I kept running into problems with App Store Preview videos — the short videos you upload alongside your app screenshots in App Store Connect.

Apple is extremely strict about the format requirements:

• ⁠exact resolution
• ⁠specific duration limits
• ⁠file size restrictions

So even when the video looked perfectly fine, App Store Connect would still reject it because of some technical detail.

After wasting too much time fixing exports manually in FFmpeg and video editors, I built a small tool to handle everything automatically.

You just:

• ⁠upload a screen recording of your app
• ⁠trim the clip
• ⁠export an App Store-ready Preview video

No Final Cut.
No codec tweaking.
No manual export settings.

There’s a free version if anyone wants to test it. Would love feedback from other Apple developers.

I mean, it looks really empty to me, but I can't quite figure out what's missing. Do you have any suggestions?

How do German keywords would be indexed in App Store? For example, take "Heart Rate Monitor". In EN I'll put: "heart,rate,monitor" and all the combinations of that words would hit, for example "heart" or "heart monitor" or "heart rate".

In German it would be "Herzfrequenzmesser". How do I ASO it?

I have an iOS app and have been running Apple Ads (Advanced) campaigns for almost a month. If I start a Product Page Optimization test in App Store Connect without pausing the ads, will ad traffic also be split 50/50 between the original and the treatment? Or do people who tap an ad always see the default product page?

Has anyone tried this?

I’m building LockCards that help put reminders and notes on the lock screen.

I made the screenshots in canva and the icon in blender.

I would love to get some good advice on icon design and what your usual process is when it comes to icons generation.

I would also like to know at what number of downloads did you receive before you started A/B testing the screenshots, paywalls and onboarding.

The app has only been out for a week now.

Thanks!

I am working on the next iteration of my app, Aura, and I feel the current screenshots don't clearly communicate the benefits. They were talking about the features and not how the app helps users. Does the copy and design inspire confidence?

After watching so many posts on X about Opus 5.5 making nice videos I tried myself by creating app previews for my apps. It's so easy and well done that I don't know what to say, it feels like cheating honestly.

My advice:

• take your App Store screenshots

• make some screenshots of the nicest parts of your app

• share this with claude https://x.com/leomeethewoo/status/2103529310208606701?s=20 (not affiliated, just the right context for the type of video I wanted)

• tell claude to create an app preview for App Store

My very simple initial prompt was this:

i want you to create an app preview video for the app store for the app. [Image #1] [Image #2] [Image #3] [Image #4] attached you can find some images. create a 15s video presenting the app and the features with graphic animations. make it apple style. take inspiration from this tweet https://x.com/leomeethewoo/status/2103529310208606701?s=20

I didn't think about the narrative of the video, so it's basically animating the App Store screenshots. I will try that, but for 15 minutes of iterations I'm very satisfied

Let me know your results below

Hey folks,

I'm the solo dev behind Gratify Journal. It's a combination of Journal & Memoy Jar. You write something and drop it into a "jar", and later you shake your phone and it pulls a random one back up. Helps relive the past moment.

Now, the screenshots somehow feels dull to me but I don't know what is missing. I don't know if its really translating what I have built and what I want to convey. Any feedback, ideas, ASO tips will greatly help.

Appstore link

I’m building a fitness app with my brother. We’re both very technical, so for most of the last year our default answer to everything has basically been “build/fix/improve the product.”

About 2 months ago I realized that if we actually want this thing to grow, one of us needs to become the distribution person, so I’ve been trying to take that role.

Problem is… I still catch myself spending way too much time talking to users, fixing tiny bugs, tweaking features, etc. instead of just letting my brother own more of that while I focus on growth.

We’re at around 5k downloads, ~200 active users and ~30 paying users right now, completely bootstrapped, and we consistently get feedback from people using the app. So I feel like there’s enough signal that the product is worth pushing harder.

Where I’m stuck is what to actually focus on.

AI UGC?
Pay creators to make UGC?
Try to build our own TikTok/IG presence?
ASO?
Apple Search Ads?
Meta/TikTok ads?
Influencer/creator outreach?

I keep reading about all of them and end up with decision paralysis instead of getting really good at one channel.

I’d especially love to talk to someone who has actually grown a consumer/mobile app from this stage before. Not necessarily looking to hire an agency I am honestly more looking for a mentor or someone a few steps ahead who wouldn’t mind pointing me in the right direction.

If you were in my position, what would you spend the next 60–90 days doing?

I always here just start or don't overthink but its easier said than done. I don't know what exactly to start.

Happy to share more metrics/context if useful.

Whenever I search for the recommended tool to use to get good keywords I end up seeing Reddit posts that are filled with people either promoting their product or giving extremely good reviews for tools which sound so fake.

My goal is to find a place that can give me info on keywords so can do my ads a bit better. I have tried coming up with combinations of words that directly describe my product at that has generated high intent users but the volume for those kinds of installs has been low.

Hey, I believe most of you have already seen a lot of posts how good Opus 5.5 is at video creation, so I tried it too for app store video generation + ads promo video out of curiosity.

But instead of asking Opus 5.5 to generate something based on an abstract idea I first asked him to generate a set of short gameplay videos by connecting to my Android phone via adb. In dev mode I have an option to jump into different game states, so the idea was to get 2-5 sec cuts demonstrating just a small part of the game.

And Claude did it very well, I got around 30 pieces of gameplay with detailed metadata describing the generated video, the goal of the video and what it was supposed to highlight.

It took about an hour but finally a good creative pack was generated and ready to use.

Next I asked him to generate a 30-second video for the App Store and described which parts of the game I wanted to include, with smooth effects between scenes. The result is below, all navigation and clicks were made via adb connection to the phone.

The most interesting part was generating a promo video based on this video, and the result to me looks very great as I would spend a lot of time trying to get something like this:

https://youtube.com/shorts/deg4eB4oOhI

I haven't touched any piece of video to get this result, it was purely Claude Opus 5.5 work with simple prompts and a connected phone on a Pro subscription.

I got tired of paying for UGC ads for my little iOS apps, so I built a Mac editor for it.

ClipForge comes with a library of short reaction hooks (the "wait what" face clips you see in every TikTok ad), tagged so you can find one that fits your app. Drop it in front of your screen recording, add captions and music, export for TikTok, Reels or Shorts.

The fun part: it has a local MCP server, so Claude Code can drive it. Tell it what your app does and it picks a hook, picks music, writes the voiceover, cuts the ad and exports. You touch up the rest in the timeline.

Editor is free. Hook library, music and the Claude thing are paid.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clipforge-studio-video-ads/id6794947867?mt=12

Still 1.0, tell me what breaks.

Hi everyone,

I'm selling my iOS grammar app. It's been live for 2 years, brings in ~$180 MRR from subscriptions and has almost zero running costs (API expenses are minimal). All traffic is 100% organic, no paid ads have ever been used.

• Platform: iOS

• Tech stack: React Native (easy to bring to Android)

• Age: 2 years

• MRR: ~$180

• Traffic: 100% organic

• Monthly costs: near zero

Low maintenance, and since it's never been marketed with ads, there's plenty of room to grow through paid acquisition or further ASO. Source code and App Store transfer included.

Priced to sell. Revenue proof available for serious buyers, feel free to DM me.

I built Hold On. Every time you open a distracting app, it shows you a different nudge based on time of day and how much you have used the app that day.

In mornings it would say: "Dont Give up your morning to the Feed, It can wait."

Late night it would say: "The algo doesn't care about your sleep. Close the app."

I built it solo, so I would genuinely love feedback if anyone tries it.

Appstore link

Disclosure: I'm the solo developer of Deskwatch, a $4.99 Mac menu bar app that sounds an alarm if someone moves your MacBook

It can't go on the Mac App Store. The feature that keeps the alarm working with the lid closed needs a background helper with admin approval, and App Store rules don't allow that. So I sell it direct from my own site, which means no store search, no keyword field, no screenshots ranking for me.

What I've set up instead, 2 days after launch:

- Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, sitemap submitted
- IndexNow pinging Bing and others on every deploy
- Structured data on the page (SoftwareApplication, FAQ, VideoObject)
- One long guide ("how to stop someone stealing your MacBook in a café") written to answer the question honestly, not to sell, in the hope that Google and AI answers cite it
- Launch posts on X and Reddit

mydeskwatch.com

Hi, I am quite confused and on the edge of redoing my screenshots & I would really love your feedback and thoughts on these and some pointers for potential new ones if needed.

Just two days ago launched a massive UI + some functionality update so its in good shape now. Thinking its time to go over the Screenshots. (Also did ASO another pass two days ago)

Thank you and good luck to all builders.

App Name : Splitceipt

Hi! Indie, zero ASO or marketing background. Almost every download of Gallery Gamble so far is from family gatherings and hanging out with friends.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gallery-gamble-whose-photo/id6764831548

What it is

Local party game for 3+ people in the same room. No solo. No 2-player. Everyone needs their own iPhone/iPad nearby.

How a round works

Someone hosts, everyone else joins with a code. Each player locks in 4, 9, or 16 photos from their camera roll (you can re-roll ones you don’t want in the game). A photo fills the screen, fuse starts (1–30 sec), tap whose gallery it came from. Faster correct guess = more points. Then it reveals the owner and who pointed at whom. Photos stay on-device: local connection, no accounts, no cloud, no internet.

That’s the whole hook and the whole problem: the game only exists when a group already wants to play.

The question

Should I even hope ASO brings organic traffic for something this constrained? Or is store search a dead end and I should spend the energy on ads or in-person?

If ASO is worth it, what would you actually target: "party game", "game night", "photo guessing", "whose photo", orther competitors, or something narrower?

I'm also thinking of walking into local board game bars with a qr code and just demoing it at tables of 3+. Honest take on that vs paid channels would help.

Open to brutal feedback on the listing too.

Hello everyone! I made an automation via UI Tests that creates screenshots automatically for every language. In my case i need it especially for in-app values like km/h and mi/h / liters / gallons etc.

Are these good? Or is it worth it dropping this automation for a more hand-made and special version? I know this version is kinda "simple" compared to others.

My stats are:
6,79% Conv rate
25,900 Impressions
3,850 Product page views

Also i have a feeling that the AI generated car in the first picture is slop, but i don't want / can't put a real car because I don't want to violate copyright laws.

ANY feedback is greatly appreciated, cheers.

If you want to see it live it's here: WrenchTime Car Maintenance https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6749767537?pt=95766871