How to Localize App Store & Google Play Screenshots

To localize App Store and Google Play screenshots, you create a separate set of captions — and ideally in-app screenshots — for each language, then upload them under that locale’s code alongside localized metadata. Each store shows a locale’s own screenshots and text when they exist and falls back to your primary language when they don’t. This guide covers which markets to start with, the locale codes for both stores, typography for RTL, CJK and Thai, and a workflow that scales to dozens of languages.

Why localize screenshots and metadata

• Everything is per locale. Name, subtitle, keywords, descriptions, screenshots and previews are all set per localization on the App Store and per language on Google Play.
• Fallback is your primary language. Without a German localization, German users see your English captions — and you don’t rank for German searches.
• Screenshots are what people read. Most visitors judge an app from its first few screenshots; captions in their language make the message land.
• It’s cheaper than it used to be. With captions stored as text, adding a locale is a translation and a review, not a redesign.

Which markets to localize first

There is no universal order, but these markets are consistently among the largest by app store revenue or downloads, and users there tend to prefer listings in their own language:

Check App Store Connect and Play Console for where your impressions and installs already come from — a market where you get traffic but convert poorly is often the best next locale.

App Store vs Google Play locale codes

App Store Connect currently offers 50 localizations; Google Play lists more than 80 languages and regional variants for store listings. The two stores use different codes for many of the same languages, and fastlane uses each store’s codes as folder names — deliver for the App Store and supply for Google Play.

Some storefronts display more than one localization — the US App Store also supports Spanish (Mexico), for example — which matters for keywords. See extra keyword space from localizations. For folder structure and upload commands, read uploading screenshots with fastlane.

Text expansion, CJK and Thai

Text expansion

Translations are often longer than English. German, Finnish and French captions often run around 30% longer — a common rule of thumb, not a fixed ratio — and single German compound words can be hard to break. Design captions with spare room, use auto-fit text with a sensible minimum size, and check the longest locale, not just English. Metadata limits don’t grow with the language — a 30-character subtitle is 30 characters in every locale (see character limits).

Chinese, Japanese and Korean

• Chinese and Japanese don’t use spaces, so lines can break between most characters — but certain punctuation shouldn’t start or end a line. A layout engine that follows these rules avoids a stray “。” at the start of a line.
• CJK captions are usually shorter than English, so they can be larger; a bigger font often reads better than leaving empty space.
• Korean does use spaces between words; break at spaces rather than mid-word.
• Use a font with full coverage — Noto Sans SC, TC, JP and KR are free and consistent — so glyphs don’t fall back to a mismatched system font.

Thai

Thai writes words without spaces and uses spaces between phrases or sentences. Line breaks must fall between words, which requires dictionary-based word segmentation; breaking at arbitrary characters produces broken words. Thai also has stacked vowels and tone marks above and below the line, so give it more line height.

Right-to-left languages

• Mirror the layout. For Arabic and Hebrew, right-align captions and reverse the visual order — if your screenshots form a panorama, build it so it reads from right to left.
• Mirror the UI inside the device. Capture screenshots with the app running in Arabic or Hebrew so navigation, icons and lists are mirrored. A left-to-right UI under an Arabic caption looks unfinished.
• Keep some things unmirrored: logos, media playback controls, clocks and numbers in the status bar.
• Use a proper Arabic or Hebrew font such as Noto Sans Arabic or Noto Sans Hebrew; Arabic letters connect and need correct shaping.
• Mixed text (an English brand name in an Arabic sentence) should follow bidirectional text rules — check punctuation placement visually.

Cultural adaptation

• Data in screenshots: show local currency, date formats, units and plausible local names. A US-style date or dollar price in a Japanese screenshot undercuts the translation.
• Imagery: people, food, places and holidays in screenshots should make sense for the market.
• Colors and symbols: meanings vary (for example, red signals rising stock prices in China but falling prices in the US). Check gestures and icons too.
• Tone: some markets respond to playful captions, others to precise feature descriptions. A native reviewer can tell you which.
• Features: lead with features that matter in the market — local payment methods or integrations may deserve the first frame.

A localization workflow

1. Keep captions as data, not text baked into images. One caption list per locale makes every later step fast.
2. Translate with AI, then review. Machine translation gives a quick first draft; a native speaker fixes tone, terminology and keywords.
3. Localize metadata: name, subtitle, keywords (researched per language, not translated word for word), descriptions and release notes.
4. Capture localized UI with the device or simulator set to each language, with a clean status bar.
5. Check every locale visually for overflow, line breaks and RTL order, and preview them in context with the listing preview.
6. Export exact sizes per locale (see App Store and Google Play sizes) and upload with fastlane or by hand.

Localizing with StoreGlaze

In the editor, captions are stored per locale, so a template becomes 42 languages without redesigning anything. AI translation uses your own OpenRouter or Gemini key for captions and store metadata, text auto-fits each frame, and the layout engine handles RTL mirroring, CJK line breaking and Thai word breaks with Noto fallback fonts. Export produces a ZIP with every size and locale, optionally in fastlane folders with the right App Store and Google Play codes and metadata files. For release notes in every language, use the release notes generator, and check translated fields with the character counter. Native review is still up to you.