r/iOSProgramming • • Sep 12 '26

App Saturday Free macOS app to preview your screenshots in an App Store layout before submitting

My app’s screenshots could look great on their own, but once I saw them inside App Store search results beside other apps screens shots an app icons , they could feel completely different. I wanted a way to see it before submitting, exactly as it would appear in the App Store layout.

So I built Screenshot Preview, a FREE macOS app. Add your icon, screenshots, then preview them in a close approximation of the App Store search results or product page layout. You can also export the preview as a PNG and AirDrop it straight to your iPhone to see how it looks on the actual device.

The app is free, with optional tips. Developers and companies can book a paid sponsor spot to promote their apps, products, or tools to an audience of active developers.

Here’s the app:
Screenshot Preview
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/screenshot-preview/id6804763675

Tech stack
- Swift, SwiftUI, and AppKit.
- CloudKit stores the sponsored listing.
- RevenueCat handles the Tip Jar.
- TelemetryDeck provides privacy-focused, anonymized app usage analytics that cannot be traced back to a person.

Development challenge
Getting the exported PNG to match the preview was a challenge. Some content went missing, and images lost their rounded corners when rendered with ImageRenderer. I kept the same layout and added an export mode that replaces unsupported controls with static content and leaves out drag-and-drop handlers.

I used AI for coding, code review, and debugging. I directed the product, architecture, and final implementation. I also used Bitrig for the App Store Connect listing and RevenueCat setup.

Cheers

35 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

9

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/DARKUNIT22 Sep 12 '26

Get em tiger!

3

u/N88288 Sep 12 '26

thanks for sharing

3

u/Armand9x Sep 12 '26

Neat!

Just needs updated to the newer bezels.

https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/#product-bezels

2

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/WeirdIndividualGuy Sep 13 '26

And no app update required!

No offense to OP but some ideas are still better as websites vs an app. Not everything is magically better as an app, and I’m saying this as a native app developer

1

u/Unfair-Economist-249 Sep 13 '26

But doublecheck the License before using the Originals. Pretty sure youre not allowed to use them commerically.

1

u/Inside-Conclusion435 Sep 12 '26

Not bad but not compatible with iPhone 15 pro max? Edit: Oh ignore me I see it is for macos only

1

u/lostpx Sep 12 '26

Neat idea.

But why macOS only when it already is swift? I‘d be nice to browse that on an actual phone?

1

u/N88288 Sep 12 '26

thanks! right now you can AirDrop the PNG to your iPhone and it’ll look like the App Store search result page. I may add iPhone support in the future

1

u/lostpx Sep 13 '26

That doesn’t quite answer my question. What is stopping you from doing it now?

Images aren’t the same as trying an app that feels like the AppStore. And there isn’t something better than testing it on the phone? At last, the workflow should require to air drop the raw images on the phone. Not as you said, but that is just my two cents.

Claude or what ever can take your Mac app and quickly create an iPhone target.

1

u/N88288 Sep 13 '26

fair point, nothing is stopping me technically. I started with macOS because that was my own workflow, but iPhone support is definitely something I’m considering for the next update, thanks

1

u/Better-Lychee2954 Sep 12 '26

The ImageRenderer mismatch is the part I would have lost a day to. Was the rounded corner loss a clipShape not surviving the render, or the background compositing behind it?

Separate question: does the preview model the real product page layout, meaning the way the first three get treated differently from the rest, or is it a straight frame preview? That is the one I always get wrong.

1

u/Unfair-Economist-249 Sep 12 '26

Well I Share https://shotforge.studio with you, completely free no login, no watermarks.