TL;DR

Apple supports 40+ locales on the App Store, but most indie apps ship English only. Localizing your screenshots into even 5–10 key languages can produce a meaningful download lift in those markets — without touching your product.

Why localize screenshots?

Two reasons:

Impression share in localized search. Apple's search algorithm gives more weight to listings with localized metadata (title, keywords, screenshots) in the user's App Store locale.
Conversion rate. Users land on your listing from search. A Spanish-speaking user seeing English screenshots typically converts at a lower rate than the same user seeing Spanish ones — the gap can be substantial in markets where English literacy is lower.

You don't need to localize the app itself. You can ship an English-only app with localized listing assets (screenshots, description, keywords) and still get the lift.

Which locales are worth the effort?

By volume of App Store downloads, the top non-English markets are:

Chinese (Simplified) — 中文简体 — huge market, complex App Store rules
Japanese — 日本語 — premium users, high LTV
Spanish — Español — LATAM + Spain, large TAM
German — Deutsch — high AOV, privacy-focused
French — Français — EU + Canada
Portuguese (Brazil) — Português
Italian — Italiano
Korean — 한국어
Russian — Русский — (note: payment constraints as of 2024)
Arabic — العربية — right-to-left layout considerations

Don't localize all 40 at once. Start with 3–5 that match where your current user base already is, then expand based on App Store Connect analytics.

The two hard parts of localization

1. Right-to-left languages (Arabic, Hebrew)

Arabic and Hebrew read right-to-left, which means the entire screenshot layout needs to flip horizontally. Text alignment, icon anchors, arrows — everything mirrors. If you hand this to a translator working in Figma, expect errors.

ScreenFast's Localize workflow handles right-to-left languages automatically: text direction, anchor positions, and punctuation flip correctly without manual adjustment.

2. Text length variance

English is one of the most compact languages. German text is typically 30% longer. Russian ~20% longer. Japanese can be shorter in characters but takes more visual space because kanji are larger.

When you design your English screenshot with tight text layout, translating to German or Russian will break the layout unless you leave padding. Rule of thumb: design your English layout with 30% slack in text containers.

Manual workflow (the painful way)

Export your English screenshots as editable Figma/PSD files.
Send to a translator (or use DeepL).
Replace text in Figma for each locale.
Re-export each locale at 1290×2796.
Upload to App Store Connect per locale.

Time cost: ~4 hours per locale, or $100+ if you hire out.

Automated workflow with ScreenFast

ScreenFast Localize re-renders your screenshots into 16+ supported languages in one step:

Generate your English screenshot set normally.
Open the Localize workflow.
Select target languages.
Review the translated renders; tweak any copy inline.
Export localized sets.

Supported languages include: EN, ES, FR, DE, IT, PT, JA, KO, ZH (Simplified), AR, HE, RU, TR, ID, VI, PL.

Time cost: ~10 minutes for 5 languages. Cost: from $19.99 on the Starter subscription.

Ongoing maintenance

Localized screenshots need to stay in sync with your English ones. Every time you update the primary set (feature launch, price change, seasonality), you need to re-localize.

With ScreenFast subscriptions, the re-localization is part of your monthly quota — no per-locale fees.

Measuring impact

After launching localized screenshots, watch these App Store Connect metrics per locale:

Impressions — should rise if your keywords are localized too.
Impressions-to-page-views — rises if the search thumbnail looks native.
Product page conversion — the biggest metric. A localized listing should outperform the English-only baseline in those markets within the first 30 days.

If a locale doesn't lift conversion after 30 days, check: (1) is your app category popular in that market, (2) are your keywords localized, (3) is the translation quality good.

How to Localize App Store Screenshots: 16+ Languages, Automated