Right-to-Left App Store Screenshots: Designing for Arabic and Hebrew

Arabic and Hebrew app store screenshots need more than translated captions. Because both languages read right to left (RTL), a good RTL screenshot set mirrors the composition, right-aligns the captions, shows the app’s own UI captured in an RTL locale, and uses a font that renders the script properly. Brand names, numbers and Latin-script terms inside the caption still run left to right, and that mix is where most RTL screenshots break.

This guide covers which store languages are RTL, how to mirror a set, how to capture the device UI in Arabic or Hebrew, and the mistakes we see most often.

Which App Store and Google Play languages are right-to-left?

On the App Store, Apple’s list of App Store localizations has 50 entries; the right-to-left ones are Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu. On Google Play, the store listing language list uses these codes:

Note the Hebrew code. Google Play uses iw-IL, built on the older ISO code “iw”, not he. If you script uploads with fastlane supply or the Play Developer API, the folder or locale name has to match what Play expects, or the listing lands in the wrong place.

Apple’s localization reference lists Arabic as a supported language in many storefronts, including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, so one Arabic set can serve several markets. Whether you need Modern Standard Arabic or a regional tone in your captions is a copy decision; most listings use Modern Standard Arabic.

How to mirror a screenshot set for Arabic and Hebrew

Mirroring means flipping the direction-dependent parts of the composition while leaving content that has a real-world orientation alone. Work through each element:

• Caption alignment: right-aligned. Centre-aligned captions survive the switch, which is one reason some teams centre everything.
• Device and caption position: if the English layout puts the phone on the right and the caption on the left, swap them.
• Arrows, swipe hints and progress cues: flip anything that implies “forward”. In RTL, forward points left.
• Charts: follow what your app does. Many apps keep time-series charts left-to-right; if yours mirrors them in Arabic, show that.
• Do not flip: logos, photos, device hardware (the camera bump), clocks, media playback controls, and anything with Latin text on it.

What about screenshot order?

The stores show screenshots in the order you upload them, in every language, so screenshot 1 is always your first screenshot. What changes in an RTL locale is the reading direction of the store interface around it. Apple’s documentation doesn’t spell out how the screenshot carousel scrolls in RTL storefronts, so we’d suggest checking it on a device set to Arabic or Hebrew rather than assuming. This matters most for panoramic screenshot sets: a design that flows across the seam from left to right can read backwards to an RTL user. If you’re not sure, design each RTL frame to stand on its own, or build the continuous background so it reads from right to left.

Capture the app UI in the RTL locale

The biggest giveaway of a half-localized listing is an Arabic caption above an English app screen. Capture the screens inside the device frame with the app actually running in Arabic or Hebrew. If your app supports RTL properly, the navigation, tab bars and back buttons will already be mirrored.

iOS

In Xcode, edit the scheme, open Run → Options, and set App Language to Arabic or Hebrew for the real captures. To check mirroring before translations exist, use the Right-to-Left Pseudolanguage option, which flips the layout while keeping your development language. Apple’s WWDC22 session “Get it right (to left)” is the best single reference on how iOS handles RTL layouts and numerals. You can also pass a launch argument from your UI tests:

-AppleLanguages (ar) -AppleLocale ar_SA

Android

The app needs android:supportsRtl="true" in the manifest and start/end rather than left/right in layouts, per Android’s guide to supporting different languages. For a quick check, Android 4.4 and later has a Force RTL layout direction developer option. For final captures, switch the emulator’s system language to Arabic or Hebrew. Our guide to clean simulator and emulator screenshots covers status-bar cleanup, which applies the same way in RTL.

Typography for Arabic and Hebrew captions

Fonts are where an RTL set looks either native or improvised.

• Use a font designed for the script. If your brand font has no Arabic or Hebrew glyphs, the system falls back to something else, often in a mismatched weight. Pick a companion family with the script built in. Google Fonts has several, for example Noto Sans Arabic, IBM Plex Sans Arabic and Cairo for Arabic, and Noto Sans Hebrew, Heebo and Rubik for Hebrew.
• Never add letter-spacing to Arabic. Arabic letters connect. Tracking that looks crisp in English breaks the joins and makes words harder to read. Set it to zero for Arabic captions.
• There are no capitals. Neither Arabic nor Hebrew has uppercase, so an all-caps English style has no equivalent. Use weight and size for emphasis instead.
• Give Arabic more line height. Arabic has tall ascenders, deep descenders and marks above and below letters, so line spacing that works in English can clip it.
• Expect different lengths. Arabic captions often run a different width from English; Hebrew is often shorter. Let the layout flex rather than shrinking the type.

Numbers, brand names and mixed-direction text

Most RTL captions contain some left-to-right text: your app name, a feature name in English, a number. Unicode’s bidirectional algorithm handles the direction of each run, but the results can still surprise you.

Numerals

Hebrew uses Western digits. Arabic uses both Western digits (123) and Arabic-Indic digits (١٢٣), depending on the market and the user’s settings. Android’s localization guide notes that many Arabic locales format numbers with their own digits by default. Match whatever your app displays in the captured locale, so the caption and the screen agree.

Brand names and punctuation

A Latin brand name inside an Arabic or Hebrew sentence stays left-to-right, and punctuation next to it can jump to the wrong end of the line. Typical problems: a full stop that lands before the brand name, a percentage sign on the wrong side of the number, or a parenthesis that reads backwards. Fixes, in order of preference:

1. Rewrite the caption so the Latin word isn’t at the start or end of the line.
2. Drop end punctuation; screenshot captions rarely need it.
3. As a last resort, insert a right-to-left mark (U+200F) after the Latin run so the punctuation attaches correctly.

Always have a native reader check the final image, not the text file. Bidi problems often only show up once the text is rendered.

Common mistakes in RTL app store screenshots

The deeper point, which we wrote about in translating an app store listing isn’t localization, is that RTL markets notice when a listing is a reflected copy of the English one. For the general localization workflow (which markets to start with, how to manage captions per language), see how to localize app store screenshots.

Doing it with a screenshot tool

In Figma or a generic design tool, an RTL set is usually a duplicated page where you flip each frame by hand. Screenshot tools vary a lot here, so check for three things: a right-to-left text direction setting, fonts with Arabic and Hebrew glyphs, and whether layouts mirror automatically. Launch Shots supports RTL translation for Arabic and Hebrew, and the sizes stay the same as your other languages (see our screenshot size reference). Whichever tool you use, still recapture the in-app screens in the RTL locale; no generator can do that part for you.

RTL screenshot checklist

• Captions right-aligned (or centred) and written by, or reviewed by, a native speaker.
• Compositions mirrored: device and caption swapped, arrows and swipe hints flipped.
• Logos, photos, device hardware and Latin text not flipped.
• App UI captured with the app running in Arabic or Hebrew, not English.
• A font with real Arabic or Hebrew glyphs, zero letter-spacing for Arabic, generous line height.
• Numerals match what the app shows in that locale.
• Punctuation checked around brand names and numbers in the rendered image.
• Correct locale: Arabic, Hebrew or Urdu in App Store Connect; ar, iw-IL, fa or ur in Play Console.
• Previewed on a real device set to the RTL language before you publish.