Global Operations
A Practical Localisation Strategy for App Store Screenshots
When shipping to multiple countries, here is how far to translate screenshots and where to leave them in English to keep cost and impact in balance.
For a multi-country launch, screenshot localisation can become one of the most expensive workstreams. Translating every language and rebuilding the design grows costs exponentially, but shipping in English only loses installs in some markets. This article outlines a realistic compromise that minimises cost while preserving impact.
1. Languages do not all carry the same weight
For most apps, the top five to seven languages capture more than 80 percent of installs. For a Korean app that usually means Korean, English, Japanese. For an English-first app it might be English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, German, French.
Other languages can fall back to English assets without measurable install loss. For a first launch, focus on the priority five to seven and let the rest fall back to English. That alone removes most of the cost.
2. Share design, swap copy
Design (background, colors, type, device frames) is language-agnostic. If the master asset cleanly separates copy from design, generating other-language assets becomes a copy swap rather than a redesign.
For the pattern to work, copy areas need breathing room. A four-word English line often becomes six or seven words in German. Designing copy regions with 30 to 40 percent headroom usually keeps the same layout valid across most languages.
3. Some copy needs localisation, not translation
Direct translation does not always survive. "Log a receipt in 3 seconds" works in Korean and English but lands as marketing-flavoured in Japanese, where teams often prefer phrasing like "片手で記録" (logging with one hand) instead.
For the priority five to seven languages, getting one round of feedback from a localiser or native speaker per launch pays off for years. The patterns established once tend to apply to every later release.
4. Numbers and currency must localise
"$9.99/month" makes sense in the US but feels off in Japan, where yen is expected, or Korea, where "월 13,000원" reads more natural. For markets with volatile exchange rates, abstracting away the currency entirely (for example "Premium plan") is often safer.
Date formats follow the same rule. US MM/DD/YYYY reads as DD/MM/YYYY in the UK and most of Europe. Screenshots that surface dates directly need per-market variants.
5. Device models reflect market reality
iPhone share is very high in North America and Europe but lower in Korea, Southeast Asia, and India. If you use device frames, picking a frame that matches each market improves perceived authenticity.
Even an iOS-only app can use a flagship iPhone frame in Korean assets and a more mainstream model in Indian assets to feel less aspirational and more relatable.
6. Operationalise: swap copy via script
Once a master is locked, you can script the copy swap. Keep the copy region coordinates, font, and color identical and replace only the text layer keyed by language.
SSHOT supports applying different-language copy to a stored master and re-exporting a ZIP, so each release becomes a copy swap rather than a redesign.
Localisation is not "translate everything everywhere". An 80/20 strategy — five to seven priority languages, English fallback for the rest — is what holds up in practice. After the first launch establishes the patterns, every subsequent release becomes a much smaller copy-swap exercise.