Your zh-Hans screenshots look strong, but US visitors bounce when English overlays read like a translated brochure — or when promotional text repeats your description. You may have already rewritten title, subtitle, and keywords; screenshots are where many CN-first indie apps still lose US buyers in the first three seconds. This guide covers screenshot captions and the 170-character promotional text field for one- or two-person iOS teams shipping from China to the US App Store. Operational guidance only: no ranking guarantee and not investment advice.
The title names your app in Search. The subtitle adds one fact the title cannot fit. Hidden keywords hold search variants buyers never see on screenshots. Screenshot overlays label each gallery frame in a glance. Promotional text (up to 170 characters — verify in Connect) highlights timely news without a full version resubmit. None of these fields substitute for one another.
US buyers scroll screenshots before expanding the description. Each overlay should state one concrete outcome — six words or fewer on phone widths. Good lines read like UI callouts: “Track habits daily,” “Export PDF offline.” Bad lines reprint the app name, stack adjectives (“Smart · Efficient · Professional”), or paste sentences from your Chinese deck. CN-first apps often show Chinese UI with English overlays claiming “full English support” — that mismatch drives refunds faster than weak keywords.
Frame one should mirror your title’s promise. Middle frames walk the core workflow. The last can mention pricing or privacy — not unverifiable download counts. Re-export assets with English UI where possible; overlay text cannot fix untranslated buttons in the capture.
Promotional text sits above the description and can often be updated without a new binary — read Apple’s current docs. Use it for what changed this month: a release, a holiday theme, a limited free tier, a bug-fix users asked for. It is not where you list every feature, repeat the subtitle, or stuff search terms. At 170 characters you get one or two crisp clauses. Example shape: “Version 2.0 adds widget support and offline mode. Existing subscribers keep their plan.” That informs a returning visitor; it does not replace a rewritten en-US description. zh-Hans and en-US copy can differ idiomatically when the news is the same — avoid mirroring comma-heavy brochure lines from domestic market pages.
Title and subtitle must stand alone in Search without screenshots. Keywords are invisible — never on image captions. Overlays annotate specific UI moments; repeating a verb from the title is fine because the reader sees it on a picture. Promotional text is time-sensitive page copy, not tied to one screenshot. A common mistake: English title says “focus timer,” subtitle says “for students,” every overlay repeats the same phrase, and promotional text opens with it again — four fields, one redundant sentence.
Machine translation works for drafts, not finished overlay art. Cut these patterns when localizing CN-first listings: literal slogans (“Make your life more wonderful”) instead of naming the on-screen action; full description sentences shrunk to fit a caption; formal false cognates (“professional,” “powerful”) alone on an image; comma-separated keyword blocks; Chinese menu labels in the capture with English overlays claiming complete localization; unverifiable “#1” or download-count claims from domestic pages; internal settings-menu names US users never search. Better overlay English reduces product-page bounce — it does not replace in-app UI translation.
Draft en-US title and subtitle first so frame one has an anchor. Walk your screenshot set screen by screen; write one overlay line per frame in a spreadsheet with character counts. Draft promotional text last, when you know this month’s news. Compare against zh-Hans assets — same workflow order, not the same English words. Plan caption rewrites alongside title and description, not after screenshots are already uploaded. Public before/after samples: Monday Mood, Focus To-Do, Tide, TickTick.
Related: full listing rewrite guide · title, subtitle, and keywords · ship from Asia checklist
Fortune Insight’s AppLocale service rewrites one live App Store listing into English and Simplified Chinese fields you can paste into Connect — title, subtitle, description, keyword suggestions with rationale, screenshot overlay lines, and promotional text drafts. Delivered after Stripe checkout; send your App Store URL and current copy from the email on your receipt. No icon design, no fabricated reviews, no ranking promise.