App Carousel Workflow

Before you start

Have these ready so you don't hit a blocker mid-workflow.

• Your app's App Store link. Its icon, screenshots and description are copied in; the rating, number of ratings, price, version and release notes are read fresh each time a run starts.
• For a list, at least two other apps, added the same way and marked as not yours. Other apps are only ever described from their own store listing.
• An Android or web app is added by hand, with uploaded screenshots. Google Play has no public listing to read, so a hand-added app has no rating, version or release notes.
• A niche TikTok account to post from: a page about the topic (sleep, budgeting, studying), not your app's brand account.
• A ppl.studio account. Nothing is generated, so a run costs nothing.

How the App Carousel workflow works

Read the marketing goal of each step top to bottom. Expand any step for the exact ppl.studio tools, worked examples, and gotchas.

1. Step 01~5 min

   Add the apps

   Put your app, and any others the carousel will mention, in your Apps library. Your app brings its screens and, if you like, a line per screen saying what it shows. The others only need their App Store link.

   Why this matters: Real screens and the store's own numbers are what make an app slideshow believable. A chip reading '★ 4.7 · 5.5M ratings · Free' is something the viewer can check, which is only worth showing if it's the store's figure on the day you post.

   OutcomeYour app and the others in Apps, each with an icon and phone screenshots, and your own screens captioned.

   How to do it with ppl.studio

   Paste an App Store link in Apps and the listing comes in: name, developer, icon, description and screenshots at full size. The numbers that change daily aren't kept; each run reads them from the store.

   1. 1.1

      Import your app from its App Store link

      Paste the link (or the numeric id). The listing is read from the storefront the link names, so use the link for the country you post to.

      • In-app

        Apps — Your app and others from an App Store link: icon, screens, and the store's numbers read live.
   2. 1.2

      Add the other apps for a list

      Import them the same way and untick 'It's my app'. When every app on the list is rated 4 or higher, the cover chip says so, quoting the lowest rating: 'All 4.5★ or higher on the App Store'.

      Tip: Pick apps your viewer would actually want, on the same theme as yours. A list padded with filler reads as an ad for the one app that fits.

   3. 1.3

      Caption your screens (optional)

      Write a line per screenshot saying what it shows. The review puts your line on each screen before falling back to sentences from the store description, and the how-to uses your lines as its steps.

      Example

      "Set a monthly budget in two taps."

   4. 1.4

      Android or web: add it by hand

      Give it a name and upload phone screenshots. It works in the list, the review and the how-to, but its slides carry no store rating or version because there's no listing to read, and What's new needs an App Store app.

   Output: Your app plus up to seven others, each with an icon and phone screenshots; optionally a one-line caption per screen of yours.

2. Step 02~2 min

   Choose what the carousel does

   Pick one of four recipes. A list puts your app among others; a review, a what's-new and a how-to are about one app. Then set the cover.

   Why this matters: Each recipe answers a different question. A list is discovery: the viewer came for the topic and meets your app on the way. A review answers 'is it worth it?', release notes give people who know the app a reason to open it again, and a how-to shows the app doing one job.

   OutcomeA recipe, its apps, and the cover.

   How to do it with ppl.studio

   The setup shows the four recipes and asks only what the chosen one needs: a theme and your app's slide for a list, the task and its steps for a how-to.

   1. 2.1

      N apps that…

      Three to eight apps, one a slide: the app's name in bold, a chip with the store's numbers, a screenshot in a phone frame, its icon, and a line from its listing. Your theme becomes the cover line. Your app goes on the slide you pick (4 by default, never first), and the last slide asks 'Which one are you getting first?' over all their icons. If none of the apps is yours, it's a plain roundup.

      Example

      Theme 'make studying feel easy' → '5 apps that make studying feel easy', with your flashcard app on slide 4.

      Tip: Slide 4 or 5 puts your app after the viewer trusts the list and before they've left. Try both and keep whichever gets more 'what's that app?' comments.

   2. 2.2

      App review

      One app: its screens with one benefit each, then the store's numbers as big figures (rating, number of ratings, price, version), then an App Store card with the icon, the rating and a GET button (the price, for a paid app). The cover leads with the rating when it's 4.5 or higher from at least a thousand ratings ('5.5M people rate this app 4.7★'); otherwise it asks whether the app is worth the download, or its price.

   3. 2.3

      What's new

      The latest version's release notes from the store, one change a slide over the app's screens, each with a chip like 'New in 7.141.1'. It needs release notes on the store. An update whose notes only say 'bug fixes' makes a thin carousel.

   4. 2.4

      How to, screen by screen

      A task done in the app, one screen a step. Name the task and type a line per step, one per screen in order, up to ten. Left empty, the steps come from your screen captions, else from the store description.

      Example

      Task 'set a budget in two minutes' → 'How to set a budget in two minutes in Budgetly', then 'Step 1', 'Step 2'… over the screens.

   5. 2.5

      Set the cover

      A list opens on a free stock photograph from Pexels with the hook on it: a search for things, not people, because a person on the cover can read as that person endorsing your app, which the Pexels licence forbids. Search for another, pick one yourself, or open on the first app's screen. The one-app recipes open on the app's first screen. You can replace the cover's line and chip with your own.

   Output: One recipe; 3–8 apps for a list, one app for the others.

3. Step 03~2 min

   Draw the slides and post

   Let the slides draw, read them through once as a viewer, then post them as a photo carousel with the caption, the hashtags and a sound.

   Why this matters: The slides are made to look like a post, not an ad: the cream background and TikTok Sans typeface of TikTok's own carousels, no watermark, brand or slide counter, and the text kept clear of the app's buttons. That look only helps if you post from a page that reads as content.

   OutcomeThe slides in your Gallery, downloaded in order, with a caption, hashtags and a sound suggestion.

   How to do it with ppl.studio

   The run goes to the end on its own. There's no preview to approve, because nothing in it costs money.

   1. 3.1

      Check the slides

      Read it from the cover to the last slide. If a screen or a line is wrong, fix it at the source (the app's screens or captions in Apps) and run it again. It costs nothing.

   2. 3.2

      Download the slides

      'Download the slides' saves them in swipe order. The text is already on them, so post them as they are.

      • In-app

        Gallery — Every generation lands here. Filter, bulk download, send to campaigns.
   3. 3.3

      Paste the caption, then add hashtags and a sound

      For a list, the caption repeats the hook, numbers the apps with their ratings, and asks which one the viewer is getting first. The hashtags are kept apart because some posting setups don't allow them in the caption. The sound suggestion is a direction ('something with a beat per slide'), not a track: use what the accounts doing well in your niche use.

      • External

        TikTok — Cross-post with your hook in the caption.
      • External

        Instagram Reels — Same 9:16 file, 3–5 hashtags max.

   Output: 4–12 JPEG slides at 1080×1920 with the text baked in; a caption without hashtags, the hashtags apart, and a sound suggestion.

How it compares

App Carousel workflow FAQ

Other workflows

Different goal, different funnel, same engine.