Right-to-Left App Store Screenshots

Right-to-left App Store screenshots are mirrored product shots, not English shots with a translated headline. Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left. Apple includes both in the languages you can localize in App Store Connect. A reader starts at the right side of the line, and they expect the interface to start there too. If your screenshot still opens on the left, the caption cannot fix it.

The broader image pass is App Store screenshot localization. When to add the storefront at all is which countries to localize first. Keywords for that language are localized App Store keywords. Caption length still follows screenshot text, including for Arabic and Hebrew type, which needs more room than a short English line.

Translation is not mirroring

Mirroring means the layout flips. A back chevron points the other way. A list’s disclosure indicator moves. The first item in a tab bar is on the right. Text alignment follows the language. Icons that indicate direction flip. Icons that are physical objects, like a clock face, usually do not. Apple’s interface guidelines treat this as layout direction, not as a Photoshop flip of a finished English marketing frame.

If you only replace the caption, you publish a contradiction. The headline reads from the right. The buttons inside the phone still read from the left, often still in English. People notice in a second. It also fails the honesty test in guideline 2.3: the screenshot should reflect the app. If the Arabic build is mirrored, show that build. If the Arabic build is not mirrored, do not add the localization yet.

What has to move

Navigation bars, tab bars, lists, and progress that means “next” should follow the reading direction. A progress bar that fills from the left while the caption is Arabic feels unfinished. Captions themselves belong on the right, with enough line height for the script. Do not force Arabic into a Latin font that drops letters. Do not center every line as a way to avoid choosing an alignment.

Leave alone the marks that are not directional. A qibla indicator points to a place in the world. Mirroring the whole screen must not spin that arrow into a lie. The compass rose and the direction of prayer are data. The surrounding chrome, the list of prayer times, and the caption are layout. Get those jobs straight before you export.

Worked example: a prayer and qibla app

The app shows a schedule of prayer times for a location the user sets, and a direction indicator for the qibla, the direction toward the Kaaba in Mecca. That is a utility. The screenshots should show those two functions. They should not claim religious authority, a correct opinion, or that a calculation method is the only valid one. If the app lets the user choose a calculation method, the screenshot can show the method that is selected. It should not say the method is universally correct.

For Arabic, capture the schedule as a right-aligned list, with the next prayer easy to see, and capture the direction screen with the indicator readable. The caption names the job in Arabic: see the next time, or see the direction. It does not say “the most accurate” or “guaranteed.” For Hebrew, if you add that localization, do the same mirroring. Hebrew is not a dialect of Arabic. It needs its own strings, its own capture, and a reviewer who reads Hebrew. Do not reuse the Arabic screenshot with a Hebrew caption.

Mirror captions, lists, and navigation for Arabic and Hebrew. Do not flip the qibla direction itself, and do not add religious claims.

iPhone and iPad both flip

If the binary supports iPad, the 13-inch screenshots are required, and the iPad layout has to be the mirrored one. A sidebar that stayed on the left because you scaled an English tablet shot is the same mistake as scaling an iPhone screenshot. Capture iPad in Arabic or Hebrew. The leading edge is the right edge.

One set per device size per localization still holds. The Arabic iPhone set is not the Hebrew iPhone set, and neither is a treatment you get by ticking a box on the English upload. You can test caption wording with Product Page Optimization inside a localization. You should not test “English UI with Arabic caption” against “mirrored UI” as if both were acceptable. Only the mirrored build is acceptable if that is what you ship.

Have a reader check the frame

You can feel when Latin text is overflowing. You cannot reliably feel when Arabic is misspelled or when a prayer name is wrong. Before you upload, a person who reads the language should look at the device, not only at a caption file. Ask them if the next prayer is obvious, if the direction screen is respectful and plain, and if any word is a claim the app should not make.

Machine translation of religious terms is a common way to ship an insult or a nonsense phrase. Do not do it to save a day. If you cannot get a reader, do not add the localization. That is the same support rule as any other country: do not invite an audience you cannot look in the eye.

Captions stay short, and they stay accurate

Arabic and Hebrew captions still have to work when the screenshot is small. A long line of translated marketing English will wrap into a paragraph. Write the caption in the language, for the screen, at a length a thumbnail can hold. Do not paste the English caption into a translator and drop the result on the old layout.

AppGrowthKit helps once the mirrored captures exist: place the right-aligned caption, check it at thumbnail size, and export the device slot. It cannot invent a right-to-left layout from an English screenshot. The build has to mirror first. Then the store image can tell the truth.