To seek App Store featuring, prepare a polished app and submit a timely Featuring Nomination in App Store Connect. For Google Play, improve app quality and store assets, then use the promotional opportunities available to your app. Neither store offers a checklist that guarantees editorial selection, a fixed rating cutoff, or a predictable download boost.
Here is how to prepare using the stores’ published guidance. It covers the app, listing, nomination, events, localization and measurement so the work remains useful even if an editor does not select your app.
What Featuring Means on Each Store
Apple’s editorial stories, collections and daily app/game selections are different from paid placements, charts and personalized recommendations. A high chart position is not proof of editorial selection. Record the exact placement, storefront and dates when you report a feature.
Google Play includes recommendations, curated collections and promotional content. Different placements have different requirements. Start by improving app quality and preparing accurate store artwork; those are parts of the process you can control.
Apple’s Published Featuring Considerations
Apple names user experience, design, innovation, uniqueness, accessibility, localization and the product page among its considerations. Its featuring guide explicitly says there is no requirements checklist. Positive ratings can support the overall picture, but Apple does not publish a universal 4.0-star eligibility rule.
- Core experience: a reviewer should be able to complete the main task without crashes or unclear setup.
- Distinct purpose: explain the specific problem and audience instead of claiming to be the best app in the category.
- Design: check navigation, text sizes, loading and error states, and how the app behaves on supported devices.
- Accessibility: test the real workflow with assistive technologies and larger text. An accessibility claim needs evidence.
- Useful platform integration: adopt a capability when it improves the customer’s task. Adding an AI feature or widget solely to seek attention is not a selection strategy.
- Truthful listing: screenshots, previews and descriptions should demonstrate the current app, including any paid or regional boundaries.
Google Play Quality and Featuring
Android’s quality framework covers core value, user experience, technical quality, and privacy/security. Google also considers marketing assets. Use the relevant form-factor guidance for the devices your app supports instead of assuming Material styling alone makes an app eligible.
Check Android vitals in context
The current Android vitals documentation identifies overall bad-behavior thresholds of 1.09% for user-perceived crashes and 0.47% for user-perceived ANRs. These have specific definitions and additional device-level considerations. They are visibility-related technical thresholds, not a complete featuring score or a recommended crash budget.
Inspect the affected version and devices, reproduce the issue and verify the fix. Do not substitute raw crash counts or a different analytics provider’s session rate for Google’s user-perceived metric.
Check the store assets
Use Google’s preview asset requirements for screenshots, video and feature graphics. Some recommendation formats have additional asset eligibility requirements. Review these for your app type before preparing a campaign.
A Practical Featuring Preparation Plan
1. Verify the core task
Test installation, onboarding, login, the promised feature, purchasing where applicable, and recovery from errors. Supply working reviewer access when required. Make sure service availability and the privacy disclosures agree with what the app actually does.
2. Prepare a coherent product page
Use each screenshot to explain one benefit with real app UI. Keep captions readable at store size and show the most important workflow early. A preview video is useful when motion explains something static images cannot.
AppDrift’s screenshot editor can help prepare a consistent campaign using your captures. Browse the available designs and verify Free or Pro access before starting. Check the finished exports against the store’s requirements.
3. Write the reason to feature it now
Prepare a short brief with the audience, distinctive task, new content or improvement, release date, supported territories and one concrete example of its value. If you include results, give the measurement period and the number of users involved.
A useful illustrative pitch is: “Our offline field-notes app is adding accessible audio annotations for survey teams on [date]. The update addresses [documented task], works in [supported environments], and includes [verified accessibility support].” Replace the placeholders with facts about your app.
4. Submit an Apple nomination with lead time
Apple’s current guidance asks for at least two weeks’ notice and recommends submitting up to three months ahead for wider consideration. Include accurate launch or update information and keep it current if plans change. This is a nomination, not an approval or a reservation.
There is no published two-to-four-nominations-per-year rule. Submit when there is a material story: a new app, significant enhancement, relevant event or other meaningful development.
5. Prepare relevant events
Apple In-App Events can surface time-limited experiences on the product page and other store surfaces. Use a real challenge, competition, premiere, significant content update or other eligible experience, with accurate dates and a working destination.
Google promotional content is available to all games and to apps meeting its Premium growth tools eligibility criteria. Check access in Play Console and follow the content rules. Submitting a card does not guarantee every possible placement.
6. Localize where the product can deliver
Check language support, product availability, captions, terminology and support instructions with someone familiar with the audience. An English-language app is not restricted to one country, and a smaller market does not automatically have easier featuring competition.
AppDrift can prepare contextual listing translations in 60+ languages. Treat these as reviewable drafts and disclose the actual in-app language coverage. For the full process, use the localization checklist.
7. Assemble the press and artwork pack
- Current screenshots and icons in the requested formats.
- A concise description of the app and developer story.
- Verified release dates, supported territories and device information.
- Permissioned customer material and explainable metrics, if included.
- A monitored contact address and an owner for asset requests.
Keep a clean source folder so you can respond accurately to a request. Do not use a platform badge or claim a feature before it has actually occurred.
8. Ship improvements with a useful cadence
Release when improvements are ready and justified. A six-month-old version is not automatically abandoned, and monthly updates are not a featuring requirement. Explain the material changes clearly and fix urgent quality issues promptly.
Listing updates can keep approved wording, localized drafts and review decisions together. Sending listing text through a supported paid plan is one step; build uploads, app review and release still need to be handled separately.
Mistakes That Weaken the Pitch
- Unsupported promises: a claimed capability or release date that the reviewer cannot verify.
- Broken core experience: inaccessible login, crashes, unavailable content or misleading screenshots.
- Nomination without a story: a generic request for exposure with no specific audience or timely reason.
- Unnecessary platform features: adding complexity that does not improve the app’s main job.
- Misleading localization: a translated listing that hides an unsupported interface or region.
- Unprepared follow-through: nobody available to answer asset requests or support new users.
Measure a Feature Without Promising a Growth Multiplier
Record the placement’s country, start and end dates and the affected listing. Compare relevant browse impressions, downloads and first-use outcomes with an appropriate baseline. Note concurrent releases and campaigns. A burst of discovery can lower an aggregate conversion rate if it introduces a broader audience.
Check whether new users complete the main task, return and pay. Also watch for an increase in support requests. The feature’s immediate traffic does not establish long-term revenue or a lasting ranking benefit. Keep the work valuable by improving the product and listing regardless of whether featuring happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can indie developers get featured?
Yes. Apple explicitly includes indie developers in its featuring opportunities. A specific purpose, useful experience and truthful nomination help an editor assess the app; studio size alone does not determine selection.
How long before a launch should I nominate an app?
Apple currently asks for a minimum of two weeks’ notice and recommends up to three months for wider consideration. It does not guarantee a response, placement or date.
Does a 4.0-star rating guarantee featuring?
No. Positive ratings and reviews are part of the overall picture, but there is no published universal rating threshold that guarantees a feature on either store.
Can I pay for an editorial feature?
Advertising purchases a defined ad placement; it is separate from an editorial selection. Plan paid acquisition around its own measured economics rather than assuming it will secure a feature.
Are Custom Product Pages and In-App Events the same?
No. Custom Product Pages present alternative listing content for particular audiences. In-App Events describe eligible time-limited experiences. Both have their own setup and review requirements; neither guarantees editorial selection.
