App Store creative assets: what Apple's iOS 27 change means for your product page

What it means for you

What are App Store creative assets?

Until now, every visual on an App Store product page had to be anchored to the app itself. Screenshots show the app in use, with optional text overlays. App previews are built only from screen captures recorded on device.

Creative assets are a third category. Apple describes them as images and videos that can highlight your brand, promote seasonal offerings and showcase new content. They may show things outside the app, but Apple still expects them to relate to what the app actually does.

Where creative assets appear

• Product page header: the first visual on your product page, above the screenshots. It accepts an image or a video.
• Search results: an optional dedicated visual for your App Store search result. If you don't supply one, your in-app events, app previews and screenshots appear as they do today.
• Custom product pages: each custom product page can carry its own header, so a page built for one audience can open with creative made for it.
• Product page optimization: you can test alternative header visuals against your current page.
• In-app events: event cards (16:9) and event detail pages (9:16) can use creative assets.
• Apple Ads: approved assets become selectable for Today tab and search results campaigns.

What changes for your screenshots

Nothing is removed. Screenshots, app previews and the app icon keep their current rules. What changes is the job they do. The header now sits above the screenshots, so the first screenshot is no longer the opening frame of your page.

Apple's guidance asks screenshots to show the core experience rather than spend whole frames on accolades or calls to action. With a header available for brand and promotional messages, screenshots can go back to proving the app works. Keep your keyword-bearing captions in the screenshots: nothing about creative assets changes that.

What Apple's guidelines rule out

• No specific prices, discounts, website URLs or copyright symbols.
• No claims you can't verify, such as awards you haven't received.
• No logos or references to other platforms or marketplaces.
• No Apple recognitions such as Editor's Choice or App of the Day: the store already shows those.
• Every asset must suit a 4+ age rating, whatever your app's own rating.
• Violent games can use action imagery, but no gore and no weapons pointed at a person or the viewer.

How approval and timing work

You can submit creative assets with a new app version, or on their own through a new Asset Library in App Store Connect, which will hold your screenshots, previews, event media and creative assets in one place. A new product page preview shows the header, name, description, screenshots and search results asset together before you publish.

The first approval goes through standard App Review, so plan the same lead time as an app release. After that, an approved asset can be put up and taken down on the header and search results as often as you like without resubmitting. Apple Ads reviews ad creative separately, against Apple Ads guidelines that haven't been published yet.

Creative assets, Asset Library and the product page preview tool all arrive in fall 2026. Apple has published design templates for Figma, Photoshop, Pixelmator and Sketch. For Apple Ads search results campaigns, reported specifications are a 3:2 ratio and 5 to 30 second muted video. Dimensions for the organic search results asset haven't been published yet.

How to prepare now

1. 1

   Audit your current page

   List what your screenshots are carrying that isn't the app: awards, offers, brand lines. Those messages are candidates for the header.

2. 2

   Design one header and one search asset

   Start from Apple's templates. One clear idea each: the header sets the tone for a first-time visitor, the search asset makes your purpose obvious.

3. 3

   Re-sequence screenshots

   Assume the header opens the page. Lead screenshots with the strongest proof of the app working, and keep keyword captions in place.

4. 4

   Plan custom product pages

   If you run custom product pages for paid or brand traffic, brief a header for each audience alongside its screenshots.

5. 5

   Book review time

   Treat the first submission like a release. After approval, use swaps for seasonal moments without resubmitting.

6. 6

   Measure

   Use product page optimization to test header variants once they're live. Static images sometimes beat video, so test both.

What this means for your appXL Score

The appXL Score's creative pillar currently looks at your screenshots, previews and icon. We'll add creative assets to the score once Apple releases them and we can read them from live listings. Until then, run a free audit to check how your current screenshots and metadata hold up.

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