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Tester screenshots unusable: how to ask for good ones

What a helpful screenshot shows and how to explain it to testers in one sentence.

updated ·2 min read

In this guide

A tester sends a cropped picture of a button, or a full-screen photo taken with another phone, or an image of an error with no hint of what led to it. You cannot tell which screen it is, which version, or what they expected. The fix is not more effort from testers. It is a clearer ask.

The one-sentence rule

Give testers this, and nothing longer:

Send the whole screen, plus one line on what you did and what you expected.

Whole screen, because the surroundings (title, tabs, keyboard, status bar) show where you are. One line, because a picture shows the result but never the cause.

Why screenshots fail

  • Cropped too tightly. The bug is clear, the location is not.
  • A photo of the screen from another device: glare, blur, hard to read.
  • No context. No steps, no expectation, no version.
  • Wrong moment. The error disappeared before the shot, or the screenshot shows the normal state.
  • Sensitive content. A tester sends a picture with personal data and you do not want to receive it.
  • Too many at once. Twelve images in a row with no order.

Do and don't

Do

  • Take a real screenshot with the phone's own buttons.
  • Keep the whole screen, including the top bar.
  • Add the steps in one or two lines: "I opened Settings, tapped Export, and this appeared."
  • Say what you expected: "I expected a file, not an error."
  • Name the screen if the app does not.
  • Send two shots for a before and after.
  • For something that moves, send a short screen recording instead.

Don't

  • Don't crop to just the problem.
  • Don't photograph one phone with another.
  • Don't send a picture with no sentence.
  • Don't include passwords, personal messages or payment details.
  • Don't send the same bug ten times.

Build it into your feedback form

Do not rely on testers to remember. Put it in the form:

  1. A field "What did you do?"
  2. A field "What did you expect, and what happened?"
  3. An optional upload, with a note "whole screen, please".
  4. Automatic or prompted fields for app version and phone model.

For more on what makes feedback useful from the tester's side, see how to give app feedback that helps.

Keep it safe

Tell testers to hide personal data before sending. The feedback should be private, so say who sees it. This is general advice, not legal advice.

If a screenshot is already unusable

Do not ask "can you send a better one?" Ask a specific question instead: "Which screen was this, and what did you tap just before?" A specific question is faster to answer than a request to redo work.

On AppReviewX, feedback is private and structured, so the steps and expectations arrive in set fields. Start here.