App Store Creative Assets: How the New App Store Feature Impacts App Visibility

App Store creative assets are a new category of images and videos on the App Store. They cover brand messaging, seasonal offerings and new content, and they arrive with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 in the fall of 2026.

Until now, everything on an App Store product page had to be anchored to the interface. The App Review Guidelines state that screenshots should show the app in use, and app previews may only use screen captures of the app itself. Creative assets are not bound by either guideline, so a product page can now contain brand and promotional creative that never shows the app interface at all.

This guide covers what is changing and what it means for your app:

• what creative assets are
• where they appear
• what changes for the screenshots and app previews already on your page
• how approval works
• what the guidelines allow and what they don’t

What are App Store creative assets?

App Store creative assets are a new category of images and videos that cover brand, seasonal offerings and new app content. Creative assets appear across the App Store and inside Apple Ads campaigns, and they go beyond showing an app in use, which is what screenshots and app previews already do.

By contrast, traditional visual assets on the App Store need to follow specific guidelines:

• Screenshots demonstrate the app in use. Text and image overlays are allowed, and most App Store listings use them, but the frame underneath still shows the app in use.
• App previews are built from screen captures of the app experience, recorded on device.

Creative assets complement those existing assets. Screenshots and app previews stay exactly where they are, and creative assets give you room to lead with brand, a seasonal offering, or new content in the app, both on the App Store and inside Apple Ads campaigns.

Where do App Store creative assets appear?

There are several placements where creative assets can appear.

• The product page header is the first visual element on an App Store product page, and it accepts an image or a video.
• Search results carry creative assets on the App Store and in the Apple Games app.
• Apple Ads campaigns can use creative assets on the Today tab and in search results.

Creative assets can also be used across App Store features you already run. Each custom product page can carry its own header, product page optimization lets you test alternative header visuals against your current page, and in-app events can use them as well.

Supplying a creative asset for App Store search results is optional. If you don’t supply one, the media already eligible to appear there shows instead, which means in-app events, app previews and screenshots.

Creative assets, Asset Library and the product page preview tool all arrive in the fall of 2026. The recommendation is to start creating images and videos now, so they are ready to submit once creative assets go live.

What is a product page header?

A product page header is the first visual element someone sees when they land on an App Store product page. The header sits right at the top of the page and forms the initial visual impression alongside the app icon, the title and the ratings, while the screenshots appear in their own dedicated section below. It accepts either an image or a video.

The App Store describes the header, the app icon and the screenshots as working together to give someone a clearer picture of what an app does.

Custom product pages are alternate versions of an App Store product page, each with its own URL, used to match what someone sees to where they came from. The App Store allows up to 70 per app, and each one will be able to carry its own header. An app running pages for its brand terms, its competitors and its category keywords can open each of them with a different image.

Creative assets let app marketers be more relevant to their audiences, across both organic and paid placements. The header sets up the page and the screenshots carry the proof. In our experience the two work best when they are briefed together rather than produced by separate teams.

What do creative assets do in App Store search results?

In App Store search results, a creative asset gives you a dedicated visual for that position, alongside the app previews and screenshots already eligible to appear there. Supplying one is optional, and choosing to supply one changes what you ask the search results position to do.

Someone scrolling a set of App Store search results is trying to understand the types of apps presented, whether those apps look relevant to what they typed, and whether to look closer.

A search results asset speaks to all three. The product page header and the screenshots then have room to work on the decision to install.

App Store search results can also lead straight to an install without a product page visit, so the search results asset can move both page views and downloads.

The way we plan these at SplitMetrics, the two assets work in sequence. The search results asset wins attention and establishes relevance quickly. The product page then backs up the relevance claim the search results asset made and gives the person a reason to install.

What creative assets change for Apple Ads

Apple Ads creative has come from what already sits on your App Store product page. Today tab ads are generated from your product page content, and search results ads display the screenshots and app previews from your product page, or from whichever custom product page the ad points at. Creative assets change that, because you design the ad creative yourself for Today tab and search results campaigns.

Every creative asset approved for your account becomes available to choose from inside Apple Ads. Advertisers already align cross-channel brand visuals with Apple Ads through custom product pages, and creative assets open a second route for that: creatives built for other channels can carry across once they pass review.

In Apple Ads, advertisers can select their tap destination (default product page or custom product page), add deep links, and assign localized creative assets to their campaigns.

Ad creative will come with its own review, separate from App Store Connect, against Apple Ads guidelines to be published at a later date.

What has been published on specifications

Specifications split by where the asset runs, so treat them as two separate sets.

Product page headers come with design templates rather than fixed numbers:

Apple Ads search results campaigns come with numbers:

Dimensions for the organic App Store search results asset have not been published yet.

What changes about your existing App Store assets?

Creative assets take nothing away. Screenshots, app previews and the app icon all stay where they are, following the existing guidelines and best practices. What changes is what some of them can do, and how quickly any of it can be updated.

Screenshots go back to demonstrating the product

App screenshots have always been doing two jobs at once. They demonstrate the app, and they carry the awards, ratings badges and call-to-action lines that had nowhere else to live.

The App Store asset best practices say to “avoid using the entire asset to highlight general accolades or call-to-action statements”, and to keep the focus on the core user experience.

In the header you can highlight promotions, seasonal offerings, new app content launches, and more, which in our reading gives the screenshots room to go back to showing the app working.

What the header changes for screenshot sequencing

App marketers built their screenshot sequencing on a page where screenshot one carried the opening message. The header now sits at the top of the page, above the screenshots section, so screenshot one is no longer the first visual someone meets.

How that sequencing holds up, weakens, or shifts toward the header stays untested until creative assets launch. What works inside a screenshot has not changed: lead with the benefit before the feature, put the strongest proof early, and keep one idea per frame.

You now have two kinds of video with different guidelines

Produced brand video can sit on an App Store product page header for the first time. It still can’t be an app preview, because app previews are limited to screen captures of the app itself.

Video assets are also worth testing because videos don’t necessarily work better than screenshots. Across the Apple Ads accounts SplitMetrics manages, static creatives frequently outperform video, but it often depends on the app category.

Keep keyword-bearing captions in the screenshots

Screenshot captions are the place where your keyword-bearing text already sits, and nothing about creative assets changes that. Keep those captions where they are.

How an App Store creative asset gets approved

Creative assets will follow two submission routes. The familiar one runs through the app version page: upload the assets, preview the product page, submit the version, and the assets go live when the version is released.

The preview step is a new one. It shows the header, app name, description, screenshots and search results assets together as a customer would see them, on iPhone and iPad, across orientations and languages.

Asset Library will be a centralized place in App Store Connect that holds your existing screenshots, app previews and in-app event media alongside the new creative assets, across platforms, sizes and placements. You will be able to upload creative assets directly and submit them on their own, without updating the app version and without saying where they will be used later.

Once an asset is approved, swapping it on the header or in search results will need no new submission. The asset passes review once, and after that you can put it up and take it down on those two placements as often as you like. First approval goes through the standard review, so plan the same lead time you would plan for the release of an app version.

Apple Ads reviews ad creatives separately, against Apple Ads guidelines to be published at a later date. Based on client experience at SplitMetrics, we highly recommend having two review gates instead of one – working like this ensures you build and approve ad creatives first and let the product page and search results follow.

The two systems connect in a fixed order. You create and submit the asset in App Store Connect, either alongside an app version or on its own through Asset Library. Once the asset is approved, it becomes selectable in your Apple Ads account, where you attach it to a Today tab or search results campaign and set localization, deep links and tap destinations. Apple Ads then reviews the ad itself before it runs.

Both approval processes can be automated. The App Store Connect API uploads and submits assets to Asset Library, and the Apple Ads Platform API handles ad setup, with open-source client libraries for Swift among others. That matters most for apps running creative across a lot of countries and regions.

What the App Store asset best practices ask you to avoid

The App Store asset best practices reflect App Store policies and how artwork is evaluated for featuring. Make sure that anything you produce follows the general guidance:

• Every asset meets a 4+ age rating, whatever the app’s own rating
• No specific pricing, discounts, website URLs or copyright symbols
• No claims that cannot be verified, including awards the app has not received
• No logos or references to other platforms or app marketplaces
• No editorial recognitions such as Editor’s Choice or App of the Day, which the App Store displays itself
• Games with violence may use action imagery while avoiding gore and weapons pointed at a person

How creative assets fit different app categories

Every category can use creative assets. What differs is where we would start, and that depends on what an app does and on its business model. The table below is our own strategic read, not App Store guidance.

What else should you know about App Store creative assets?

What is the difference between a creative asset and a screenshot on the App Store?

An App Store screenshot shows the app in use, while a creative asset covers brand messaging, seasonal offerings and new content that goes beyond the app in use. Screenshots and app previews keep their existing requirements.

When do App Store creative assets launch?

App Store creative assets will arrive with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 in the fall of 2026, together with Asset Library and the product page preview tool in App Store Connect. The exact publish date is still not set.

Do you have to create a creative asset for App Store search results?

Creating a search results creative asset is optional. If an app marketer supplies none, the existing eligible search-result media appears instead: in-app events, app previews and screenshots.

Does a creative asset need approval every time you change it?

A creative asset does not need a new approval every time you change it. Once an asset has passed review, swapping it on your product page header or in search results needs no new submission. The first approval still goes through review in the usual way, either alongside an app version or on its own through Asset Library.

Can you A/B test an App Store product page header?

You can A/B test an App Store product page header. Product page optimization will let you test alternative header visuals against your current page, and suggests testing your app’s logo, its core value, or a new feature. Product page optimization runs up to 3 treatments against the original, one test at a time, for up to 90 days.

What creative assets bring, in short

App Store creative assets launch with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 in the fall of 2026.

• Creative assets are their own category of App Store creative, covering brand, seasonal offerings and new content. They are the first App Store creative that doesn’t have to show the app in use.
• Creative assets appear in product page headers, search results and Apple Ads campaigns, and can be used across App Store features you already run. Supplying one for search results is optional.
• A product page header sits at the top of the page alongside the app icon, title and ratings, and each of your custom product pages will be able to carry its own.
• Screenshots continue to follow existing guidelines and stay focused on demonstrating the core app experience.
• Produced brand video can sit on a product page for the first time, built from published design templates with seamless looping. The 3:2 ratio and 5 to 30 second length apply to Apple Ads search results campaigns.
• Approved assets don’t need a new submission to go up or come down on your product page header or in search results. First approval takes the same lead time as an app version, and Apple Ads will still review and approve your ad creatives separately.
• Asset Library keeps your screenshots, app previews, in-app event media and creative assets in one place, and both it and Apple Ads can be driven through an API.

Knowing what changed is not the same as being ready for it. The next article will cover what to audit, what to produce, and how far ahead to start.