Why App Store screenshots get rejected (guideline 2.3 explained)

App Review treats your screenshots as metadata, so a set that breaks section 2.3 of the guidelines holds up the release until you fix it.

Each rule below is paraphrased from the App Review Guidelines (last updated October 16, 2026).

The guideline also allows text and image overlays, for example an animated touch point or Apple Pencil to show input, and extended functionality on the device, such as the Touch Bar.

Apple's guidance page for 2.3.3 adds the part that's easy to miss. App Review looks at the set for each supported device and approves a submission only when more than half of the screenshots show the app in use. The others can be marketing images. Apple's examples are two of three, and three of four. With an even number of screenshots, exactly half fails.

Counting the screenshots that show the app in use

App in use Marketing image

App in use

App in use

App in use

Marketing

Half

3 of 4More than half: meets 2.3.3

App in use

App in use

Marketing

Marketing

Half

2 of 4Exactly half is not more than half

The count can differ between devices, and one screenshot is enough for a device if it shows the app in use. Required sizes and counts per device are in the screenshot requirements checklist.

Apple gives no precise definition, but its guidance marks the edges:

• Captions and overlays are fine as long as they don't hide the app's main functionality.
• Apple says not to show only the hardware, or an overlay with no app interface behind it.
• Screenshots must not misrepresent the real interface, so capture the version you're submitting.
• Another Apple platform can appear when it's part of the experience, such as your Apple Watch app.

Apple's example also says each device's screenshots must show the app in use on that device, so an iPhone capture stretched into the iPad slot is asking for trouble. See iPad App Store screenshot sizes.

An image of your app in use can be spread across two or more screenshots. Apple doesn't say how a spanned image counts toward the majority, so make sure each slice still reads as the app on its own.

Each localization is judged on its own set, so recount whenever a language gains a marketing slide or loses an app screen. How to localize your App Store screenshots covers building those sets.

Section 2.3 starts from one principle: screenshots and previews must reflect the app's core experience and stay current with new versions. A redesign you shipped two versions ago and never reshot is a 2.3 problem.

Four rules that catch screenshots, and the fix for each

• 2.3.7No prices

  $4.99

  A price on the image

  Price taken off

• 2.3.2Say when it costs extra

  Pro

  A paid feature with no label

  Labeled Pro

• 2.3.10No other platforms

  Also on Android

  An “also on Android” line

  Line taken off

• 2.3.9Fictional account data

  Real name, real emailInvented: Maya, 29

  A real customer’s name and email

  Invented account details

If featured items, levels or subscriptions need an in-app purchase, the screenshots must make that clear. Apple doesn't prescribe wording. A short "Pro" label on paid features does it without putting a price on the image.

App previews may only use video screen captures of the app itself, with narration and video or text overlays allowed. Apple's app preview guidance adds: don't film people using a device, such as fingers tapping the screen. Formats and sizes are in the app preview specs guide.

Screenshots shouldn't include prices, or terms and descriptions that don't belong in that kind of metadata. The same guideline warns against packing metadata with trademarked terms, popular app names, pricing information or irrelevant phrases to game the system. On a screenshot, the risky versions are a caption that name-drops a popular rival app and a strip of keywords along the bottom.

Screenshots and previews must fit a 4+ age rating even if the app is rated higher. For a violent game, Apple says to avoid images of a gruesome death or a gun pointed at a specific character. "For Kids" and "For Children" are reserved for the Kids Category, and screenshot captions are metadata too.

You're responsible for the rights to every material in your screenshots and previews, such as photos, illustrations, logos and music. Apple asks for fictional account information instead of a real person's data, so seed the build with invented names, messages and balances before you capture.

Names, icons or imagery of other mobile platforms or alternative app marketplaces are out, unless there is specific, approved interactive functionality. Read plainly, that means no Android phone frames, no Google Play badge and no "also on Android" line. Apple notes that a third-party platform shown in a status bar is judged under this rule too.

Guideline 2.3.14, added on October 16, 2026, covers creative assets: images and videos beyond app-in-use screens that appear across the App Store, including the product page header and search results. They must relate to the app's content and functionality or its brand, follow the standard metadata rules and suit all audiences: no misleading references to other apps, no unverifiable claims, no specific or discounted pricing. Their sizes are in the product page header and search result specs.

Apple's asset best practices aren't numbered guidelines, but Apple says they reflect its overall policies and how it judges artwork for featuring. They cover every asset, screenshots included:

• No specific pricing, discounts, website URLs or copyright symbols.
• No awards or recognition the app hasn't received, and no claims that can't be verified.
• Apple asks you not to repeat its own recognitions, such as Editor's Choice, App of the Day or Apple Design Award winner, because they already appear beside your app. That's a request, not a numbered guideline, and plenty of apps show an award they've really won.
• No logos or references to other platforms or marketplaces.
• Don't spend a whole screenshot on accolades or a call to action.

Run this for every device and localization:

• More than half of each device's screenshots show the app in use, counted per language.
• Every screen matches the interface of the version you're submitting.
• Captions leave the app's main functionality visible, and no screenshot shows only hardware.
• iPad screenshots show the app on iPad, not a stretched iPhone capture.
• Anything that needs an in-app purchase is labeled as paid.
• No prices, discounts, URLs, copyright symbols, rival app names or keyword strips.
• Everything suits a 4+ rating.
• You hold the rights to every image, and all account data is fictional.
• No Android devices, other stores' badges or other platforms, including in the status bar.
• No Apple recognitions, and no awards or claims you can't back up.
• Previews use only screen captures of the app, and header and search assets follow 2.3.14.

App Review explains the rejection, and the guidelines it breaks, in a message in App Store Connect. Open the app, follow the unresolved issues link at the top, and click Resolve next to the submission.

After a screenshot rejection: two ways back

Rejected or Metadata Rejected

App Review’s message names the guidelines

Fix everything in the message

Upload new screenshots. Same build, no new binary.

Reply to App Review

A metadata-only fix needs no resubmission

Resubmit the same build

Add for Review, then Resubmit to App Review

Back with App Review

If the screenshots were the only problem, you don't need a new build, and you can upload new screenshots while the version shows Rejected or Metadata Rejected. Apple's help pages then describe two routes:

• Reply. Apple's review status page says a metadata-only fix needs no resubmission: make the changes, then reply to App Review.
• Resubmit. Apple's reply page says you can resubmit the same build once the issue is resolved. On a submission that shows Unresolved Issues, click Edit next to each rejected item, make the changes, click Add for Review, then Resubmit to App Review.

Fix everything in the message before you do either. Apple warns that resubmitting with issues left over delays review and ends the same way. If the set lives in Screenodon, you can correct it in the editor and publish it straight back to App Store Connect.

Click Reply to App Review and be specific, as Apple's contact page asks. Name the guideline, say which screenshots in each set show the app in use, and explain any screen the reviewer may have misread. You can attach files, and after App Review answers you can ask for a call from the same window.

If the reply doesn't settle it, use Apple's form to appeal to the App Review Board, not the Reply field. Cite the guideline, explain point by point how each set meets it, and send one appeal per rejected app. Don't resubmit while it's open: a new submission starts a new review and closes the appeal. If the problem is the count, swapping a marketing slide for an app screen is a smaller job than an appeal.

Yes, as long as more than half of that device's screenshots still show the app in use. The title card doesn't count toward that half.

Not if the screenshots were the only problem. Apple lets the same build go back after a metadata fix.

Apple gives no timing for a reply after a metadata fix, but says most submissions are reviewed within 48 hours. You can't edit screenshots while a submission is Waiting for Review, so check the set before you send it.

No. Guideline 2.3.7 says screenshots shouldn't include prices, and Apple's best practices rule out specific pricing and discounts. Apple doesn't say how it treats a price on a captured paywall screen, so the cautious choice is to leave that screen out.