Google Play Feature Graphic: A Design Checklist

A Google Play feature graphic is a wide promotional asset for your app listing and other Play surfaces. Build it around one recognizable idea, then check the export, cropping, and relationship to your other assets. A clean design makes the promise easier to understand; it doesn't guarantee more installs.

The difficult part usually isn't exporting a banner. It's deciding what deserves the space. A logo, several screenshots, a slogan, and a discount badge can each seem reasonable in isolation. Together, they leave a visitor with too much to decode.

Use this checklist to make a smaller, clearer brief before opening your design tool. It complements the broader listing work covered in our Google Play ASO guide.

Key takeaways

• As checked in November 2026, Google's required canvas is 1024 × 500 pixels, in JPEG or 24-bit PNG without alpha.
• Give the composition a clear focal point.
• Review it beside the icon and screenshots.
• Treat performance changes as something to investigate, not proof that a redesign worked.

Specification source: Google Play, Add preview assets.

What must your Google Play feature graphic pass?

Start with the technical requirements, then separate them from creative preferences. Google requires a feature graphic to publish a store listing. Its guidance also asks designers to protect important content from cutoff zones and account for UI overlays. A file can meet the dimensions while still failing this practical check. Google Play asset guidance.

Use an export checklist that someone other than the designer can repeat:

Check	Evidence and response
File specification	Verify export dimensions and format; export again if incorrect.
Focal point	Inspect a reduced-size preview; simplify if unclear.
Edge clearance	Inspect a cropped preview; move essential content inward if cut off.
Product accuracy	Get feature-owner approval; replace unsupported claims.
Locale	Record language review and asset version; correct the localized export if needed.
Accessibility	Add meaningful alt text of at most 140 characters describing the important content.
Promotional claims	Check for ranking, award, price, or promotional claims; replace with accurate product context.

Don't turn aesthetic disagreements into technical defects. “I prefer the other color” needs a different discussion from “the headline disappears in this crop.” Label the problem so the next revision has a purpose. Google’s asset guidance supplies the alt-text limit and recommends avoiding the promotional claims listed above.

Choose the promise before the artwork

Write a plain sentence describing the experience you want someone to recognize. For a hypothetical hiking app, that might be “plan a route before leaving home.” This example is a design exercise, not a customer result. It gives the designer a concrete subject without prescribing every pixel.

Now ask which element earns attention. Perhaps a simplified route composition communicates the planning task. Perhaps the app has a distinctive map treatment worth carrying across. A decorative mountain may look attractive but say little about the product's actual function.

One useful editorial rule: remove any element that neither explains the experience nor helps identify the brand. That includes copy repeated elsewhere on the same listing. This is a suggested review method, not a universal formula for conversion.

Google advises against prominent repetition of the app icon and warns that fine detail may disappear on phone screens. Use that as a reason to inspect the whole listing, rather than judging a large banner alone. Google's feature graphic recommendations.

Review the graphic in context

Place the export beside the current icon, first screenshots, and short description. Look for a coherent promise across them. Does the banner introduce a task that the screenshots actually demonstrate? Does its visual language still belong to the same product?

Then reduce the preview until it resembles a small card. This is an editorial stress test, not an official device specification. If someone needs to zoom in to understand the focal point, remove detail before increasing text size. Otherwise, the next revision may simply become a larger pile of competing elements.

Check the linked video too, if you use one. Google can place a play button over the feature graphic. A composition that depends on an unobstructed center deserves another look in that context. Google Play preview asset usage.

An abstract Insights cover and a store feature graphic serve different purposes. Our article artwork supplies a consistent editorial identity; your store asset needs to help explain your app. Copying a blog thumbnail into the listing skips that distinction.

Use a brief the designer can act on

Here is a hypothetical handoff for the hiking app. Replace the examples with facts about your product; don't copy claims for features you haven't built.

Brief field	Worked example
Audience	Walkers preparing a weekend route
Message	Plan the route before heading outside
Product evidence	Current route-planning screen, approved by product
Visual direction	One route composition using existing brand colors
Exclusions	Weather forecasts and offline navigation, which this example app lacks
Review question	Can a colleague identify the planning task without an explanation?
Delivery	Editable source, approved export, locale, and revision date

The exclusions are useful. They stop a visually appealing idea from quietly expanding the product promise.

For feedback, name the observation and request a specific adjustment: “The trail illustration dominates the route-planning task; simplify it and make the route easier to recognize.” That's more actionable than “make it more premium.” Keep the approved brief attached to the final export, so a later contributor can understand the decisions.

What changes when you localize?

Review the final exported image, not just the translation document. Text fit, terminology, and the depicted experience all need checking. Google explains that text translations added without localized graphic assets use the default-language graphics. Confirm the asset assigned to each intended language. Google Play, Translate and localize your app.

For an iOS version, prepare a separate asset handoff. Apple's product-page guidance discusses screenshots and app previews; don't assume a Google Play banner can be reused unchanged across stores. Shared brand decisions can travel, while the compositions should fit the destination. Apple, Creating your product page.

Keep the original editable file and an approved export for each locale. A translation can become stale after a feature is renamed. A short release note linking the changed wording to the affected files makes that update easier to trace.

How should you evaluate a redesign?

Define the question before making a change. Are you fixing an unreadable composition, correcting a misleading promise, or testing a different message? The first two can be justified through review. The third needs evidence about visitor behavior.

Google's store listing experiments support testing graphics and localized text. Its guidance recommends changing one asset at a time and allowing at least a week for weekday and weekend differences. Follow the experiment's result and uncertainty, rather than treating that week as a guaranteed decision deadline. Google, Store listing experiments.

If you rely on a before-and-after comparison, record other changes: acquisition campaigns, countries reached, releases, and seasonal demand. Downloads moving upward doesn't identify which change caused them. Keep the old asset available, write down what you learned, and choose the next revision from that evidence.

Frequently asked questions

What size should a Google Play feature graphic be?

The checked specification is 1024 × 500 pixels. Export as JPEG or 24-bit PNG without alpha. Inspect the exported file itself; a correctly sized source document doesn't guarantee the export used the same settings. Google’s asset specification gives the file requirements.

Should I put the app icon in the graphic?

Avoid making a second oversized icon the main idea. Google’s recommendations discourage prominent duplication. A more useful brief explains how the graphic extends the brand and communicates the app experience, while the icon remains recognizable beside it.

Can I use abstract artwork?

Yes, as a creative direction, provided it remains meaningful for the app and meets the applicable guidance. Ask a colleague what the composition communicates. If it could advertise any unrelated product, it may need a clearer connection to your actual experience.

Is the feature graphic the same as an iOS screenshot?

No. Prepare exports for each store's asset requirements and intended use. Reuse your brand palette and approved message where appropriate, then review the composition in its destination. Our App Store product-page checklist covers the wider iOS listing.

Will a new feature graphic improve conversion?

There is no guaranteed uplift. Correctness and readability are useful review goals; a claim about conversion needs measured evidence. Keep a record of the version and audience, use experiments where appropriate, and retain an inconclusive result as inconclusive.

Sources

Prepared by Appeak Editorial Team, ASO Research & Technical Editorial. Official specifications and guidance were checked on November 2, 2026. The handoff template and review workflow are editorial recommendations; the hiking app is hypothetical. No customer performance data is claimed. Contact Appeak to flag a correction to this checklist.

• Google Play, Add preview assets to showcase your app, retrieved 2026-11-02.
• Google Play, Translate and localize your app, retrieved 2026-11-02.
• Google, Store listing experiments, retrieved 2026-11-02.
• Apple, Creating your product page, retrieved 2026-11-02.