Google Play Promo Video: Requirements, Length and Design Tips

TL;DR: A Google Play promo video is a YouTube video you add to your store listing by URL. Google currently asks for a public or unlisted video with ads turned off and no age restriction. It appears before your screenshots, with your 1024 × 500 feature graphic as its cover, and it may autoplay without sound, so show real app footage from the very first seconds.

Unlike the App Store, Google Play doesn't host your video file. You upload the video to YouTube and paste its URL into the main store listing in Play Console, next to the other fields covered in our Google Play store listing guide. The rules are about that YouTube video, and at the time of writing they look like this:

These details live on Google's "Add preview assets" help page, and Google adjusts them from time to time. Check the page before you publish rather than relying on an older checklist.

The video itself also has to follow the Metadata policy: it should show your app's real experience and stay suitable for a general audience. A cinematic trailer with no app footage is a policy risk as well as a conversion problem.

When you add a promo video, it sits in front of your screenshots. Visitors see your feature graphic with a play button over it, and depending on the device, settings and network, the video may start playing on its own, muted.

That placement has three practical consequences:

1. The feature graphic is your poster. Many visitors will only ever see the cover. Design it so it makes sense with a play button in the center, and keep text away from the edges. Our feature graphic design tips cover the details, and the feature graphic size guide has the exact spec.
2. Assume no sound. If the video autoplays, it plays muted. Use on-screen captions for anything a voiceover would say.
3. The opening seconds decide everything. Google's guidance recommends showing the actual app experience early. A logo animation that lasts five seconds is five seconds of a blank promise.

Google's help page focuses on the opening rather than on a maximum length, and its guidance is clear in spirit: keep it short, lead with the real app, and make most of the video representative of what users will actually see. Autoplay only covers the opening portion, so a long video mostly matters to the few people who tap to keep watching.

A useful target is a video that tells the whole story even if someone stops halfway. Here's a storyboard that works for most apps:

Games can swap the feature beats for gameplay moments, but the same rule holds: real gameplay first, branding last.

1. Script it in a table. List each beat, the screen to record and the caption. Keep captions short enough to read while the video moves.
2. Record clean footage. Use a real device or the Android Emulator with demo data and a clean status bar. Our guide to Android emulator screenshots covers the capture setup.
3. Edit for silent viewing. Cut dead time between taps, add captions and keep transitions simple. Leave out hands, devices and backgrounds that distract from the app itself unless they add real context.
4. Avoid black bars. Export in the orientation you recorded. A portrait recording placed in a landscape frame leaves wide empty sides.
5. Upload to YouTube. Set visibility to public or unlisted, turn off monetization, make sure the video isn't age-restricted and allow embedding.
6. Paste the URL in Play Console. Add it to your main store listing, then preview how it sits next to your feature graphic.
7. Localize where it matters. If the video has captions, make a version for each major language and add it to that language's listing.

If you ship on both stores, you'll probably reuse footage, but the two formats aren't interchangeable.

Apple's previews have their own specs and review expectations, covered in the App Store preview video guide. Plan your recording so you can cut both versions from the same session.

• Pasting a playlist or channel link, or a URL with a start time
• Leaving the video private, age-restricted or monetized
• Opening with a long logo intro or a talking head instead of the app
• Relying on voiceover when most people watch on mute
• Showing features, characters or effects that aren't in the app
• Putting prices, "free" or ranking claims in captions
• Forgetting that the feature graphic is the cover and leaving it busy or text-heavy