When should I submit holiday App Store screenshots?

Aim to have holiday screenshots approved by mid-November for Black Friday and by early December for Christmas and New Year. Apple says it typically reviews 90% of submissions within 48 hours, but in past years it has warned that reviews can take longer around December 23 to 27. Submitting early also leaves time to fix a rejection without missing the season.

Can I change App Store screenshots for the holidays without releasing an app update?

Not on the default product page in the usual flow, where screenshots are submitted with an app version. You can, however, publish a seasonal custom product page, run a Product Page Optimization test with holiday screenshots, update the 170-character promotional text, or create an in-app event. None of these require a new app version, though custom pages, tests and events are still reviewed by App Review.

Do Christmas-themed screenshots increase downloads?

There is no general answer, and no reliable public study shows they do across categories. They tend to make sense when the app’s use actually changes in the season, such as shopping, gifting, travel, fitness resolutions or games with holiday content. For a utility whose use doesn’t change, a festive coat of paint can distract from the core message. Testing with Product Page Optimization or a Play store listing experiment is the honest way to find out.

How do I update Google Play screenshots for a holiday promotion?

On Google Play, screenshots are part of the store listing, which you can edit at any time in Play Console without uploading a new app bundle. Changes are reviewed before they go live. Most reviews are quick, but Google’s documentation says some can take up to seven days, so submit a week or more before the date. For time-limited offers and events, Play’s promotional content may be a better fit than a screenshot swap.

Seasonal App Store Screenshots: Should You Update Them for the Holidays?

Holiday App Store screenshots are worth it when the season changes why people download your app: shopping, gifting, travel, New Year fitness and budgeting, games with holiday content. For most other apps, a full seasonal redesign costs more than it returns, and lighter tools (promotional text, an in-app event, a seasonal custom product page) do the job without touching your proven screenshot set.

If you do update, plan around review timing: on the App Store, default-page screenshots usually ship with an app version, and Apple’s review has historically slowed in the last week of December. Get anything seasonal approved by mid-November for Black Friday and early December for the holidays, and decide in advance when you’ll switch back.

Key takeaways

Seasonal screenshots pay off mainly in categories where user intent changes with the season: shopping, gifting, travel, fitness, finance, and games with holiday content.
App Store promotional text (170 characters) can be changed at any time without submitting a new app version, which makes it the cheapest seasonal lever.
In-app events can run for up to 31 days and be promoted up to 14 days before they start, and they appear on your product page and in search.
A seasonal custom product page or a Product Page Optimization test lets you use holiday screenshots without replacing your default set.
In past years Apple has warned that reviews may take longer around December 23–27, so seasonal submissions should go in well before that.

Should you update your App Store screenshots for the holidays?

Ask one question: does someone searching for an app like mine in December want something different from someone searching in September? If yes, seasonal screenshots can make your listing look like the answer to what they want right now. If no, they mostly add risk: you are swapping a set you know converts for one you don’t.

Category	Seasonal update usually worth it?	What to change
Shopping, deals, gifting	Yes	First screenshot around gift lists, deals, delivery deadlines
Games with holiday content	Yes	Show the actual seasonal map, skins or event
Travel and maps	Often	Holiday trips, offline maps, booking reminders
Fitness and health	January more than December	New Year goals, beginner plans
Budgeting and finance	Often	Holiday spending, gift budgets, January reset
Photo and video	Sometimes	Holiday cards, collages, year-in-review features
Productivity and utilities	Rarely	Leave screenshots alone; use promotional text
B2B and work tools	Rarely	Leave screenshots alone

The rule of thumb: only change what is true about the product in the season. A snowflake border on a PDF scanner says nothing new. A budgeting app showing a “Holiday gifts: $340 of $400” category says something real.

Cheaper alternatives to a full screenshot swap

1. Promotional text (App Store)

Promotional text is the 170-character field shown above your description. Apple’s App Store Connect reference says it lets you tell visitors about current features “without requiring an updated submission.” That makes it the natural place for a seasonal line: “Plan every gift and stay on budget this season. New: shared gift lists for families.” Our subtitle vs promotional text guide covers what the field is good for. It isn’t indexed for search, so it won’t help you rank for “christmas.”

2. In-app events (App Store)

If your app has something genuinely time-limited (a holiday challenge, a seasonal content drop, a live event), an in-app event is often better than new screenshots. Apple’s in-app events documentation lists the limits: an event can last up to 31 days, can be promoted up to 14 days before it starts, and you can have up to 10 published at once. Event cards appear on your product page, in search results for people who already have your app, and can be picked for the Today, Games and Apps tabs. Events are reviewed independently of an app version.

Apple specifically lists price promotions with no new content as a poor event candidate, so a “50% off Black Friday” event on its own is unlikely to be approved. Pair the offer with something new.

3. A seasonal custom product page

A custom product page lets you build a holiday version of your listing with its own screenshots and promotional text, then send ad, email or social traffic to it while your default page stays untouched. Since October 2025 you can also assign keywords (from your approved metadata) to it so it appears in search for those terms. It goes through review on its own, without an app update. See our custom product pages guide for the setup.

4. Header and search result assets (App Store, new in 2026)

Apple added creative assets in October 2026: images and video for the product page header and search results, managed in App Store Connect’s new Asset Library. Apple names seasonal offerings as one of their uses. Approved assets can be swapped onto a live version without a new app submission, which makes them a good fit for a short holiday window if your app is eligible.

5. Promotional content (Google Play)

On Google Play, promotional content (offers, time-limited events and major updates) appears on the Apps or Games tab, in search results and on your store listing. Google’s Play Console help says you can submit it up to 60 days before the start date, approval can take up to four days, and featuring requests must be in at least 14 days ahead. It is available for all games and for apps that meet Google’s eligibility criteria for premium growth tools.

App Store review timing over the holidays

Apple’s App Review page says it typically reviews at least 50% of submissions in under 24 hours and 90% in under 48 hours. The holiday period is the exception people worry about. In some past years App Store Connect stopped accepting new submissions around December 23–27; in more recent years submissions stayed open but Apple warned that reviews could take longer over the same dates. As we write this in October 2026, Apple hasn’t published a notice for this year, so plan as if the last week of December will be slow.

A conservative calendar:

By November 14: Black Friday / Cyber Monday screenshots or custom page approved.
By December 5: Christmas and end-of-year assets approved.
By December 15: your revert (or January) version submitted and approved, scheduled for release.
December 20 onward: only submit what you can live without until January.

If the screenshots ride along with an app update, use manual release (or a scheduled release date) in App Store Connect so approval and go-live are decoupled. If a submission is rejected, the most common screenshot reasons are covered in why Apple rejects App Store screenshots; holiday imagery that shows content your app doesn’t actually have is an easy one to trip on.

Google Play is more flexible, but not instant

On Google Play, screenshots belong to the store listing, not the app bundle, so you can edit them any time in Play Console without shipping a new build. Changes are still reviewed. Many listing updates go through quickly, but Google’s publishing help says some reviews can take up to seven days or longer in exceptional cases. Managed publishing lets you get changes approved first and publish them on the day you choose. Check sizes and policy against our Google Play screenshot requirements before you submit, and remember the feature graphic is often the easiest asset to make seasonal.

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How to design holiday screenshots that still convert

Keep the structure. Same order, same layouts, same device frames. Change the first one or two headlines and add seasonal colour, not a new design system.
Show seasonal content that exists. A holiday template, a winter event map, a gift budget category. Mock data in your screenshots should match the season too.
Don’t bury the core message. Someone seeing your app for the first time still needs to know what it does. “Plan every gift on budget” works; “Happy Holidays!” doesn’t tell them anything.
Localize the season. Holidays and dates differ by market; a Christmas set is wrong for many storefronts. Our localization guide covers how to handle this per locale.
Watch contrast. Red-on-green and gold-on-white are hard to read at thumbnail size.

If you build screenshots in a template tool (Launch Shots, Figma with components, or anything else), duplicate your current set and change only the seasonal layer. That way reverting is just re-uploading the original, and you can compare the two cleanly.

Should you test holiday screenshots first?

If you have the traffic, yes. On the App Store, Product Page Optimization can show holiday screenshots to a share of traffic as one of up to three treatments, without a new app version. On Google Play, store listing experiments can test up to two variants against your current listing. The catch is time: a holiday window is short, and a test needs enough impressions to reach a confident result. Low-traffic apps often won’t get a clear answer in two weeks. Our A/B testing guide explains how to judge whether you have enough volume.

Reverting after the season

Plan the switch back before you switch over. Out-of-date holiday screenshots in mid-January look neglected, and “Christmas” headlines can confuse anyone who isn’t celebrating it.

Keep the original screenshot files and copy exactly as they were.
On the App Store, include the revert in your first January update, or disable the seasonal custom page and end the in-app event.
On Google Play, schedule the listing change with managed publishing so it goes live the day after the promotion ends.
Compare conversion for the seasonal period against the same weeks without changes, with the caveat that holiday traffic is different traffic.

The short version

Change screenshots for the season only if what people want from your app changes in the season.
Reach for promotional text, an in-app event, a seasonal custom product page or Play promotional content before a full redesign.
Get App Store submissions approved by mid-November and early December; treat December 23–27 as slow.
Keep the design system, change the headlines, show seasonal content that really exists.
Schedule the revert at the same time you schedule the change.