Automate App Store and Play Screenshots With fastlane

I read fastlane's docs on iOS screenshots, Android screenshots, frameit, deliver and supply on October 26, 2026. I checked the current release on GitHub too. It was version 2.241.1, published October 15, 2026.

Here's how each tool works, what it needs, and where it falls short.

fastlane is a free, open source tool under the MIT license. For screenshots, five of its tools work together.

You can run each one alone from the command line. Or you can chain them in a lane, which is fastlane's word for a saved list of steps.

fastlane's iOS screenshot guide lists the problems with taking screenshots by hand.

1. 1Screenshots drift out of date as your app's design changes.
2. 2A localized app needs a different set for every language.
3. 3Loading indicators can slip into a capture.
4. 4Each device size might show different content.

The biggest cost comes later. The guide says that a spelling mistake or a redesign means you'll have to create every screenshot again, for every language and device.

With automation, you fix the test or the text once. Then you run the same command again.

snapshot uses Apple's UI Tests to drive your app. A UI test taps through your screens like a person would.

Between taps, you call snapshot with a name, such as 01LoginScreen. That marks the moment to capture.

You don't have to write every test by hand. Xcode's UI Test recorder writes test code for you while you use the app in the simulator.

One warning matters here. The guide says running the test inside Xcode doesn't create the screenshots, though no test will fail.

You must run fastlane snapshot from the command line. That command creates the folders, renames the files and builds an overview page.

The guide's setup has these steps.

1. 1Create a new UI Test target in your Xcode project.
2. 2Run fastlane snapshot init in your project folder.
3. 3Add the SnapshotHelper.swift file to your UI Test target.
4. 4Add a new Xcode scheme for that target, and mark it as Shared.
5. 5Record your taps, and call snapshot between them.
6. 6Call setupSnapshot on your app in the test's setUp method, before it launches.
7. 7Run fastlane snapshot in the terminal.

Objective C projects need one more step, a bridging header in the test class.

When it's done, snapshot opens an HTML page that shows every screenshot on every device. The guide suggests sending it to QA, marketing or translators to check.

Setup also creates a Snapfile. It's a small config file that fastlane loads every time you run snapshot.

It holds the list of simulators to use, and the list of languages. The sample file lists en-US and de-DE.

It can also name the scheme, the output folder, and whether to clear old screenshots first.

Since Xcode 9, snapshot runs several simulators at the same time by default. That cuts the total time. You can turn it off to run one device at a time.

If you list many languages, plan the text first. Our guide to localizing store listings covers which screens need to change by language.

A few snapshot options control what the screenshots show.

Launch arguments help with test data. You can pass values, such as a first and last name, that your app reads when it starts.

snapshot also sets a flag called FASTLANE_SNAPSHOT. Your app can check it to show demo data only during a screenshot run.

Our guide to capturing clean app screenshots covers what that demo data should look like.

screengrab is the Android side. The Android screenshot guide says it uses Android's instrumented tests with Espresso to drive your app.

You add screengrab as a test dependency in Gradle. Then you add a few permissions to your debug manifest.

In your test class, a LocaleTestRule switches languages for you. You call Screengrab.screenshot with a name wherever you want a capture.

The guide prefers JUnit 4 over JUnit 3. With JUnit 4, the device changes language far fewer times.

screengrab can capture screenshots in two ways. Since version 0.5.0, you can switch to a strategy built on UI Automator.

The guide lists what it fixes.

1. 1Shadows and elevation in Material UI show correctly.
2. 2Dialogs and other multi window screens show correctly.
3. 3It works on Android N.

There's a catch. UI Automator needs a device on API level 18 or higher, so it isn't the default. You turn it on with one call before your tests run.

For a tidy status bar on Android, the guide points to a different tool, QuickDemo.

screengrab needs two APK files, a debug build and a test build. You can build them with Gradle, or with a fastlane lane that does it for you.

Then you run fastlane screengrab in your app's folder.

If a required setting is missing, screengrab asks you for it. To skip the questions next time, store the settings in a Screengrabfile. It's written in Ruby, and it holds things like the list of locales.

The screenshots land in the fastlane/metadata/android folder. That's the same place supply reads from when it uploads.

So the capture step and the upload step already share one folder.

frameit puts a device frame around your screenshots. Its docs page says it supports iPhone, iPad, Mac and a set of Android devices, in portrait and landscape.

Run fastlane frameit in a screenshot folder to frame every image. Add android for Android frames, or silver for silver frames.

The frames download the first time you run it. They first came from Facebook's device frame set, and fastlane keeps them in a separate GitHub repo. I checked that repo, and its latest change was on October 21, 2026.

frameit needs ImageMagick installed to edit images.

One limit is easy to miss. A frame alone keeps the full resolution, so the image can't go straight to the App Store. The docs say those are for websites, print and email.

To make store ready images, you add a Framefile.json. It sets a background, a title and an optional keyword for your screenshots.

Each screenshot gets its own text through a filter, which matches part of the file name.

If you don't set a font size, frameit scales the text to fit. For translated titles, the docs say to use .strings files.

deliver uploads screenshots, app previews and metadata to App Store Connect. By default, it reads screenshots from the fastlane/screenshots folder, with one subfolder per language.

It works out the device type from each image's resolution. So the pixel size of every file matters.

Before it uploads, deliver shows a summary of your metadata. That's because the upload replaces what's already in App Store Connect.

An option called overwrite_screenshots clears all earlier screenshots before it uploads the new ones.

The docs suggest you store your metadata in git, but not the screenshots. If snapshot builds them, you can make them again at any time.

supply uploads metadata, images and builds to Google Play. It reads from one folder per locale, with an images folder inside.

Screenshots go in subfolders with set names.

Files can be PNG or JPEG, and you can name them anything. Google Play shows them in alphanumeric file name order, so a number at the start sets the order.

The same images folder takes your featureGraphic, icon, promoGraphic and tvBanner. For the sizes Google Play accepts, see our guide to Play Store screenshot sizes.

Both guides show a lane called screenshots. It lets anyone on your team run the full job with one command.

The iOS guide's example frames the screenshots with white frames between capture and upload.

You add the lane to your project's Fastfile. After that, a redesign or a new language means one run, not a week of manual work.

Keep the lane under version control with your app. Then the setup survives when a team member leaves.

fastlane suits apps that already have UI tests, or teams that ship many languages. The setup takes real work, from test targets to Framefiles.

For a small app with one or two languages, that setup may cost more time than it saves.

In that case, capture your screens by hand and build the set in our free mockup generator. It places screenshots in iPhone, Pixel, Samsung, iPad or MacBook frames. It adds a gradient background and text, then exports at Play Store and App Store sizes.

You can also mix the two. Let fastlane capture the raw screenshots, and design the framed set by hand.