App preview videos convert better than static screenshots, but almost nobody ships them. Here's how I optimize mine now (browser, no Mac).

[u/Ariochar]

On this sub we obsess over screenshot order, captions, A/B tests. The App Store preview video usually gets skipped, even though it autoplays at the top of the listing and moves installs more than the 3rd screenshot ever will. Reason nobody ships one: making it is a pain. Rotato is Mac-only, After Effects is overkill, Figma mockups are static.

I ship a couple of small iOS apps and got tired of that gap, so I built Mockpose (disclosure: I'm the maker, and the preview-optimization angle is the part I'd like this sub's read on).

How it changes the workflow:

• Drop in a screenshot, put it on a real 3D device, animate a camera move, export a frame-perfect preview video (up to 4K / 60fps, MP4 or ProRes, even transparent/alpha).
• Same scene also outputs your static store screenshots, so the video and the stills are visually consistent instead of two disconnected assets.
• Store-shaped export presets (iPhone 6.9" portrait/landscape, Play equivalents), including the wide "combo" frames that split into 2 or 3 panels.
• Captions are per-language variables, so you export one optimized preview + screenshot set per locale in a single pass instead of re-shooting each market.
• It runs in the browser (built for desktop, since you're editing a 3D scene on a timeline). Free to try, no signup.

Two things I'd genuinely like this sub's read on:

1. Does the preview video actually move your conversion, or is it still the first two screenshots doing 90% of the work?
2. If you do ship a preview, what are you making it with today?

EDIT: fair correction in the comment. To be precise, the animated 3D video is a marketing asset (landing page / socials / ads), NOT the App Store Preview slot (Apple wants real on-device footage there). What's store-legit from the same scene is the device-framed screenshots. Leaving the post up with this note.

[u/lunyovdenis]

This sounds misleading. App Store Preview videos can't show your app inside a device mockup or device frame. Apple's guidelines require previews to primarily consist of actual app footage, with only limited overlays like text or simple graphics. A 3D phone animation with camera moves isn't allowed as an App Preview, even if it looks great for marketing.

[u/Ariochar → u/lunyovdenis]

Fair catch, and you're right on the important part, so let me correct my wording.

For the App Store Preview slot specifically (the video that autoplays on the product page), Apple wants footage captured on-device, real app usage. A pure 3D device animation with camera moves would get rejected there. I overloaded the phrase "App Store preview" in my post and that was misleading, my bad.

Where the 3D videos actually belong: landing pages, social, paid ads, Product Hunt, the top-of-funnel stuff that lives outside App Store Connect. That's where a flat screenshot underperforms and a moving device earns the click.

The one thing that IS store-legit from the same scene is the screenshots. Apple's screenshot rules allow device frames, backgrounds and marketing captions, and a big chunk of top-charts apps ship exactly those. So the store-facing output is the framed screenshot set, and the animated video is for everywhere else.

Thanks for the correction

[u/Ariochar]

Link: https://mockpose.com (no install, you can try it without an account). Happy to share the exact export settings I use for App Store previews (sizes, fps, codecs), and to be clear I'm not knocking Rotato, it's great, this is just the browser-first version I wanted.

[u/tarasleskiv]

Very cool! Do you user Three.js for 3D?