Better app screenshots
A lot of apps (even good ones) currently have subpar screenshots, which makes for a bad impression of our app ecosystem when looking at apps on e.g. Flathub. Issues include:
- Apps are shown in unrealistic scenarios without good content, making them look less appealing than they are
- Some screenshots have transparent shadows, others are windowed but fully opaque and show a bit of wallpaper, others show just the window fullscreen
- Use of non-platform icons/stylesheet/window control layout
- Screenshots taken on other platforms (e.g. macOS)
- Outdated screenshots that don't reflect the latest version of the app
- Most screenshots are not translated
- Only one or two screenshots, giving an incomplete picture of the app's capabilities
- The appstream spec gives fairly detailed guidance on a number of things, but these guidelines are not very accessible, and not really enforced during app review
- The appstream guidelines recommend 16:9, but that doesn't make sense for mobile screenshots
- The screenshot slideshow for an app is always the same regardless of form factor
- Various issues with the carousel UI in both Software and Flathub (small, no fullscreen, etc.)
Goals
- More visually engaging screenshots in general
- In line with platform guidelines wrt icons, stylesheet, etc
- More screenshots per app
- Always up to date
Secondary goals
- Translations
- Adaptive/convergence considerations (e.g. perhaps a second set of screenshots of mobile)
Relevant Art
iOS
Website: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/castro-podcast-player/id1080840241
macOS
Blogpost on how to automatically take screenshots for different screen sizes/languages/etc https://blog.khanacademy.org/automating-app-store-screenshots/
Windows
Website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/your-phone/9nmpj99vjbwv
Ideas
- Better, more accessible developer docs/tutorials around screenshots
- Tooling to support developers in taking better screenshots (e.g. an app that resets system settings to defaults, allows taking screenshots in multiple languages, perhaps automates taking screenshots for each new release)
- Metadata for whether a screenshot is desktop or mobile
- Stronger quality control during Flathub review and/or as part of curation (if we had a good/other distinction this could be a cirterium)
- Changes to how Software/Flathub present screenshots, to make them larger and easier to navigate
Edited by Tobias Bernard