Google Play Feature Graphic: Design Tips and 8 Layout Examples

TL;DR: A Google Play feature graphic is a 1024 × 500 JPEG or 24-bit PNG without alpha, and Google currently requires one to publish your listing. It covers your promo video and appears in large-format placements. The best ones keep the focal point centered, keep logos and text away from the edges, leave room for the play button, avoid "Best" or "#1" claims and don't just repeat the icon.

Google uses your feature graphic in several places:

• As the cover of your promo video. When you add a YouTube video, the feature graphic is shown with a play button over it.
• In large-format collections on Google Play. Google lists large-format app collections and, for games, large groups of recommended titles that feature videos and screenshots.
• In other Google promotional channels. The graphic is used to highlight and promote your app beyond the listing itself.

Because it's displayed in different contexts, edges can be cut off and overlays can sit on top. That shapes every rule below: design for the center and treat the edges as background.

The technical spec is 1024 × 500 px, JPEG or 24-bit PNG, with no alpha channel. Export details live on the feature graphic size guide.

These archetypes cover most strong feature graphics. Pick the one that delivers your message in a single glance.

1. Centered headline on brand color

A bold three to five word benefit in the middle of a saturated brand-color field, with the app name small beneath it. It's readable at any size and easy to localize, which makes it a solid choice for utilities and productivity apps.

2. Hero screen

One key screen, frameless with a soft shadow, near the center, with a short headline beside it. Shoppers see the product immediately. Keep the screen large: a tiny phone in a wide banner is unreadable.

3. Character or key art

For games, a main character or scene fills the frame with the focal point in the middle and the background extending to the edges. This layout naturally follows Google's advice to keep the center prominent.

4. Strip of screens

Three or four screens fanned across the banner, ideal for apps with visually distinct features. Make the middle screen the strongest, because the outer ones are the most likely to be cropped.

5. Outcome first

Show the result rather than the tool: a finished photo edit, a balanced budget, a planned route. Pair it with a headline that names the outcome, such as "Your week, planned".

6. Before and after

A split composition with the problem on one side and the result on the other. Pull both key details toward the middle so a crop at either edge doesn't remove half the story.

7. Illustration or 3D object

A brand illustration or 3D object that represents your category, such as a stylized wallet, plant or moon. Keep it clearly different from your actual icon so the listing doesn't show the same image twice.

8. Video poster

If you have a promo video, design the graphic as its poster: a compelling frame where the subject sits slightly off the exact center, so the play button doesn't cover a face or the headline.

When you add a promo video, Google shows your feature graphic as its cover with a play button on top, and users tap it to watch. A few practical rules:

1. Don't put text or a face at the exact center, where the button sits.
2. Keep the area behind the button calm enough for the button to stand out.
3. Place the headline above, below or beside the center while staying inside the safe middle area.
4. Preview the graphic with a play button drawn on top before uploading.

The video itself has rules too: a single YouTube URL, public or unlisted, with ads turned off and no age restriction. The promo video guide covers them.

Google's preview asset guidance doesn't publish a pixel-exact safe zone. It asks you to keep the brand logo, app name, primary slogan and main UI out of the cutoff zones and to keep the focal point toward the center. A practical approach:

• Treat a generous band along every edge as background only: color, texture or the continuation of an illustration.
• Keep every word and logo well inside that band.
• Check the graphic at small sizes, since it's often shown scaled down in collections.
• Avoid thin fonts and fine detail that disappear when scaled.

Google recommends localizing your graphic and branding text for different markets and languages. Keep the headline short so German or French translations still fit inside the safe middle area, and mirror the layout for right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. The localization guide covers text expansion and RTL in more depth.

Then test. Store listing experiments let you run variants of your feature graphic against your current one. Change one thing at a time, such as the layout archetype, the headline or the background color.

The feature graphic is one piece of a larger page; the Google Play store listing guide walks through every other field, and Google Play screenshot best practices covers the screenshots that sit beside it.