App demo video
An app demo video is four different edits, not one
The same recording of your app has to become four different videos depending on where it goes, and two of those destinations have rules that will get your file rejected. Here are the specs, and what changes in the edit each time.
The short answer
An App Store preview runs up to 30 seconds and Apple requires the footage to be captured on device. A Google Play promo video must be 30 to 120 seconds and is supplied as a YouTube URL. A website hero wants 8 to 15 seconds, silent, looping. A TikTok or Reel wants 15 to 25 seconds and is the only one that needs a hook in the first 1.5 seconds, because it is the only place the viewer did not choose to look at your app.
Four destinations, four cuts
| Where it goes | Length | The rules | How the edit changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Store preview | Up to 30 seconds | Up to three per language. Apple requires the footage to be captured on device. | No hook needed. The viewer already tapped your listing, so open on the app working and show the three things that decide the install. |
| Google Play promo video | 30 to 120 seconds | Hosted on YouTube, supplied as a URL. Up to three. Turn monetisation off so ads do not play over it, and add a feature graphic or it will not appear. | Longer, so it can carry a short narrative. Still no audio dependency, because it autoplays muted for many users. |
| Website hero | 8 to 15 seconds | No platform rules at all. Your own constraint is file size and an autoplay loop that never shows controls. | One loop of one task, silent, cutting back to the start cleanly. Anything longer than about 15 seconds never gets watched twice. |
| TikTok, Reels, Shorts | 15 to 25 seconds | 1080 by 1920, 30fps, H.264 in an MP4. The same export covers all three platforms. | The only one that needs a hook. A line of text in the first 1.5 seconds, the app doing something by second 6, ending on the visible result. |
Store rules from Apple’s app preview guidance and Google Play Console help
The rule people find out the hard way
Apple wants footage captured on device
Apple’s guidance says an app preview demonstrates your app using footage captured on device. A preview built mainly from animation, stock clips or a presenter talking is the wrong thing for that slot, however good the video is. Those elements are fine on your website, on social and in ads. They are not fine as the store preview itself.
Practical consequence: record the real app first and treat every other version as a derivative of that file. Working the other way around, starting from a polished marketing edit, leaves you with nothing you can submit.
Shared across all four
What makes any app demo watchable
- Use real data. Rows called “test” and “asdf” undo the whole video, wherever it ends up.
- Record one task, not a tour. Every destination needs a payoff, and a tour has none.
- Capture at native resolution and never upscale. You can crop into a sharp recording, you cannot sharpen a soft one.
- Move the cursor deliberately and rest about a second on whatever matters.
- Cut the loading, the typing and the menu hunting. In a raw walkthrough that is usually most of the runtime.
- End on the result, held still long enough to read. That frame is what people remember.
The device frame trap
Plenty of demo-video tools sell you a phone mockup: your recording sitting inside a rendered iPhone, tilted, with a shadow. It looks good on a landing page. Submit it as an App Store preview and it can be rejected under guideline 2.3.4, with wording developers have been posting on Apple’s own forums since 2020:
Your app preview includes content that does not sufficiently reflect the app in use. Specifically, your preview: includes device images and/or device frames.
The guideline text itself never says frames are banned, which is why this keeps catching people out, and developers were still reporting it through 2024. The safe rule is simple: frames for your website, your ads and your social posts, no frames in the store preview.
Where we fit
We make one of these four
ClipMyApp does not make App Store previews, Play promo videos or website hero loops. Those are one-off jobs with fixed rules, and once you have the specs above they are an afternoon in CapCut or Descript.
It makes the fourth one, over and over. The social cut is the only one you need again next week, and the week after. Upload the recording once and it finds the moments worth showing, reframes to vertical, writes the hook and the step captions, and schedules the posts to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Common questions.
How long should an app demo video be?
It depends entirely on where it goes. An App Store preview can run up to 30 seconds. A Google Play promo video must be between 30 and 120 seconds. A website hero loop works best at 8 to 15 seconds. A TikTok, Reel or Short wants 15 to 25 seconds. Cutting one video and posting it everywhere is the most common mistake here.
Can I use the same video on the App Store and on TikTok?
Not well. Apple requires app preview footage to be captured on device and the viewer is already on your listing, so no hook is needed. A TikTok viewer has not chosen to look at your app at all, so the first 1.5 seconds have to earn the watch. Same source recording, genuinely different edits.
Does Apple allow animated or motion-graphics app previews?
Apple's own guidance says app previews demonstrate your app using footage captured on device. That rules out a preview built mainly from animation, stock footage or presenter shots. Marketing videos with those elements are fine everywhere else, just not as the store preview itself.
Can I put my app inside a phone mockup?
On your website, in ads and on social, yes. In an App Store preview it is a real rejection risk: developers have been rejected under guideline 2.3.4 with the note that the preview includes device images and/or device frames. The guideline text does not spell that out, which is why it keeps surprising people, so keep frames out of the store cut and use them everywhere else.
What format should I export?
For social and for a website hero, export 1080 by 1920 or 1920 by 1080 at 30fps, H.264 video with AAC audio in an MP4. Apple accepts H.264 and ProRes 422 HQ in .mov, .mp4 or .m4v for previews. Google Play takes a YouTube URL rather than a file.
Do I need a voiceover?
No, and for most destinations you should assume nobody hears it. Store previews and feed video both autoplay muted for a large share of viewers. Put the meaning in on-screen text and treat any audio as a bonus.
Can ClipMyApp make my App Store preview?
No. ClipMyApp makes the organic social version: vertical posts for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, built from your screen recording, with review and scheduling. Store previews have their own rules and are a separate job, though the same recording is usually the source for both.
Do I need an editor, or can this be automated?
The store and website cuts are short enough to do by hand in CapCut or Descript once you know the specs above. The social cut is the one that needs repeating every week, which is the part worth automating, because one demo video does nothing and a consistent posting habit does.
The store cut ships once. The social cut ships weekly.
Upload the recording you already made for your store listing and get 20 finished social posts from it, free.