A store listing is the only part of your app that a user sees before deciding whether to install it, and on Google Play almost every pixel of it is governed by a published asset specification. Unlike the APK, these assets are reviewed as metadata: an icon with the wrong bit depth, a feature graphic with awards text, or a screenshot set that only covers one device type can hold up publishing, disqualify the listing from promotional surfaces, or trigger a metadata policy enforcement. This guide collects the current requirements for icons, feature graphics, screenshots, preview videos, and the surrounding text fields, then walks through the upload workflow and the mistakes that cost listings their visibility.
Assets are a compliance surface, not decoration
Two different rulebooks apply to the same file. The first is a hard specification — dimensions, format, alpha channel, file size — and a missing required asset simply blocks the store listing from being published. The second is a content policy: Google Play's metadata rules forbid misleading, irrelevant, or improperly formatted assets, and enforcement reaches descriptions, developer names, titles, icons, screenshots, and promotional images alike. "Requirements" are mandatory; the "highly recommended" guidance does not break your listing but does determine whether your preview assets appear in the large-format recommendation surfaces that drive most organic installs.
The practical consequence is that assets are a release artefact with their own review cycle. Treat them like code: version them, keep the source files, and re-check them whenever the app's UI or positioning changes.
The full asset inventory, with the exact specs
- App icon — required. A 32-bit PNG with alpha, exactly 512 × 512 px, and no larger than 1024 KB. This is not the launcher icon; it should be a higher-fidelity version following Google Play's icon design specifications. It is used on the store listing, in search results, and in top charts. Badges or text suggesting ranking, price, or Google Play categories are not allowed.
- Feature graphic — required. A JPEG or 24-bit PNG with no alpha, exactly 1024 × 500 px. This is the one people most often skip, and it is the one that blocks publishing. It doubles as the cover image for your preview video when one is present.
- Screenshots — required. A minimum of two screenshots across different device types, as JPEG or 24-bit PNG with no alpha. Each screenshot must be at least 320 px on its smallest side and no more than 3840 px on its largest, and the largest dimension cannot be more than twice the smallest. Up to eight screenshots are allowed per supported device type.
- Preview video — optional. A single YouTube URL pasted into the preview video field. Not required, but strongly recommended, and effectively expected for games that want to appear in video-led recommendation formats.
- TV banner — required only for Android TV apps. A JPEG or 24-bit PNG with no alpha, exactly 1280 × 720 px.
Note the asymmetry that catches people out: the app icon must have an alpha channel and must be 32-bit, while the feature graphic, screenshots, and TV banner must all be 24-bit with no alpha. Exporting a screenshot as a 32-bit PNG with transparency — the default in several design tools — fails the format requirement.
Text fields and their character limits
The three text fields on the Main store listing page carry hard limits, and the naming rules around them are part of the metadata policy rather than the asset spec:
- App name — 30 characters. One localized name per language.
- Short description — 80 characters. This is the first text a user sees on the detail page and can be expanded into the full description.
- Full description — 4000 characters.
In app titles, icons, and developer names the policy forbids emojis, emoticons, and repeated special characters, and it asks you to avoid ALL CAPS unless the capitalisation is part of your brand name. Misleading symbols in icons are banned outright — a red "new message" dot when there are no new messages, or a download arrow on an app that does not download anything.
The short description has its own formatting expectations: no call-to-action phrases such as "download now" or "try now", no performance, ranking, or price language such as "Best", "#1", "Top", "New", "Discount", or "Million Downloads", no keyword stuffing, no emojis or line breaks, and no repeated punctuation. Google's stated reason for the keyword rule is blunt — it does not improve ranking and it degrades the listing.
Screenshots, device type by device type
Screenshots are managed per device type on the same Graphics section, and each type has additional expectations once you go beyond the baseline two:
- Phones, 7-inch and 10-inch tablets, Chromebooks. Up to eight screenshots each. For the large-format recommendation surfaces the guidance is at least four screenshots at a minimum of 1080 px, shot 16:9 landscape (at least 1920 × 1080) or 9:16 portrait (at least 1080 × 1920). For tablets and Chromebooks Google explicitly suggests a minimum of four screenshots and uploads between 1080 and 7680 px.
- Wear OS. At least one screenshot that accurately depicts the current version of the app, in a 1:1 aspect ratio at a minimum of 384 × 384 px. The screenshots must show only the app interface — no device frames, no added text, graphics, or backgrounds, and no transparent masking. Customisable watch faces must show more than one permutation.
- Android TV. At least one Android TV screenshot is required before the app can be published, alongside the TV banner.
- Android Automotive OS. Required for apps outside the parked app categories. If you provide them, supply at least two portrait (800 × 1280) and two landscape (1024 × 768) screenshots. They must depict the generic system UI and must not show a specific vehicle model or OEM interface.
- Android XR. Between four and eight screenshots as PNG or JPEG, up to 8 MB each, in an 8:5 aspect ratio. Recommended resolution is 3840 × 2400, with a 1920 × 1200 minimum.
The content rules that get listings rejected or demoted
Most rejections in this area are not about dimensions but about what the image says. The recurring violations:
- Performance, ranking, or award claims. Words like "Best", "#1", "Top", "New", "Discount", "Sale", or "Million Downloads" are disallowed in screenshots, feature graphics, and video copy. Awards granted by Google Play itself, such as a "Best Of" badge, are the stated exception.
- Call-to-action copy. "Download now", "Install now", and "Play now" are not allowed in preview assets.
- Device imagery. Google asks you to avoid rendering screenshots inside device frames, partly because the hardware dates quickly.
- Third-party trademarks and store badges. Characters, logos, or another store's badge or icon may not be used without permission, and Google Play's own badge is prohibited as well.
- People tapping the device. Footage or imagery showing fingers interacting with a phone is disallowed unless the core experience is off-device.
- Text that eats the image. Taglines are allowed only where necessary and should not exceed about 20% of the image; the first screenshots should prioritise real UI.
- Missing alt text. Each screenshot and graphic can carry alt text of roughly 140 characters or less, described in context rather than prefixed with "image of". Localise it with the asset.
- Stale notification bars. Clean up the status bar before capture: no carrier name, no notifications, and full battery, Wi-Fi, and signal indicators.
The redirect is always the same: keep the feature graphic and the first screenshots focused on the actual in-app experience, put the core value in the centre of the frame, and remove anything that reads like marketing copy layered over a screenshot.
Preview video requirements
The preview video is a single field, and the rules around it are stricter than most developers assume:
- Use a video URL, not a playlist or channel URL, and do not append parameters such as timecodes.
- Set the video's privacy to public or unlisted — private does not work.
- Turn off monetisation so no third-party ad can play before your app does. If the video contains copyrighted content with monetisation claims, switching ads off may not be enough and the video has to be replaced.
- The video must be embeddable and must not be age-restricted.
- Only the first 30 seconds autoplay, muted, inline with the store listing — so lead with the app experience inside the first ten seconds and aim for at least 80% of the runtime to be representative of real usage.
- Avoid black bars on portrait videos, and add captions so the video works when it plays muted.
The upload workflow, step by step
- Open Play Console and go to Grow users > Store presence > Main store listing.
- Fill in the fields under App details — app name, short description, full description — inside the 30, 80, and 4000 character limits.
- Scroll to the Graphics section and upload the app icon (512 × 512, 32-bit PNG with alpha) and the feature graphic (1024 × 500, JPEG or 24-bit PNG, no alpha).
- Continue scrolling to the device-specific sections and upload screenshots for each supported device type, respecting the per-type counts and aspect ratios above.
- Paste the preview video's YouTube URL into the preview video field, and, for Android TV, upload the 1280 × 720 banner.
- Add alt text to each graphic asset before saving.
- Check Grow users > Store presence > Store settings and decide whether the "External marketing" box should stay checked. Leaving it unchecked restricts your app's promotion across Google-owned properties.
- Save and review the listing. Assets loaded here appear on all test tracks as soon as they are added, not only in production.
One licensing detail is easy to overlook: by making the app available on Google Play you grant Google a licence to use the app's assets — icon, screenshots, and videos — for promotional purposes, as set out in the Developer Distribution Agreement under Brand Features and Publicity.
Where multi-app operators get burned
- Reusing one screenshot set across many apps. Duplicated branding and identical assets across listings is a metadata quality problem, not just a design shortcut. Per-app screenshots that show that app's actual UI are both compliant and better converting.
- Skipping the feature graphic because "it does not matter". It is mandatory to publish, and it is the cover frame for the preview video.
- Copy-pasting a short description from another app. At 80 characters, an untailored line is the fastest way to look like a template listing.
- Uploading a 32-bit screenshot. The alpha channel that is required for the icon is forbidden for screenshots and the feature graphic.
- Testing assets in production. Preview assets appear on every test track, so a half-finished graphic is visible to testers immediately.
- Turning off external marketing by accident. The checkbox lives under Store settings and silently removes the app from Google promotional placements.
The one-line model: the icon, the feature graphic, two or more screenshots, and the text limits are publishing requirements — get the formats right first (32-bit PNG with alpha for the icon, 24-bit without alpha for everything else). Everything after that is about making the listing eligible for promotion: four or more 1080 px screenshots, a clean muted-first preview video, alt text, and no ranking, price, or call-to-action language anywhere in the assets.