App Store In-App Events: 2026 Guide to Event Media, Metadata and Review

An In-App Event is a dated moment inside your app, such as a challenge, a premiere or a major update, shown on the App Store as its own card with its own image or video.

Apple spreads the rules across a marketing page, five App Store Connect help pages, a creative assets reference and one paragraph of the App Review Guidelines. This guide reads all of them as they stood on 22 October 2026 and puts them in the order you need them. Everything below is from Apple's pages unless it says otherwise.

Two labels mark the weight of each rule. Required means Apple states it as a limit or a specification. Recommended means it is Apple's advice.

We are a small studio that makes short product films. The last section says how we work; everything before it stands on its own.

The short answer

What an In-App Event is

"In-App Events, such as game competitions, movie premieres, and live-streamed experiences, are timely events within apps and games."

Apple, App Store Connect Help, Overview of In-App Events

Apple's help page describes what people see: "On iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 and later, In-App Events appear across the App Store as event cards that include images or video, the event name, and a short description." Tapping the card opens an event details page with a longer description, and people can opt in to a notification when the event starts. Someone without your app can download it from either page.

Events appear in three places: on your product page, in search results, and in Apple's editorial and personalised selections on the Today, Games and Apps tabs. One detail about search shapes what your media is for: "When users search for an app, the event card appears along with your app for users who have downloaded your app, while screenshots show for those who haven't downloaded your app." In a plain app search, the event card reaches people who already have the app; new people meet it on your product page, in Apple's selections, or when they search for the event itself.

What counts as an event

Required The App Review Guidelines (2.3.13) set the frame: "To feature your event on the App Store, it must fall within an event type provided in App Store Connect. All event metadata must be accurate and pertain to the event itself, rather than the app more generally."

Recommended Apple's examples of good candidates: "challenges, competitions, or special content launches." And of poor ones:

• "Repetitive activities such as daily tasks or rewards."
• "Price promotions that don't introduce any new content, features, or goods."
• "General promotions that raise awareness about your app or game." An event may point to something permanent, but "the event itself should focus on a related limited-time moment or experience."

For a software product, the likely fit is the Major Update badge, which Apple defines as "Introducing significant new features, content, or experiences" and which, in Apple's words, goes "beyond minor enhancements like UI adjustments or bug fixes."

Event card and details media

Required One rule decides the shapes: "Event Card media should appear in landscape orientation and Event Detail media should appear in portrait orientation." The figures below are from Apple's event media page and its creative assets page, as read on 22 October 2026.

The length is easy to miss. Apple's event media page gives sizes, frame rates and file size but no duration; the 15 to 30 seconds is on the creative assets specifications page, in its table for In-App Event video.

The same page explains how the video plays: "Videos are muted by default in search results and can't currently be unmuted. On your product page, videos are also muted by default, but people can unmute them. Videos loop continuously in both placements." Plan the film to work without sound.

Required Audio, if you include it, is stereo. The event card video takes 256 kbps AAC at 44.1 or 48 kHz; the details page video takes PCM (16, 24 or 32 bit) or 256 kbps AAC at the same rates. Apple adds, for both: "Tracks without audio are supported".

What the media should show

Recommended Apple's advice for event media, from its In-App Events page:

• No words or logos. "When possible, avoid using text or logos in your media, especially if they include your event name or app name." The card already prints the name and the badge.
• Video over a still. "Consider using video in order to provide users with a more dynamic preview of your event."
• No borders or gradients. "Don't add borders or gradients to your media. Crops and gradients are automatically applied to your media in order to ensure consistency across the App Store."
• A loop. "Videos autoplay and repeat", so Apple asks for a video whose end runs back into its start without a visible jump.
• One look across both. "Aim to create visual continuity across your event card and event details page by using similar colors or illustration styles."
• Check the crop. "In App Store Connect, you can preview what your provided media will look like in an event card and event details page to confirm that crucial aspects of your image or video will not be obscured."
• Rights. "Make sure your metadata includes content that you created or have a license to use."

This is the one App Store slot where the media is about a moment rather than about the app in use. Previews must be captures of the app itself (see our App Store preview guide); event media is asked only to represent the event, accurately, without text or logos.

Name, descriptions and badge

Required The limits, from Apple's App Store Connect help:

• Reference name, seen only in App Store Connect: "Each name must be unique and can be up to 64 characters long."
• Event name: up to 30 characters. Apple's advice: "Choose a distinctive, unique name that's up to 30 characters long and written in title case." It should be the event's real name, not a call to action or a tagline.
• Short description, on the card: "Briefly summarize your In-App Event in up to 50 characters written in sentence case."
• Long description, on the details page: up to 120 characters, also "written in sentence case".

Required Prices are out: "Don't include specific prices in your metadata, as pricing and currencies can vary across regions and can be changed independent of your event. Including specific pricing will lead to rejection by App Review." Apple also asks you to avoid "claims that can't be verified", all capitals and repeated punctuation.

The badge sits above the title. Apple's seven, in short:

Dates, limits and deep links

Required Apple's limits, from the marketing page and the help pages:

• Length. "An In-App Event can last up to 31 days and be promoted up to 14 days before its start date." And at the other end: "Events must be at least 15 minutes long."
• How many. "You can publish up to 10 In-App Events on the App Store and Apple Games at a time. Additionally, you can have up to 15 approved In-App Events per app in App Store Connect at a time."
• Different start times by country. Allowed, but "all of your event start dates must be within 48 hours of each other."
• Changing dates later. "Once your event is published on the App Store, you can modify only the start and end dates." And "After your event begins, you can adjust the end date only."

The deep link takes people who tap Open to the event inside your app. Apple: "This can be a universal link (recommended for security) or custom URL. Avoid using URL shorteners and other services that add unnecessary redirects." For an event that has not started yet, Apple suggests "a landing page that builds anticipation and reminds them when to return."

You also choose a purpose (new, active or lapsed users, or all) and a priority. Events show on your product page soonest first, and high priority events come before normal ones.

Review

Required Every event is reviewed before it appears. Apple: "If you want to submit an In-App Event and your app hasn't been approved yet, include the In-App Event in the same submission as your first iOS app version. If your app is already approved, you can choose to submit an In-App Event with or without an iOS app version."

Guideline 2.3.13 adds that "Events must happen at the times and dates you select in App Store Connect, including across multiple storefronts", and that "your event deep link must direct users to the proper destination within your app."

Measuring an event

App Analytics reports events on their own. Apple lists what you can see: downloads filtered by event, acquisition sources, engagement such as "event impressions, event details page views, and app opens", and how many people asked to be notified. If you try an event with a still and one with a video, compare them over comparable periods.

Where other guides differ

We read the two event guides that rank for this topic on 22 October 2026. One gives the media sizes; the other does not. Neither gives the 15 to 30 second video length, which is on Apple's creative assets page rather than its event media page. Neither says that event videos play muted, neither gives the audio specification, and neither mentions the 48 hour window for different start times. One mentions that people who have not downloaded the app see screenshots, not the event card, in an app search.

The checklist

Planning

• A real, dated moment that fits one of Apple's seven badges, not a general promotion.
• Dates within 31 days, at least 15 minutes, shown up to 14 days ahead.
• A deep link to the event, as a universal link, tested.

Media

• A 16:9 card and a 9:16 details version, at least 1920 x 1080 and 1080 x 1920.
• Video 15 to 30 seconds, 30 or 60 fps, under 500 MB, built to loop and to work muted.
• No text, logos, borders or gradients; the same look across both.
• Checked in App Store Connect's preview for anything the crop hides.

Words and review

• Name up to 30 characters in title case; descriptions up to 50 and 120 in sentence case; no prices.
• Submitted with the first app version if the app is new; on its own otherwise.

Sources

Every page below was read in full on 22 October 2026. Apple's pages show no date of their own.

• Apple In-App Events
• Apple App Store Connect Help, In-App Event media and audio specifications
• Apple App Store Connect Help, Creative assets specifications
• Apple App Store Connect Help, Overview of In-App Events, Offer In-App Events, Manage events, In-App Event badges and Submit an In-App Event
• Apple App Review Guidelines, 2.3.13