--- name: app-preview-video description: Storyboard an app Product's App Store preview video — the 15–30 s autoplay clip in search and on the product page — with shots, timing and captions, and decide whether the Product needs one. Use for "app preview", "preview video", "video script", "video storyboard", "should I add a video". For static screenshots use screenshot-optimization. metadata: version: 1.0.0 --- # App Preview Video A preview autoplays muted in search results and takes the first slot on the product page; a good one lifts conversion 5–25%, a weak one costs the first-slot screenshot. Output is one `listing` Proposal per preview, a **storyboard** (shots, timing, caption copy, poster frame) the User or a producer records from in-app footage, uploads in App Store Connect and marks done the day it goes live, plus a brief with the decision and the production notes. Judge the current previews and screenshots from their pictures with `view_image`. ## Gather 1. `read_context` — the core outcome, ICP, voice, the feature that demonstrates best. 2. `connector_asc_screenshots` when the ASC Connector exists — the Product's preview sets per localization and preview type, and its screenshot sets, whose orientation the preview shares. Look at each preview's `posterUrl` and the first screenshots with `view_image`. Without the Connector, `fetch_url` on iTunes Lookup (`https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=&country=`) gives the public `screenshotUrls` and no previews: say that whether the Product carries one is unknown. No read returns a competitor's previews. 3. `connector_asc_analytics` when the ASC Connector exists — page conversion per source, read as `pageDownloads` ÷ `pageViews`, 30 days plus trend: the baseline. Without it, say it is unknown and name it as the first number to read once the preview is live. 4. `app_store_reviews` — the outcome users praise in their own words; it becomes the hook caption. ## Decide, then storyboard A preview earns its slot when the value shows in motion: games, apps with a distinctive interaction, apps that need a demonstration to be believed. A simple utility, or an app whose value sits in content instead of UI, keeps the first slot for a screenshot — say so and stop at the decision. The beat timings, the three-variant strategy and the rejection reasons are in [`references/storyboard-beats.md`](references/storyboard-beats.md) — read it before writing the storyboard. Format, resolution, count and the pre-submission checklist are in [`references/spec-sheet.md`](references/spec-sheet.md) — read it when writing the production notes. Five beats fill 30 seconds: **hook** (the outcome in the first two seconds), **problem** (one caption states the pain), **demo** (the real screen recording, sped up when needed), **proof** (quick cuts of breadth, ratings, results as in-app screens), **resolution** (the outcome state as the last frame). Every frame is in-app footage; captions carry the message because most viewers never hear the audio; the poster frame is a still the store shows before play and in the search card, so it is the strongest frame, with no half-typed text. Up to three previews per device: give each its own hook — outcome, demo, social proof — and put the outcome first unless the category expects a demo. What neither the reads nor the pictures tell you — the screens a flow passes through, the device the footage can be captured on, whether the audio carries anything — is an assumption: state it as one in the brief and plan on it. ## Output: one Proposal per preview, and the brief Each variant is one `propose` with `appStoreField: "appPreview"`: `content` is its storyboard, `why` names what it should move and the baseline it must beat. ``` PREVIEW — [Product] — Variant [A|B|C] — [outcome | demo | social proof] Length: [15–30] s Orientation: [portrait | landscape] Locale: [primary] Poster frame: [description] 00:00–00:02 HOOK Visual: [screen, state] Caption: "[copy]" 00:02–00:08 PROBLEM Visual: … Caption: "…" 00:08–00:20 DEMO Visual: … Caption: "…" Speed: [1× | 1.25× | 1.5×] 00:20–00:26 PROOF Visual: … Caption: "…" 00:26–00:30 RESOLUTION Visual: [outcome state] Caption: "…" ``` The brief, saved with `save_output`, carries the reasoning: the decision and its reason, the **assumptions**, the **production notes** (device model and OS version, demo account state, where to speed up, captions burned in, audio kept with captions or removed), then **Apply** — App Store Connect → the version → App Previews and Screenshots per device, one slot per variant, the poster frame chosen in the upload dialog; a preview ships with a version, and a Product Page Optimization treatment tests it against the screenshot-only page without one. Done when the decision (preview or screenshot-only) is stated with its reason, every variant has its Proposal, every storyboard beat has a visual, a caption and a timing that sums to 30 s at most, the poster frame is named, the checklist in the spec sheet has been run against the storyboard, and the baseline is named or reported unavailable. ## Related Skills - `screenshot-optimization` — the slots that follow the preview, and the orientation the preview must match. - `localization` — caption translation and re-recording per storefront. - `custom-product-pages` — a preview per audience or campaign page.