Preparing for the App Store & Google Play Store

Both the App Store and Google Play Store serve as primary platforms for mobile app distribution, each with distinct characteristics and requirements. The choice between platforms significantly impacts your app's development and distribution strategy.

Here are some key platform differences to consider:

• App Store maintains stricter review processes with human reviewers, focusing on quality control and user experience. This typically results in longer review times but potentially higher user trust.
• Google Play Store offers a more streamlined submission process using automated reviews, allowing for quicker app updates and more flexible development iterations.
• App Store users show a higher willingness to pay for apps and in-app purchases, while Google Play provides a broader market reach due to Android's larger user base.^[1]
• Both platforms charge similar commission rates on sales, with special terms for smaller developers. Check their latest policies for current rates and conditions.^[2]

Your app distribution strategy should align with your target audience, revenue goals, and development resources.

A compelling app icon serves as your app's first impression across store listings, search results, and category rankings. Creating an icon that meets platform requirements ensures consistent display quality across all store locations.

Technical requirements for app icons:

• App Store: 1024x1024px in PNG format, with no transparency or alpha channels.^[3]
• Google Play Store: 512x512px in PNG format, with no transparency.^[4]
• Both platforms require square icons with 90-degree corners before system masking is applied.

Design considerations for both stores:

• Use bold, simple designs that remain recognizable in smaller sizes.
• Avoid text unless it's an essential part of your brand mark.
• Test your icon against light and dark backgrounds.
• Ensure the design maintains a visual hierarchy when scaled down.

Each platform applies its own masking and effects to your icon automatically. Your original asset should fill the entire square canvas, letting the platform handle corner rounding and other stylistic treatments.

Every app store listing requires carefully crafted elements that showcase your app's value and features. Strong product page materials directly impact your app's visibility and user acquisition.

Core elements required for both App Store and Google Play Store:

• App name: Clear, searchable, and matching your branding
• App icon: Visually distinctive and readable at all sizes
• Preview video: Highlighting core features and user benefits
• Screenshots: Showcasing main functionalities and user interface
• App description: Clear explanation of features and benefits
• Category selection: Appropriate for your app's primary function
• Privacy policy: Addressing data collection and user rights
• Localization: Adapting content for target markets

Additionally, Play Store needs you to indicate the app's content rating.^[5] App Store requires a subtitle, keywords, whether the app includes in-app purchases, subscription details, and information for the What's New section.^[6]

The app store submission process requires seamless coordination between designers and developers. Successful app launches depend on clear role definitions and effective collaboration between teams, including business stakeholders who handle commercial decisions.

Developer responsibilities in app submission include:

• Managing developer account setup and credentials
• Configuring required technical integrations
• Building and uploading the application bundle
• Implementing bug fixes and performance optimizations
• Handling technical aspects of store requirements
• Submitting the final build for store review

Designer responsibilities before app submission include:

• Conducting thorough usability testing
• Ensuring consistent brand presentation
• Verifying design implementation accuracy
• Reviewing app performance on various devices
• Validating user interface behaviors
• Documenting any visual or interaction issues
• Creating visual assets for the product pages

Regular check-ins between teams help identify and resolve issues before store submission.

Both App Store and Google Play Store offer the option of uploading an app preview video. It's a great way to show your app's functionality, features, and UI. If you want to convince new users to download your app, there's nothing better than the good old "Show, don't tell" technique.

The recipe for a great video is similar for both platforms:

• Try to keep your video under 30 seconds (App Store doesn't support longer videos. Google Play Store does but only the first 30 seconds autoplay).
• Tell a cohesive story that gives users a sense of the journey they'll experience when using your app.
• Make your point within the first 5-10 seconds.
• Show off the actual app experience and include the most appealing features.
• Consider adding text elements to give the user context if the video is muted, but make sure they are large enough and stay visible long enough to read.
• Provide localized videos for specific regions and languages.

Technical requirements like orientation and aspect ratios, however, differ a little for both platforms. And, of course, the video for each platform must use that platform's UI — seeing Android UI in App Store or vice versa will be confusing. Always check the latest requirements on the respective websites, as they are subject to change.

Screenshots are key to showcasing your app’s features and quality. They should clearly communicate your app’s unique value proposition. The App Store allows up to 10 screenshots, while Google Play Store permits 8. The number you need depends on your app type—e.g., a simple calculator may only need 1-2 images to highlight its core features.

Design tips for effective screenshots:

• Focus the first 3 screenshots on your app’s most important features, as these are the most viewed.
• Use high-resolution images with readable text, even in thumbnails.
• Avoid clutter: keep text minimal and ensure backgrounds don’t compete with content.
• Reflect your app’s current design and functionality.
• Avoid claims about rankings, awards, testimonials, pricing, or promotions (e.g., “#1,” “Best,” “Sale”).
• Skip call-to-actions like “Download now” or “Try now.”
• Don’t use time-sensitive content that may require frequent updates.^[7]

The App Store lets you test multiple versions of your product pages against your original version. You can experiment with different app icons, screenshots, and app preview videos simultaneously. Each test requires approval through the App Store review process and must maintain platform guidelines. Running tests for at least 90 days helps gather meaningful data across different user segments and seasonal variations.

Google Play Store also allows you to try different combinations of app icons, feature graphics, screenshots, videos, and descriptions. Google's testing system automatically distributes traffic between variants to ensure statistically significant results.

Before launching any test, establish clear goals and hypotheses. Document which elements you're testing and why. Focus on testing one major change at a time to clearly understand what impacts conversion rates. Monitor test results regularly but avoid drawing conclusions too quickly — allow enough time to gather substantial data for confident decision-making.

App Store and Play Store both allow you to create multiple product pages accessible via special links. When your app has several functions, features, or benefits, you can highlight each of those on custom pages. This comes in handy when you tailor your page to different marketing efforts. For example, an organizing app with time recording and task management features can create a page for each feature. When launching a keyword search campaign, link these pages accordingly. So when someone looks for a "time recording app" and clicks on your store link, they will see the page highlighting this function.

You can also use these pages to showcase seasonal or culturally relevant content. Each page can include screenshots, promotional text, and videos different from the default page.^[8]

Localizing your app store listing improves the user experience of local audiences. In turn, it helps you identify locales with the highest growth potential. After analyzing statistics, you can decide whether you should localize your app for a new market. Both the App Store and Google Play allow you to create separate pages for each locale.

What should you consider when localizing your page?

• Adapt your screenshots. Use images relevant to the market, such as pictures of local people and landscapes. Also, consider the cultural significance of colors, icons, and symbols.
• Localize your keywords — even if the new market uses the same language. Slang and local expressions can make a big difference in the terms people search for.
• Use local formatting. The new market's measurement system or date format might differ from your home market's.
• Use high-quality translations. Avoid relying solely on machine translation, as the results can be unreliable. Work with a local translator to ensure that your listing’s content does not offend or make the audience uncomfortable.

App Clips on the App Store and Instant Apps on Google Play Store are preview versions of native apps. They are similar to food samples at a market. Before deciding if you want to buy the delicious-looking cheese, you can try it to make sure you like it.^[9]

With app previews, the idea is that users can try out apps without downloading them. These light app versions are beneficial to both the user and developers. Users don't need to commit, and developers can learn about users' habits immediately after releasing their product.

Preview apps can be started from links in search results, social media shares, messages, beacons, or NFC. One app can have previews of several features. For example, creating separate previews for single-player and multiplayer modes of the same game. Preview apps aren't difficult to develop as they use the existing code. They can really improve your retention rates as only interested users end up downloading and keeping the actual app.