Apple Device Frames in Mockups: What the Marketing Licence Allows (2026)

Apple Device Frames in Mockups: What the Marketing Licence Allows (2026)

Yes, if you are in the Apple Developer Program and the app is on the App Store. Apple's App Store Marketing Artwork License Agreement licenses the bezels to the developer who clicked through it, "only in connection with Your applications that are available for download on the App Store" and "only while You are a member of the Apple Developer Program."

The agreement is short, about 1,200 words, and it sits behind a download button on Apple's marketing guidelines page, so most designers who use Apple's bezels have never seen it. Its edition code is EA0861 and its date is 08/15/17. Nothing in it mentions designers, design or advertising agencies, clients, portfolios or concept work, which is exactly where most device mockups are made. The agreement says nothing about those cases, and it is the guidelines page, the trademark guidelines and the App Review Guidelines that fill in the rest. Apple's wording settles some deliverables and leaves others open, and the sorting below keeps those two groups apart. It is a reading of Apple's published text, not legal advice.

Four documents, four audiences

A phone frame in a layout touches four separate Apple documents. They have different readers, and mixing them up is the usual source of confident but wrong answers.

The agreement points to two of the others. Clause 2 reads: "You agree that Your use of the Artwork will be in strict compliance with the App Store Marketing and Advertising Guidelines for Developers found at https://developer.apple.com/app-store/marketing/guidelines/, which may be amended from time to time and also with Apple's Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights, found at https://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html, which may be amended from time to time." So for a licensed developer the marketing rules are not advice. They are a term of the contract, and the contract follows later versions of them.

Apple's Design Resources page, where the bezel files are downloaded, adds one sentence of its own: "When using product bezels in your marketing materials, be sure to review these Marketing Resources and Identity Guidelines." It links to the products section of the guidelines page. The list on that page, as checked on November 3, 2026, has 18 bezel entries, from Apple TV and Apple Watch through iPad, iPhone, MacBook, iMac and Studio Display, each offered as Photoshop and PNG files. It also has one Keynote item for live video. The page shows no licence text of its own beside the downloads, which is why the agreement on the guidelines page is the document that governs them.

The grant, phrase by phrase

Clause 1 is one sentence. It is quoted here whole because every limit sits inside it:

"Subject to the terms of this Marketing Agreement, Apple grants You a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use the App Store badge, the App Store icon, and certain product images provided to You by Apple under this Marketing Agreement for Apple-branded products running iOS, watchOS, tvOS, or macOS (or any successor thereto) (collectively, the "Artwork") only in connection with Your applications that are available for download on the App Store ("Applications") and only while You are a member of the Apple Developer Program."

Taking it apart gives eight phrases that do work, and each one answers a question designers ask.

• "Limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable." Apple can license the same bezels to everyone, and the licensee cannot hand the licence to someone else. The text of the agreement has no sublicensing wording at all: it never uses the word, and it never mentions redistribution. A grant described as non-transferable that also lacks any right to pass it on reads, on its face, as a right that stays with the account holder.
• "Royalty-free, worldwide." There is no fee and no territory limit. Both words describe what the licensee gets, and the rest of the sentence limits it.
• "Certain product images provided to You by Apple." The licence is for the files Apple supplies. On its wording it is not a licence to the appearance of Apple's products in general, and it does not describe a frame someone else redrew or traced.
• "For Apple-branded products running iOS, watchOS, tvOS, or macOS (or any successor thereto)." The list is exactly those four operating systems and any successor. It does not spell out iPadOS or visionOS. Apple's own guidelines page does show iPad and Apple Vision Pro in its product naming rules, so no conclusion about iPad or Vision Pro frames follows from the omission alone. The license is best read as written rather than as remembered.
• "Only in connection with Your applications." The artwork must be tied to the licensee's own software. A frame in a tutorial about somebody else's app, or in a generic template, has no application of "Yours" to connect to.
• "That are available for download on the App Store." An app that is in development, in TestFlight only or merely planned is not "available for download." The condition is stated in the present tense.
• "Only while You are a member of the Apple Developer Program." The right ends when membership ends. Clause 9 repeats the point: "This Marketing Agreement is valid and coterminous with the Program Agreement, unless otherwise terminated per the provisions below."
• "Subject to the terms of this Marketing Agreement." Everything else in the document, including the termination clause, qualifies the grant.

Clause 1 is also where the two conditions in the usual shorthand come from: the app must be on the App Store, and the developer must be in the Developer Program. Both are conditions of the grant, not tips.

The other twelve clauses

The clauses after the grant matter in practice for anyone whose business depends on the bezels, because they cover audits, ownership and what happens when the relationship ends. Quotations below are complete clauses unless stated.

Two of these clauses change how a studio should work. Clause 10's automatic termination means the question is never only whether one mockup is compliant. A breach ends the whole agreement. The 30-day wind-down is worded as following Apple's "notice of termination" and covers only inventory "in compliance with the terms", so printed stock that already broke the rules is not covered by it. Clause 5 means Apple can ask for specimens of how the artwork was used, which makes a dated archive of exported banners, slides and PDFs a sensible habit for any team that shows bezels in public.

The agreement is dated 08/15/17, nine years before this check, but clause 2 ties it to guidelines that Apple may amend, so the edition date says nothing about the product image rules in force. The guidelines page itself shows no last-updated date. The guidelines ask you to "Always use the latest-generation devices for which your app is currently developed", and the Design Resources list on the day you download is the practical record of which devices that means.

Product image rules, with the exceptions Apple wrote in

The product images section of the guidelines is where designers meet the practical limits. Each rule below is quoted from the page as checked on November 3, 2026, with its exceptions.

As is, and what counts as a modification

"Use Apple product images 'as is' and without modification. Modifications include adding reflections, shadows, highlights, or graphic elements that appear to enter or come out of the product screen; cropping, tilting, or obstructing any part of the images; animating, flipping, or spinning the images; or creating buttons or icons with a product image. You can place promotional copy or violators beside the product images, not on top of them."

The list is long, and the part designers underrate is "obstructing any part of the images". On the plain meaning of the word, a badge, a callout bubble, a floating card or a block of text laid across any part of a frame is obstructing it. Promotional copy and "violators" go beside the device, never over it. "Graphic elements that appear to enter or come out of the product screen" covers the popular effect where a card, notification or illustration breaks out of the phone.

The section before it adds two more rules. "Feature Apple product images on their own in your communications, and don't include images of competing products. References to multiple platforms and competing products can be made only in copy or with badges." And later, under the heading for approved devices: "Use only the devices and colors provided. If multiple Apple products are shown, display them in the correct relative sizes. Always display the product 'as is'" and then, after a dash, "don't add cases or covers. Don't show an Apple product along with a competing product from another manufacturer. For Apple TV communications, avoid showing the television manufacturer's name." That sentence sits in the Photography + Video part of Apple's page, under the heading "Approved Devices", and the text does not say it is limited to photographs.

Size: 25 mm in print, 200 px onscreen

"Use Apple product images at a size that is clearly legible at the image resolution provided. Ensure that the minimum device size is no smaller than 25 mm in height for printed materials and 200 px onscreen. Maintain the correct relative product scale whenever multiple products are shown."

Apple gives the pixel figure as "200 px onscreen" and does not define the pixel. It does not say CSS pixels, points or device pixels, so a designer cannot turn the figure into a rule for a specific retina display on the strength of the text alone. What can be checked is the plain arithmetic of what 200 of any pixel measures against a layout, and what 25 mm is in pixels at common print resolutions:

The two limits are not interchangeable. A frame exported at 200 px tall and reused in print at 300 ppi measures 16.9 mm, which is below 25 mm. At 150 ppi the same frame measures 33.9 mm. So a banner that satisfies the screen minimum can fail the print minimum on the same artwork, and the bezel must be placed at the larger of the two when one file feeds both uses. Our DPI vs PPI guide covers how pixel counts relate to print size.

The minimum also takes a surprising share of small canvases. A 200 px device is 18.5 percent of a 1080-pixel-tall video frame, 27.8 percent of a 720-pixel-tall slide, 26.0 percent of a 768-pixel-tall 4:3 slide and 30.0 percent of a 667-pixel-tall phone viewport. On paper, 25 mm is 8.4 percent of an A4 sheet's height, 16.4 percent of a 4 by 6 inch postcard and 49.2 percent of a 2-inch business card. On a phone-sized viewport one 200 px device already takes 30 percent of the height, so a hero that stacks a headline, a badge and a device has to budget the space early. Shrinking the frame below the minimum is not an option, and cropping it to fit is a prohibited modification, so the layout gives way: a taller section, fewer devices or a different arrangement.

Unauthorized uses

Apple's list is framed as uses "of Apple products" that "are not permitted in marketing materials":

• "Rendering in 3D or creating any simulation of an Apple product"
• "Illustrations that depict an Apple product, except for instructional material"
• "Die-cut promotions in the shape of an Apple product"
• "Food industry disposable packaging or promotions that use an Apple product or App Store badge"
• "Decals, bumper stickers, or magnets placed on the outside of any vehicle that use an Apple product or App Store badge"
• "Graphics, illustrations, or logotypes to represent an Apple product"

Then comes the rule for generic devices: "If your marketing contains illustrations of generic devices, ensure that these devices do not include details that are unique to Apple products, such as the iPhone Home button, sensor housing, Ring/Silent switch, or volume controls."

Two readings matter here. The instructional-material exception belongs to the illustration rule only. It does not rescue a 3D render, a die-cut or a logotype. And the generic-device rule is a rule about what a non-Apple placeholder must leave out, not a permission to redraw an iPhone as a vector shape. On the plain wording, a flat vector phone with a sensor cut-out, side switches and the proportions of a current iPhone is an illustration that depicts an Apple product, and the list excludes it from marketing materials unless it is instructional. The grant in clause 1 covers "product images provided to You by Apple", which means the supplied files, not redrawings of them.

The wording of the list is about the use, not about where the artwork came from. Whether the frame was downloaded from Apple, copied from a Figma kit or redrawn by hand, the unauthorized uses apply to what is placed in front of the audience.

What may appear on the screen

The screen content section is the one designers breach most often, because it concerns what is inside the frame.

"Focus on the experience of using your app and not on Apple product functions. Display your app on the screen as it appears when your app is running. For apps that work within Messages, Siri, Phone, or Maps, display your app within the Apple UI exactly as it appears when your app is running. Apps that support widgets may display this functionality in screen content as long as no third-party content is shown on the Home Screen. Be sure to create screens using the latest operating system version. Don't display a blank screen on an Apple product, or on a television screen when showcasing Apple TV."

The consequences are specific:

• No blank, placeholder or lorem-ipsum screens. A frame with a gray rectangle where the app goes fails the blank-screen sentence if it is published as marketing. A mockup delivered "ready for the client's screenshot" is a template until a real screen goes in.
• The screen must be the running app. A mood-board gradient, a conceptual redesign or an Illustrator-only screen is not "as it appears when your app is running."
• The latest operating system. A screenshot taken on an old OS release, with older status bar icons, is out of date by the text.
• No Home Screen, with one exception. The Home Screen section says that if the app supports widgets, "you may show your app's widget on the Home Screen as long as no third-party content is depicted in your communications. Otherwise, don't display an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, or Apple TV Home Screen." A mockup that shows an app icon on a grid of other app icons is a Home Screen carrying other apps' icons, which is the case the text rules out.
• Push notifications. "When showing push notifications from your app in advertising, display a single push notification on the lock screen of the Apple device. Don't include multiple push notifications from your app, or other app's push notifications. If tapped, the push notification must open the app directly. Don't show the Home Screen of the Apple device."
• Status bar. "The status bar for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch should show a full network icon or product designator, a full Wi-Fi icon, and a full battery icon. If your app runs full screen, you can extend your app screen image over the status bar. If your app is optimized for 5G networks, you can display the 5G icon in the status bar from a compatible device." The bezel files carry status bar options on separate layers, and the guidelines page tells you to choose "the correct localized layer for the region" the material will appear in.
• Rights and fictional data. "You are responsible for securing the rights to all materials used in screen content within your app, and you should display fictional account information instead of data from a real person." For apps that work inside Apple apps, the same section adds that the developer is "responsible for securing the rights and approvals for third-party content such as store names or locations." A map screen showing a real business name, or a contacts screen with a friend's face, is the developer's problem to clear.
• Desktop frames. For iMac, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air in the desktop display option, "remember to add your icon to the Dock and customize the menu bar titles to match your app's menu bar."

The same section forbids chasing Apple's own features: "Focus on the experience of using your app and not on Apple product functions." A mockup whose screen is Control Center, Siri or the camera viewfinder is about the product, not the app.

Photographs and video: the route that does not use a bezel file

"Custom photography and video of Apple products are allowed. Show people interacting with the Apple product in an authentic way, and feature your app in a realistic manner, exactly as a user will experience it."

That sentence is the other path Apple gives. It does not cancel the licence, because clause 1 covers "product images provided to You by Apple," and Apple's marketing guidelines are the rules for the photograph too. But the photograph route carries its own text:

• "Straight-on product shots are preferred. Don't use extreme angles or alter an Apple product in any way. The product's color, shape, size, and form must be accurate." The guidelines also bar "suspension of disbelief," meaning showing Apple products or the app "in a fantastic or unrealistic manner."
• "Only show the back of a device in an authentic manner to illustrate natural use of the device. Don't feature the Apple logo to take advantage of the promotional value of the Apple brand. Don't obscure or cover the logo."
• For video: "once you show an establishing shot of the entire Apple device, you may pan and zoom to focus on your app. Present the movement in a simple, clear manner. Use straightforward transitions such as fade or dissolve. Don't use Apple user interaction gestures such as Multi-Touch or trackpad swipes to perform scene transitions."
• "Start the app sequence with your app open. If app sequences are shortened, display a 'sequences shortened' disclaimer. You can use the sounds that your app makes naturally as audio elements of your video, but don't use the native sounds of the Apple device."

So pan and zoom is allowed in video only after an establishing shot of the whole device, and the text gives still layouts no counterpart, where cropping is listed as a modification. The trademark guidelines add a requirement for photographs of Apple products: under "Depictions of Apple Products," compatibility images must be "an actual photograph of the genuine Apple product and not an artist's rendering (Note: You must obtain express written permission from Apple before using any photograph owned or licensed by Apple)." So a photograph that Apple owns or has licensed needs written permission. The badge section of the guidelines adds a related limit: "Don't use icons, logos, graphics, or images from www.apple.com to promote your app."

The photo route does not solve the problem for a designer with no App Store app. The licence grants the right to the supplied artwork, and the trademark guidelines' compatibility paragraph opens with "If you are a developer." Neither document gives a route for showing an Apple product with an app that is not on sale. The next section sets that out.

Twelve deliverables sorted against the text

The table below sorts common deliverables by what the quoted text says. "Licence text applies" means the deliverable is the developer promoting an App Store app, which is what clause 1 covers. "Not addressed" means the text neither allows nor forbids it, and the reader needs to ask the developer or Apple. No row says a use is safe.

Rows 5, 6 and 7 are where most designers actually work, and they are where the agreement is silent. That silence cuts both ways. The text does not say a designer may not make a case study; it also does not say they may. A working rule is to follow the quoted limits as strictly as a licensee would and to leave the question of who holds the licence to the account holder and Apple.

When the designer is not the developer

The agreement opens by saying it is "A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND APPLE" and by having the person who ticks the box represent "THAT YOU ARE AN AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE FOR YOUR DEVELOPER ACCOUNT." It is formed on the date "clicked through by You." Its first recital says that Apple and "You" "have entered into the Apple Developer Program License Agreement." The licensee, in other words, is a developer account holder.

A designer or agency does not appear in that structure. The grant is non-transferable, there is no sublicence wording, and the text never says that someone else may exercise the licence on the licensee's behalf. Whether work done by a contractor for a developer counts as "Your use of the Artwork" is not something the agreement decides. Three practical points follow from the text alone:

1. The strongest position is the developer's own. If the app belongs to the client, the safest reading of the document is that the client is the licensee, and the client's own deliverables (rows 1 to 4) are the clearest fit. That also keeps the party who accepted the artwork terms and the party publishing the marketing the same.
2. A studio's marketing of its past work is a separate question. A case study on an agency's website promotes the agency's services, and the agreement licenses the artwork "only in connection with Your applications." The text does not say whether a case study counts. The agency can show the same work without Apple's bezels, using a plain screenshot, a neutral browser outline or a generic device that leaves out the Apple-specific details the guidelines list.
3. Contracts matter. Whether a designer is allowed to show a client's work in a portfolio is a question about the freelance contract first. Our guides on who owns a design and on freelance contract clauses cover the portfolio-rights clause.

For concept work, the text offers no licensed route. The grant needs an app that is "available for download on the App Store." Apple's trademark guidelines say a developer may show an Apple product image "to depict that your product is compatible with, or otherwise works with, the Apple product," and the first condition is that "Your product is in fact compatible with, or otherwise works with, the referenced Apple product." The same section opens with the sentence that frames everything else: "Apple does not support the use of its logos, company names, product names, or images of Apple products by other parties in marketing, promotional or advertising materials as their use may create the perception that Apple endorses or sponsors the product, service or promotion." For a concept, the options inside Apple's own text are to leave out the product image, to show the screen alone, or to ask Apple. Our mockup best practices guide describes the screen-alone approach in practical terms.

Frames inside packs, kits and templates

A mockup pack or a UI kit adds a second licence on top of Apple's: the licence of whoever made the file. The pack's own terms are a separate document, covered in the site's mockup licensing guide, so what follows is limited to what Apple's text says about files from any source.

Apple's grant is limited to "product images provided to You by Apple." A frame inside a pack was not provided to the pack's buyer by Apple, so the Apple grant, on its face, does not describe it. Apple's "Unauthorized Uses" list, which is written about the use in marketing materials and not about the file's origin, applies to the frame either way. Clause 13 makes the agreement "the entire and final understanding between You and Apple concerning the Artwork", and a pack seller is not a party to it. A seller's commercial-use promise is therefore a promise about the seller's own file, and nothing in Apple's text says it enlarges what Apple granted. A pack licence can speak to the file (who made the vector, whether commercial use of the file is allowed). Whether the Apple product depicted in it may appear in your marketing is a question Apple's documents answer.

Checking a pack therefore takes two reads, one for each licence. Our free mockups commercial use guide covers the pack's side, including personal-use free tiers, end-product caps and the source-file handoff problem. Apple's side is the clauses and rules above. Template makers face one more check: a frame with a blank screen is not usable as-is in marketing because of the blank-screen sentence, so a template sold with an empty screen depends on every buyer filling in a real running app.

The trademark guidelines add two more lines that affect the file-selling case: "You may not manufacture, sell or give-away merchandise items, such as T-shirts and mugs, bearing Apple, Macintosh, iMac or any other Apple trademark, including symbols, logos, or icons, except pursuant to an express written trademark license from Apple," and "You may not use or register, in whole or in part, Apple, iPod, iTunes, Macintosh, iMac, or any other Apple trademark, including Apple-owned graphic symbols, logos, icons, or an alteration thereof, as or as part of a company name, trade name, product name, or service name except as specifically noted in these guidelines." A pack called "Apple Device Mockups" is a product name containing an Apple trademark. That is a naming question for the pack seller, and the guidelines' "Compatibility" paragraph shows the permitted shape: the word mark only in a referential phrase such as "for," "runs on" or "compatible with," less prominent than the product name.

Names, credit lines and the URL rule

The trademark rules around the frame are brief but strict, and they apply to the text beside it.

• Product names. "Use Apple product names such as Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV in a referential phrase to indicate that your app is compatible with these products. For example, say app name for iPhone or app name for iPad, or use a phrase such as works with or compatible with. Don't say iPhone app name."
• Do not call devices generic names. "Don't refer to Apple devices generically as 'smartphones' or 'tablets.' Use the product names." The same section asks you to "List all the Apple products that your app runs on. Don't list Apple products that are not compatible with your app."
• Company name order. "When including your company name, lead with the company name followed by the app name and end with the appropriate Apple product names."
• URLs. "Apple trademark names can be included in your URL address only when the trademark follows your company and/or product name. Apple trademarks can be used in URLs only for web pages that feature apps developed specifically for the Apple product named. Never start a URL with an Apple trademark." The page gives www.company.com/app/iphone as acceptable, and www.iphoneapp.com as not.
• Credit lines. "Use the appropriate credit lines in all communications worldwide, listing all the Apple trademarks and products included in your communication and advertising. Include the credit lines only once in your communication or website, and place the credit lines wherever you provide legal notification." Where the App Store badge appears, "credit both Apple and the Apple Logo."
• Symbols. In United States-only communications the symbol follows each Apple trademark on first mention in body copy. "Don't add symbols to headline copy or to the App Store badge artwork provided by Apple." Outside the United States, symbols are not used and the international credit notice applies.
• No false association. "Your app screen images, Mac, Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV product images, or photographs thereof cannot be used in any manner that falsely suggests an association with Apple or is likely to reduce, diminish, or damage the goodwill, value, or reputation associated with the App Store, the Mac App Store, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or Apple itself."
• Other platforms. "Apple product names can appear in copy along with the names of other app platforms or devices. List Apple products first. Although the names of other products can be used in promotional copy, never display Apple product images alongside the images of other products." The earlier rule that references to competing products can be made "only in copy or with badges" is the same limit stated from the other side.

Our guide to using another company's logo on a website covers the badge sizes and clear space in a table, so they are not repeated here. Apple's app icon guidance, including its statement that Apple products cannot be reproduced in an app icon, is in the app icon sizes guide.

One more rule affects store listings directly. App Review Guideline 2.3.3 says: "Screenshots should show the app in use, and not merely the title art, login page, or splash screen. They may also include text and image overlays (for example, to demonstrate input mechanisms, such as an animated touch point or Apple Pencil) and show extended functionality on device, such as Touch Bar." Guideline 2.3.9 says: "You are responsible for securing the rights to use all materials in your app icons, screenshots, and previews, and you should display fictional account information instead of data from a real person." Guideline 2.3.10 says "don't include names, icons, or imagery of other mobile platforms or alternative app marketplaces in your app or metadata, unless there is specific, approved interactive functionality." Neither the App Review Guidelines page nor the App Store Connect screenshot specifications page mentions frames or bezels. Whether a store screenshot should be framed is therefore a design choice that the text leaves open, while the screen content inside it is covered by 2.3.3. Remember that the screenshot specifications list exact pixel sizes per device group, which our mockup best practices guide works through, so a framed marketing image is a different file from the store upload.

A four-step check before a frame goes into a file

The text supports a short sequence, in this order, because each step makes the next one irrelevant if it fails.

1. Is there an app, and is it on the App Store? Clause 1's grant is for "Your applications that are available for download on the App Store." If the app is a concept, a prototype, a TestFlight build or a client's plan, the licence does not reach it, and the options in the text are no product image, screen alone, or a question to Apple.
2. Whose licence is it? The agreement is between Apple and one developer account. If the deliverable is the developer's own marketing, go to step 3. If a studio is publishing it for its own purposes, the text does not say, and the account holder's confirmation is the minimum evidence to keep.
3. Does the layout keep the frame untouched? Compare it with the as-is list: no reflection, shadow, highlight, cropping, tilting, obstruction, animation, flipping, spinning or button made from the image. Check the size (25 mm in print, 200 px onscreen, and the print figure for any file reused on paper), the device and colour from Apple's own files and the relative scale.
4. Is the screen real and current? A running app, the latest OS, a complete status bar, fictional data, no Home Screen unless it is the app's own widget with no third-party content, one lock-screen notification at most, and never a blank screen.

Only then come the words: product names in a referential phrase, the badge if there is one, the credit line once, and a URL that does not start with an Apple trademark. If a deliverable fails step 1 or step 2, redesigning the frame does not fix it. The fix is to remove the Apple product image, and the same layout works with the app screen alone.

Apple's own wording is that the rules "may be amended from time to time." Re-download the bezel files and re-open the guidelines before each campaign, and keep the agreement edition code (EA0861, 08/15/17) with the project record so that anyone checking later knows which text applied.

Device frame questions

Can I use Apple's iPhone bezels for a client's app?

If the client's app is on the App Store and the client is in the Developer Program, the client is the party the agreement licenses. The agreement's grant is to "You," is non-transferable, and says nothing about a contractor producing the layout. Whether that counts as the client's use is not stated, so confirm with the client, and keep the client as the publisher of the finished marketing.

Can I put an iPhone frame around a portfolio concept?

The licence requires an app "available for download on the App Store," so a concept is outside the grant. Apple's text offers no other route for product images of a non-existent app. A screen with no frame, or a generic frame that avoids Home button, sensor housing, Ring/Silent switch and volume control details, is the alternative inside Apple's wording.

What are the minimum sizes?

"No smaller than 25 mm in height for printed materials and 200 px onscreen." Apple does not define the pixel. A 200 px frame reused in print at 300 ppi measures 16.9 mm, below the print minimum.

Can I add a drop shadow or tilt the phone?

Not in the marketing the guidelines cover. Shadows, reflections, highlights, tilting, cropping, obstructing, animating, flipping and spinning are all listed as modifications, and "Straight-on product shots are preferred." Promotional copy goes "beside the product images, not on top of them."

Can I leave the screen blank?

Not in marketing. The text says "Don't display a blank screen on an Apple product." The text is written for marketing materials, so an unpublished working file is outside what it discusses, but a published layout needs the running app.

Can I show the Home Screen with my app's icon?

Not unless it is a widget. The widget exception applies "as long as no third-party content is depicted in your communications," and otherwise "don't display an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, or Apple TV Home Screen."

Are vector phone illustrations allowed?

Illustrations that depict an Apple product are on the not-permitted list "except for instructional material." Generic devices must leave out details unique to Apple products. A vector copy of a current iPhone is a depiction of an Apple product.

What happens if I break a rule?

Clause 10 says the agreement "shall terminate automatically upon Your breach of any of the terms of this Marketing Agreement." Clause 8 makes the licensee responsible for claims arising from use "except as expressly permitted." Clauses 8 and 10 are the consequence clauses.

Do these Apple documents apply to Android or Google device frames?

No. They are Apple's documents and speak only to Apple's products. Google's terms for its own device art are a separate set of documents. The mockup best practices guide compares the store screenshot requirements of both platforms.

Apple documents and the clauses they supply

• Apple, App Store Marketing Resources and Identity Guidelines, product images, screen content, photography and video, messaging and legal sections; no last-updated date shown; checked November 3, 2026.
• Apple, App Store Marketing Artwork License Agreement (edition EA0861, dated 08/15/17), clauses 1 to 13 as printed on the guidelines page above; checked November 3, 2026.
• Apple, Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights, "Authorized Use," "Unauthorized Use" and "Depictions of Apple Products"; no last-updated date shown; checked November 3, 2026.
• Apple, App Review Guidelines, sections 2.3.3, 2.3.9 and 2.3.10, last updated October 16, 2026; checked November 3, 2026.
• Apple, Apple Design Resources, Product Bezels list and the note linking to the marketing guidelines; checked November 3, 2026.
• Apple, App Store Connect screenshot specifications, searched for frame and bezel wording; checked November 3, 2026.
• The 25 mm to pixel conversions and the shares of canvas height are Lucky Graphics arithmetic (25 divided by 25.4 times the print resolution, and 200 divided by the canvas height); the layouts used are examples, not Apple figures.