like Safari. For example, if there is an ecard app where the card is received in mobile safari. I would avoid notification center widgets and notifications – the goal of the previews is to show people what it’s like to use the app, and notification center widgets and notifications are optional enhancements and generally not considered part of the core functionality.

No change on that front as far as we know.

Does apple play favorites?

It’s very possible. I won’t give names here (email us for a list!), but several App Previews on the App Store completely disregard the previous and current guidelines.

How you should plan your app preview videos

Apple is pretty on point when describing how you should plan for your App Preview.

Below are a few words on how we work with our clients. Most of it is also useful to make sure everybody is on the same page if you’re working with a in-house team.

• We do a discovery call to better understand what’s essential to show.
• We review their website, the iOS App Store page and any marketing assets they share with us to make sure we understand how they communicate so we can produce a video that is in line with their branding. There might be opportunities to use already existing visual assets on some text screens for example.
• Our proposal includes a synopsis/script which gives a high-level view of the scenario we have in mind for the App Preview. We time each step to make sure we’ll stay within 30s. We define what could be a good poster frame.This synopsis is finalized with the client (it’s best that everyone involved in the project reviews this document and gives feedback before moving forward). It typically goes like this:

Making changes early on is much easier than editing the video after it’s produced!

Include an in-app purchase disclaimer

You are still supposed to display a text disclaimer when showing features only available via in-app purchases. Something like “available with in-app purchase” (you can make that text fairly small).

Measuring the impact of your ios app store previews & testing

Does adding App Preview(s) help increase conversion rate? Does it increase engagement?

Even if it works (or doesn’t) for others, it’s important for you to evaluate this as well as possible for your apps.

No a/b testing your app previews in itunes connect

A/B testing your iOS App Store creatives is far from easy.

On the Google Play Store listing you can A/B test with Google Experiments, but there is no such thing on iTunes Connect.

Check out the end of the articles for a couple of ways and ideas to evaluate the impact of your App Previews.

On-device dictation

On-device dictation is now available in more regions and languages, including Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Cantonese (Hong Kong), English (Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK, U.S.), French (France), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Japanese (Japan), Korean (Korea)

Other things you can learn with third-party tools

As much as possible, you want to understand what keeps visitors watching your video(s) and most importantly what gets them to download and keep using the app.

You can get this kind of info with a tool like SplitMetrics:

• Improvement – How has the video influenced an app page conversion rate?
• Avg. View Time – The average amount of time people spent viewing the video
• Engagement – The percentage of views to the final seconds of the video

Pre-post analysis for app store optimization impact

Another way to do it, which is not A/B testing but helps measure the impact is to do a before and after test. This is called a pre-post analysis, and uses iTunes Connect Analytics data.

With apps that have a good amount of downloads you can have no video for a week, then put the video (requires an update) and see the change of your organic installs conversion rate.

However the conversion rate can change due to other factors so it’s not a scientific or surefire way. You also want to keep all other things constant as much as possible (paid acquisition efforts, marketing, PR, app store listing, etc.).

To learn how to measure the impact of your video or any other change to your App Store listing, check out our step-by-step guide on measuring the impact of App Store Optimization with iTunes Connect.

To limit the “risk” or try to somewhat simulate an A/B test you could experiment with localization : picking two countries that have a similar organic conversion rate, and put a video for one and not the other. You could run that in parallel with the before/after technique.

By later trying 1 App Preview for a locale and 3 App Previews for another, this could also allow you to evaluate the impact of having more than 1 App Preview.

Example (if Australia – AU – and Canada – CA have similar organic conversion rates):

Because the first App Preview autoplays in search results, you’ll also want to not only look at the conversion rate but also organic visits to the app store listing. If the video in search results drives more traffic, even if the conversion rate stays the same it can still be a big win.

Show your app for real

An App Preview is still supposed to be mostly based on captured footage, which means screen recordings of the app’s UI.

Adding hands, showing devices, implying functionalities that your app doesn’t have is still not permitted. No live action video is allowed either.

Some of you might think “not true, I’ve seen X app do this and this”. And you’re right, Apple seems to have double standards and some developers are allowed things that others are not.

Some app preview examples?

Below are some examples of videos we believe are already a good fit for the iOS 11 App Store:

Some we’ve produced for clients:

And some from others:

The app preview of the app below autoplays after yours

Interesting fact: once your App Preview is over in the search results, it’s the App Preview of the app below yours that starts playing. So you need to convince visitors right here and there, before they check out your competitor’s app!

If the app below does not have an App Preview, then your App Preview loops. On iPhone 6/7, the screen is smaller so there are more chances that your App Preview keeps looping regardless of the app below (but if the one below is quite visible, then it will play after yours).

The app store preview length is still between 15s and 30s

Because Apple changed the App Store video guidelines to say that App Previews are now “up to 30s”, everybody (including us) thought it meant there was no minimum length.

Turns out, the minimum length is still 15s.

What is a good alternative for os x’s preview on the ipad? — quora

You can have up to 3 app previews

This change has had a lot of people talking: you’re not limited to only 1 App Preview, and can have up to 3 App Preview videos on your iOS App Store listing.

As mentioned above, only the 1st App Preview video is displayed in the search results.

Once on the App Store listing and if you’ve uploaded 3 videos, visitors will see (as long as the videos have the same orientation as the screenshots):

• App Preview #1
• App Preview #2
• App Preview #3
• Screenshots

Is that overkill? Maybe, only time will tell.

How should you leverage these second and third App Previews? Here’s what Apple says:

You may choose to include additional app previews to showcase specific features or experiences in your app

Here’s where we stand so far (shared insights with Gabe from Incipia after some great discussions):

Once the videos are created, it’s easy to try and swap App Preview #2 and App Preview #3.

In this joint post with Splitmetrics, they share that based on their data 2 short App Preview videos work best than one video for games.

You can localize your app store videos

We stopped counting how many times clients have asked us to localize their iOS App Preview in different languages.

I mean, it’s what you would expect to be able to do. Plus it’s been possible on the Google Play Store forever and we do it often.

But no: if you had an App Preview in English, ALL the visitors of your App Store page would see it (in English). Whether their phone is in Japanese or Spanish.

Well, with iOS 11 you can now upload different App Preview videos for different localizations of your App Store page.

This means that you can create separate videos to better market/convert based on the locale (country/language). This is particularly useful if:

• Your target audience is across several markets or languages
• Your app has different features/benefits (or gameplay) in different locales

It also means you get to choose where you want to have 1, 2 or 3 App Previews. Something to use for testing (keep reading)?

I would not recommend going crazy with localization (i.e producing 3 App Previews and localizing them in all languages) until you have a solid impression that your App Previews have a positive impact on conversion.

…even in the search results!

That’s the most exciting change: not only App Previews autoplay, but your first App Preview video mute autoplays in the search results as well.

How cool is that?

Conclusion

Several things remain the same for video on the iOS 11 App Store but a much more important role is given by Apple to video.

What stays the same:

• App Previews are still
  • Device-specific
  • Mostly based on captured footage
  • Up to 30s (but no minimal length anymore)
• A new version of the app is still required to update the videos
• No video stats
• No A/B testing with iTunes Connect

What changes:

• App Previews mute autoplay in loop, and the first App Preview autoplays in the search results
• You can have up to 3 App Previews
• You can localize your App Previews and choose how many of them you want for a specific locale
• They are displayed by Apple in several curated lists on the App Store
• With the iPhone X, Apple introduced an “optional” iPhone X App Preview

In terms of best practices, here is a quick summary:

1. 1. Know the App Store video guidelines and plan accordingly if you go into the “grey area”
   2. Start your video strong
   3. Make sure your video makes sense with no sound

1. Show the most relevant content possible
2. Optimize your poster frame
3. Look at the competition

Recommendations/features with video

Apple seems determined to displaying App Previews whenever possible, and looking at the iOS 11 App Store we can see that they curate/feature several apps that have a video.

Notice how the App Preview displays for a portrait app in this last video: we only see the middle.