What is the App Preview Video?

The app preview video is a metadata element on the product page of an iOS app that shows its look and the main functions. For app owners, it is optional to add one to three preview videos per app. So apps can be released without a video.

Technical Requirements for App Preview Videos

Each video can be 15 to 30 seconds long. Apple allows MPEG, MOV, and M4V files with a weight of up to 500 megabytes. The video’s standard aspect ratio is 16:9 in landscape or portrait format for all iPhone models except the iPhone X series. For iPad videos, the aspect ratio is 4:3.

Why Videos are important

Preview videos appear in the screenshot gallery. They take the slots on the left and push screenshots to the right. That means preview videos are always visible on the product page, but also in search results. On SERPs, they autoplay when they show up on the device screen unless the user disabled this feature. If they do not autoplay, because the user has disabled this function in the phone settings, the poster frame will be visible instead.

Because of this prominent placement, app preview videos have great potential to contribute to conversion rate optimization by attracting users’ attention and raising their interest in the app.