I open version 1.1 of my journal app Lanternly in App Store Connect and there's a blue banner: "New ways to promote your apps". Under it, two new tabs and an empty drop zone: "Drag to add an asset. Supported sizes: 5244 × 2950px and 3840 × 1646px". In the sidebar, three items carry a "New" badge. On the main page there are two more banners: one about iPhone Duo screenshots, one about Xcode Cloud moving.
Apple switched all of this on on 5 October 2026. Below is what you need to fill in the new fields correctly the first time: sizes, formats, rules and how review works. Every number comes from Apple's specifications. Where the documentation is silent, I say so.
How to use this for promotion is in a separate article.
What Creative Assets are#
Images and videos that complement your regular screenshots and previews and show up in two new places:
- The product page header: a wide banner at the top of your app's page.
- The search results asset: what people see in search results instead of automatically picked screenshots.
They appear on the App Store and in the Apple Games app, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision. According to the docs, creative assets are supported for apps on iOS and iPadOS 27 and later.
If you don't upload a search results asset, search keeps showing In-App Events, previews and screenshots as before. Nothing breaks; you just leave the new slot unused.
Sizes and formats: images#
| Placement | Ratio | Size | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Header | 21:9 | 3840 × 1646 | JPEG, PNG |
| Header | 16:9 | 5244 × 2950 | PNG only |
| Search | 3:2 | 1920 × 1280 to 3840 × 2560 | JPEG, PNG |
| Search | 16:9 | 5244 × 2950 | PNG only |
Transparency is not allowed: images must have no alpha channel. A PNG with a transparent background will fail upload, so make sure the background is filled before you export.
5244 × 2950 is the universal asset. It's a single 16:9 master you can put in both the header and search. When you add search, there's a checkbox to use the header asset in search results. The same file gets cropped to 21:9 and to 3:2, so keep the logo, the phrase and the main subject inside the central safe area. Apple provides templates with the safe area marked for Figma, Photoshop, Pixelmator and Sketch on its Asset best practices page.
My practical advice: start with the universal asset. One file, one review, one consistent look in the header and in search. Separate files make sense when search needs a different message, which I come back to below.
Sizes and formats: video#
| Placement | Ratio | Size | FPS | Length | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Header | 21:9 | 3840 × 1646 | 30 or 60 | 5–30 s | MOV, M4V, MP4 |
| Search | 3:2 | 1920 × 1280 to 3840 × 2560 | 30 or 60 | 5–30 s | MOV, M4V, MP4 |
Three things that change how you should edit:
- There's effectively no sound. In search, video is always muted and can't be unmuted. On the product page sound is off by default. So the video has to work silently.
- Video loops. People will see it several times in a row, so the seam between end and start must be invisible.
- The poster frame matters. It's the first thing people see before the video plays. You set it in the Asset Library, and it applies everywhere that video is used.
Apple also asks you to avoid quick cuts and fast-moving visuals: they're hard to follow and bad for accessibility.
In-App Events have their own formats: the event card is 16:9 (1920 × 1080 to 3840 × 2160), the event details page 9:16 (1080 × 1920 to 2160 × 3840), video 15–30 seconds, files up to 500 MB.
What you can't show#
The rules from Apple's guide that get assets rejected:
- No specific prices or discounts, website URLs or the © symbol.
- No unverifiable claims: awards or recognition you didn't receive.
- No Apple badges: Editors' Choice, App of the Day, Game of the Day, Apple Design Award, even if you really did get them.
- No logos of other platforms or marketplaces.
- Assets must meet a 4+ age rating, even if the app is 17+. Games with violence may show action, but no gore and no weapons pointed at a person or at the viewer.
Then there's guidance that won't get you rejected but decides whether the artwork works.
For the header, Apple recommends one clear idea for someone seeing the app for the first time: a cluttered image dilutes the impression. For search the advice is shorter, "state the obvious". People in search are looking for something specific, so the app's purpose should be readable at a glance, ideally through the interface or content itself.
Text on the image is fine if it's short: the phrase should add to the picture rather than describe it. And it needs translating into every language the app supports; assets are localized like the rest of your metadata.
Where images live now: the Asset Library#
The new Asset Library keeps screenshots, previews and creative assets in one place. In it you can:
- upload assets in advance without assigning them anywhere;
- give them internal names and set a video's poster frame;
- see where an asset was used last;
- archive what's outdated (you can only delete what hasn't been submitted for review).
The most useful part is standalone review. You can send assets to App Review on their own, without a new app version. They're reviewed against your latest version. An approved asset can then go into the header, search, a custom product page or a page test without another review.
For seasonal campaigns that's the real convenience: you can get a holiday header approved in November and switch it on on 25 December without shipping a build.
Account Holder, Admin, App Manager and Marketing roles can work with assets. For automation, the App Store Connect API has dedicated Asset Library endpoints.
Step by step#
- Apps → your app → the version in the sidebar.
- Under Product Page Information, open the Header and Search Results tab, then Header or Search Results.
- Drag a file into the well, or click Browse Assets to pick one from the library.
- Click Preview: it shows iPhone and iPad in different orientations, Dark Mode and other languages.
- For other languages, switch the locale at the top right and upload their versions.
- Submit the version for review as usual; the assets go with it.
The same fields exist in custom product pages and in product page optimization (A/B tests). An asset from a test replaces the default one when that treatment is applied.
iPhone Duo screenshots#
iPhone Duo ships on 23 October with iOS 27.1. You can upload screenshots for it now. From April 2027 they become mandatory for every submission, whether it's a new app or an update.
Sizes per Apple's specification:
| Display | Portrait | Landscape |
|---|---|---|
| Outer (folded) | 1398 × 2034 | 2034 × 1398 |
| Inner (unfolded) | 2007 × 2853 | 2853 × 2007 |
The medium iPhone with Dynamic Island stays mandatory too: 1179 × 2556 or 1206 × 2622. One to ten screenshots per size, JPEG or PNG without transparency.
From the same April 2027, apps must be built with the iOS 27 SDK or later. These are two separate requirements, and it's worth preparing for both. How to rework your UI for the inner display is in my iPhone Duo guide. If your screenshots are generated automatically, adding new sizes is one more run; here's how I set that up.
One more thing: Xcode Cloud moved#
A separate banner in App Store Connect says Xcode Cloud is now its own module: a top menu item next to Apps. According to the announcement, you can keep building, testing and distributing there as before. More on the service itself in my Xcode Cloud review.
What Apple doesn't explain#
The gaps in the documentation as of 7 October:
- How the search asset is picked for a specific query. Apple says search creative can be tailored to the search context but doesn't describe per-keyword selection.
- Limits on the number of assets in the library aren't published.
- Apple Ads. Using creative assets in ads is promised "at a later date".
If you start with the minimum, that's one universal 5244 × 2950 asset: one image, one review, covering both the header and search. How to combine it with custom product pages and keywords is in the next article.
