AI video for app launches: what to make and where generated footage is allowed

An app promo video is not one video. At launch you need an App Store preview, a Google Play preview video, a set of paid social ads and a launch reel, and each has its own rules. AI-generated footage is welcome in the ads and the reel. It is not allowed as the footage of an Apple app preview, which must be screen captures of the app itself, and Google wants most of its preview video to show the real product too.

Here is what each placement requires, as published by Apple and Google on the day of writing, and how generated video fits around real screen recordings.

What video does an app need at launch?

Video	Where it runs	What it must show	Can AI footage be used?
App Store app preview	Your App Store product page	Screen captures of the app	Only as overlays that explain the capture, not as scenes
Google Play preview video	Your Play Store listing, via YouTube	Mostly the real in-app experience	A short intro or outro at most
Paid social ads	Meta, TikTok, YouTube Shorts	Whatever earns the install, honestly	Yes, with the platform’s labelling rules
Launch reel or film	Social, website, press, investor updates	The idea behind the app	Yes

The first two are store assets. They exist to show what the customer will get, and the stores police them. The second two are advertising, where you have creative freedom and where generated video saves the most money.

What are Apple’s rules for App Store app previews?

Apple’s rules come in two parts: what the preview may contain, and the file you upload.

On content, App Review Guideline 2.3.4 is blunt: previews “may only use video screen captures of the app itself”. You can add narration and video or textual overlays to explain anything that is not clear from the capture alone. Apple’s app previews page adds that previews must show only content within the app, and tells developers not to film people interacting with a device, such as over-the-shoulder angles or fingers tapping the screen. If features shown need an in-app purchase, a subscription or a login, you must disclose that in the footage or the end frame. Previews autoplay with the sound off, so on-screen copy carries the message, and you choose a poster frame for people who have autoplay turned off.

So a generated character walking through a neon city is not an app preview, however good it looks. Guideline 2.3.1 also warns that marketing an app in a misleading way, inside or outside the App Store, is grounds for removal. That is worth remembering when you brief the ads as well.

The file specs, from Apple’s app preview specifications:

• up to three app previews per language your app supports
• 15 seconds minimum, 30 seconds maximum
• 500 MB maximum file size
• H.264 or ProRes 422 (HQ), at up to 30 frames per second
• .mov, .m4v or .mp4 files
• device-specific resolutions: 886 x 1920 pixels in portrait for current 6.1 to 6.9 inch iPhones, 1920 x 886 in landscape

Apple updates the accepted resolutions as new devices appear, so check the table on that page before exporting.

What does Google Play require for a preview video?

Google works differently. You do not upload a file. According to Google’s Play Console help on preview assets, you add one preview video by pasting a YouTube URL, and the video must meet these conditions:

1. It is a single video URL, not a playlist or channel, with no extra parameters such as timecodes.
2. Ads are disabled on the video.
3. Privacy is set to public or unlisted, not private.
4. It is not age-restricted.
5. It can be embedded.

Google’s content guidance is labelled as highly recommended rather than compulsory. Show the actual in-app or in-game experience, with the core features on screen within the first 10 seconds. Aim for at least 80% of the video to be representative of the user experience. Keep it short, because only the first 30 seconds autoplay. Do not show people interacting with the device unless the app is really used off-device. Landscape and portrait are both supported.

That 80% figure is useful. It tells you how much room there is for a generated intro on Google Play: a few seconds, not half the video.

Where does AI video fit in an app launch?

Around the screen recordings, not instead of them. The store videos show what the app does. Everything else has to make someone care, and that is where generated video earns its place.

Concept scenes. Most apps solve a problem that happens away from the phone: a missed train, a messy shared flat, a run in the rain, a late invoice. Filming those scenes means locations, actors and weather. Generating them means look development at a desk. A five-second scene of the problem, followed by the real screen recording of the solution, is the basic shape of a good app ad.

Characters. A recurring character or mascot gives a launch campaign a face that screen recordings never will. It can be animated, stylised or realistic, and once designed it can appear in every ad, in onboarding and in the launch film. This sits between our animation work and AI presenters. If the character is a realistic person talking to camera in a creator style, read AI UGC ads explained first, because those carry their own trust problems.

Stylised intros and transitions. The phone rising out of water, the interface unfolding into a city, the logo assembling itself. These are two-second shots that make a screen recording feel like a film. They were once motion-design jobs with a long render queue. Now they are designed as stills and animated, the same way as in how AI reels are made.

Variations for ad testing. This is the strongest argument. Paid user acquisition runs on testing, and testing needs volume: ten openings for the same ad, the same scene with three different characters, versions for different countries. With a shoot, each variation costs a set-up. With generated footage, a new opening is a small job, and the screen recording that follows it stays the same. For what those openings could be, see our list of 12 hook types to test, and how to read the results. At Zero Shot, an AI video studio in London, we plan paid social ads as families of variations from the start, because a single finished ad tells you nothing about what works.

One caution. Ads must show the app honestly. If the generated scene implies a feature the app does not have, you risk a rejected ad, a store complaint and an uninstall. Platforms also have their own labelling rules: TikTok’s advertising policy, for example, requires an AI-generated content label or a clear disclaimer on ads that are fully generated or significantly edited with AI. We set out the rules for Meta and YouTube as well in do you have to label AI video.

How do you plan the production?

The order matters, because the store assets depend on a finished build and the ads do not.

1. Lock the message. One sentence on what the app does and for whom. Every video starts from it.
2. Record the screens properly. Clean captures on a demo account with realistic data, no notification clutter, at the resolutions Apple lists. Your team is best placed to record these. A studio can direct and edit them.
3. Cut the store videos from captures only. Add text overlays for silent autoplay. Make localised versions if you ship in several languages, since Apple allows up to three previews per language.
4. Design the generated scenes as stills. Approve the look, the character and the world before anything moves.
5. Build the ad family. Several openings, one product section, one end card. Export vertical 9:16 for Meta, TikTok and Shorts.
6. Make the launch film last. It reuses the best scenes from the ads, runs longer and goes on the website, in the press kit and on the founders’ own channels. That is brand commercial territory.

What to send a studio

The app’s name and one-line description, the launch date, the stores and countries, screen recordings or a test build, brand assets and two or three ads you admire. With that, a studio can tell you which pieces should be generated, which should be captured and which are not worth making yet.

If you have a launch coming, send us a short brief and we will reply with a plan for the four videos and a fixed price.