App preview video specs: App Store and Google Play (2026)

The two big app stores handle preview video in completely different ways, and mixing them up wastes a lot of production time. On the App Store you upload an actual video file, sized per device, kept between 15 and 30 seconds. On Google Play you upload nothing at all: you paste a YouTube link. This guide lays out both sets of rules so you know exactly what to produce before you open your editor.

App Store app previews: an uploaded file, sized per device

An app preview is a short video that plays on your product page, right inside the screenshot area. You add it in App Store Connect the same way you add screenshots, by uploading the file itself. Apple lets you add up to three app previews per localization, per device family, so a listing in one language can show as many as three clips.

Each preview has to run between 15 and 30 seconds. App Store Connect rejects anything shorter or longer, even when the resolution and format are correct, so trim to that window before you export. The file itself is a standard video in a format Apple accepts, and you export it to the target resolution rather than letting the store resize it for you.

Resolution follows the screenshot sizes

There is no single "app preview size." The pixel resolution of a preview matches the screenshot resolution for that device family, in portrait or landscape. So you produce a preview per device the same way you produce screenshots per device: one sized for the 6.9" iPhone, one for the 6.5" iPhone, one for iPad, and so on. If you already know your App Store screenshot sizes, you already know your preview sizes.

The first frame of the video acts as the poster frame, the still that shows before someone taps play. Pick a first frame that reads well on its own, because plenty of people will see it and never start the video.

Google Play promo video: a YouTube link, not a file

Google Play works nothing like this. You do not upload a video file at all. In Play Console you paste a YouTube URL into the promo video field, and Play shows a play button over your listing near the feature graphic. Google does not accept an uploaded video, so if all you have is an exported file, you first need to publish it to YouTube.

A few Play-specific rules matter. Use a plain video URL, not a playlist or a channel link. The video should not run ads, so turn monetisation off, and it should not be age-restricted, or Play cannot display it. On length, Google is looser than Apple: a promo of roughly 30 seconds to a couple of minutes is normal, well past the App Store's strict 15 to 30 second window.

Where the Play video appears

The play button overlays your feature graphic, which is a fixed 1024 x 500. That is why the centre of the feature graphic is risky real estate: the button can land right on top of it. The feature graphic size guide covers that safe area in detail.

The distinction that trips people up

• App Store: an uploaded video file, sized per device family, 15 to 30 seconds, up to three per localization.
• Google Play: a YouTube link, one video, no file upload, no ads, not age-restricted.
• App Store previews live in the screenshot carousel. The Play video sits by the feature graphic.
• One asset does not cover both stores. You need a real file for Apple and a hosted YouTube video for Google.

Study what other apps ship

The quickest way to plan your own preview is to see what apps in your category are already doing. Paste a store URL into the free ripper and it pulls the screenshots, the icon, and the feature graphic at native resolution, so you can see how competitors frame their first frame and lay out the graphic the play button sits on. From there, the screenshot sizes and app icon sizes references give you the exact pixel targets to match.