Guideline 2.3.3: Screenshots that don't show the app

Guideline 2.3.3 - Performance - Accurate Metadata

We noticed that your screenshots do not sufficiently reflect your app
in use.

Specifically, your screenshots only display marketing materials that
do not reflect the app's functionality.

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, please revise your screenshots to ensure that
they reflect the app in use on the supported devices. Screenshots
should highlight your app's core concept to help users understand
the app's functionality and value.

What it actually means

The screenshots on your App Store listing have to show the app being used. Apple's rule is short: screenshots "should show the app in use, and not merely the title art, login page, or splash screen." A customer looking at your listing should see the actual screens they'll get after downloading.

What fails: pure marketing graphics, AI-generated concept images, mockups of a design that isn't in the app, a row of five near-identical splash screens, or screenshots of an older version that no longer looks like the real thing. Overlays are fine: Apple explicitly allows text and image overlays on top of real screenshots, like a caption or an animated touch point, as long as there's a genuine screen underneath.

The good news: this is a metadata rejection, not a code rejection. Nothing is wrong with your app. It's often fixable in an afternoon.

Why AI-built apps hit this

Two patterns, both common. First, founders ask an image tool to "make App Store screenshots" and get gorgeous renders of an app that doesn't exist. They look better than the real thing, which is exactly the problem: Apple compares them against the build you submitted, and they don't match.

Second, the app drifted. You took screenshots early, then kept prompting your AI tool: new colours, new layout, renamed features. By submission day the screenshots show an app that no longer exists. AI development moves fast enough that "screenshots from two weeks ago" can mean "screenshots of a different app."

There's also the lazy-Sunday version: the only screens that were easy to capture were the splash screen and the login page, so that's what got uploaded. Apple's guideline names those two specifically.

How to fix it

1. Get the app in a good state. Open the app on your iPhone (via TestFlight or your AI tool's preview) and add realistic sample data: a few entries, a filled-in profile. Empty screens make weak screenshots even when they're honest.
2. Capture real screens. On an iPhone, press the side button and volume-up button together. No iPhone at hand? Most AI app builders show your app in a phone-shaped live preview, so display the screen you want and use your computer's screenshot shortcut to capture just the phone frame. Either way, capture the app, not a redesign of it.
3. Choose 3–5 screens that show the core value. Lead with the screen a user sees most, not the login. If you want polish, add short text captions on top; overlays on real screenshots are allowed.
4. Upload in App Store Connect. Go to appstoreconnect.apple.com → My Apps → your app → the current iOS version page → scroll to App Previews and Screenshots. Delete the rejected images and drag in the new ones for each required size shown there; App Store Connect tells you which sizes it still needs. Click Save.
5. Reply and resubmit. Post a short note in Resolution Center saying the screenshots now show the app in use, and resubmit for review from the version page.

What to write in Resolution Center

Adapt this to what you actually changed; don't send it unmodified:

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback. We've replaced all screenshots on the
listing:

- The previous images were [marketing mockups / captures of an older
  version] and have been removed.
- The new screenshots are taken directly from version [X.X] running on
  an iPhone, and show [the main screens, e.g. the dashboard, the entry
  flow, and the results view] in actual use.

The listing now reflects the app's real functionality. We'd appreciate
another look.

Thank you,
[Your name]

How to avoid it next time

Make screenshots the last step before every submission, not an asset you made once. Whenever a version changes how the app looks, re-capture the same 3-5 screens and re-upload them: five minutes, and it also keeps your listing honest with customers, which is the entire point of Apple's metadata rules. Save the AI image tools for your website, where nobody is checking them against a build.

Related guides: 2.3.7: Name, subtitle & keyword abuse (the other common metadata rejection) and 2.3.1: Hidden or undocumented features (when the mismatch between marketing and app gets treated as dishonesty).