Many developers publishing their apps to the Microsoft Store are aware that the store will display the logo images that are embedded inside the app’s package manifest. This means, anytime developers want to update the logos that appear on the store, a new app package update is effectively required. A new update means another round of waiting for the new submission to be certified. And lastly, often developers want to keep their package logos simple, yet they want logos in the store to be more intricate. Luckily, there’s a way to solve all these problems by customizing your app’s logo directly in the developer portal.
Logos from the app package
Often, the Microsoft Store will use images from inside the app package. For instance, here are some of the images available in a package:
But as you can see above, these images were primarily designed to live on surfaces in Windows itself, such as the taskbar and the start menu. The logos here are not designed to be used in a storefront.
What if app developers want a more intricate logo on a storefront while still having a simple logo in Windows? This strategy is similar to how games have a logo but they also have box art that goes on a physical game box.
What if app developers want to change their store logo based on the time of year? Maybe there’s a Spring Sale event they want to participate in, and so they want a Spring-themed logo in the store?
Updating the app package to accommodate these scenarios is slow, risky, and complicated. There is a better way.
Providing logos directly from Partner Centre
So it turns out that the Microsoft Store will only use logos from the app package as a fallback measure. Yes, that’s right. If you provide the store with custom logos, it will use those instead of using logos from the app package. So how do you do it?
In Partner Centre, the developer portal used for Microsoft Store submission, there is a checkbox option that you can enable to use custom images. This checkbox is found inside the store listing language of a new submission update. If you enable this checkbox, you’ll see 3 boxes appear letting you upload images with different sizes. These will be used by the Microsoft Store!
It’s that easy?
Yes! Once you’ve done these, here are some of the benefits:
- You do not need to compile and create a new app package update just to change the logos on the store. You just need to create a new submission update and modify the logos here.
- Because a new app package is not required, the new submission often takes much faster to certify, so the logos on the store will likely go live quickly.
- You can have fancier logos on the store while keeping your app’s logo in Windows taskbar and start menu simple.
- You can even have different store logos depending on the region. So you can potentially create a logo specific to a holiday in one specific region without affecting the store logo in other regions.
In my experience, having an eye-catching logo in the Microsoft Store helps boost downloads. Hopefully, you can use this method to spruce up your presence on the store and attract more customers. I look forward to seeing all your new logos!
