By Natascha Bock, a Product Marketing Manager on the Google Play team

If your app is selected for featuring on Google Play,our editorial team uses your 1024 x 500 “Featured Image” to promote the app on tablets, phones, and the Web. The image can be used on the home page on all versions of Google Play (Web, tablet and phone), on your product page in the Web and tablet versions, and on current and future top-level Google Play pages on phones.

Creating a Featured Image that will do a great job of highlighting your app requires special design consideration, and localizing your featured image for your key markets is highly recommended.

Not Really Optional

While many promotional assets are listed as “optional” for publishing in Google Play, we strongly recommend treating them as required. To start with, a Featured Image is required if your app is to be featured anywhere within Google Play. They’re a good idea anyhow; they enhance your product page, making your game or app more attractive to end-users (and more likely to be considered for featuring by our editorial team).

There’s nothing optional about the size, either; it has to be 1024 x 500 pixels.

Do’s and Dont’s

Your graphic is not an ad, it’s a teaser. It’s a place for bold, creative promotional images.

Vivid background colors work best. Black and white are problems because those are the backgrounds used by the mobile-device and Web versions of Google Play.

Limit Text to your app name and maybe a few additional descriptive words. Anything else will be unreadable on phones, anyhow.

Do: Make the graphic fun

and enticing./td> Don't: Create a text-heavy

advertising-style graphic. Do: Use colors that stand out on

black or white backgrounds. Don't: Let the graphic fade into

the background. Do: Promote your brand prominently. Don't: Overload the graphic with details. Do: Localize your image as needed

for different languages.

Scaling

Your image has to be designed to scale; it will need to look good both in a full-size Web browser and on a little handset. You can rely on the aspect ratio being constant, but not the size. Here’s a tip: Try resizing your image down to 1 inch in width. If it still looks good and conveys your brand message, you have a winner.

On the Web:



On a tablet:



On a big phone:



On a small phone:

More Dont’s

Device imagery is tempting, but becomes dated fast, and may be inappropriate if your user’s device looks entirely different.

In-app screenshots are inappropriate because your product page already includes a place for these.

Just using your app icon is a failure of imagination. You have more room; put it to good use!

Consider the Context

Given the size of the form factor, the phone is the most challenging channel for your image. At right we have both the “good” and “bad” sample images in that context:

Localize your Featured Image, videos, and other promotional assets

Android's user base is global. To help you reach all of these users effectively, Google Play lets you provide a separate featured image for each language that you support, as well as separate screenshots and promotional videos. You can add your localized images and videos in the Developer Console.

Localizing your featured image is highly recommended as a powerful way to get your message across to users around the world. It goes hand-in-hand with localizing your app's description and other details and it's built-in string resources.

Don’t Forget

A 1024 x 500 Featured Image is required for feature placement consideration. Don't miss out on the opportunity!