How to Get Featured on the App Store

Apple's editorial team evaluates apps based on several criteria that go beyond download numbers or revenue. Understanding these criteria helps you position your app for consideration.

Design quality is the single most important factor. Apple is a design-driven company, and its editorial team consistently features apps that demonstrate exceptional user interface and user experience design. This does not mean your app needs to look like an Apple app. It means your app needs to look intentional, polished, and thoughtful. Every screen, every interaction, and every animation should feel considered rather than thrown together. Apple's Human Interface Guidelines are not just suggestions for featured apps. They are the baseline expectation.

Adoption of new Apple technologies gets disproportionate attention. When Apple launches a new feature like widgets, Live Activities, StandBy mode, or visionOS support, the editorial team actively looks for apps that adopt these features well. This is strategic for Apple because featuring apps that use new platform capabilities encourages other developers to adopt those capabilities too. If you can be among the first to implement a new Apple technology well, your chances of being featured increase dramatically. Follow WWDC announcements each June and prioritize integrating new capabilities that are relevant to your app's functionality.

Unique value and originality matter significantly. Apple does not feature the 47th expense tracker or the 12th meditation app unless it brings something genuinely new to the category. Your app needs a clear differentiator that the editorial team can articulate in their feature copy. Think about what makes your app different from every competitor in a single sentence. If you cannot express that difference clearly, the editorial team cannot either, and they will pass.

Your App Store screenshots play a dual role in the featuring process. They influence the editorial team's perception of your app's quality, and they serve as the primary visual asset when Apple features your app in the store.

Apple's editorial team browses the App Store regularly, looking at new and updated apps. Your screenshots are the first thing they see, and they form an immediate impression of your app's design quality based on what they see in the gallery. Screenshots with poor typography, inconsistent spacing, outdated device frames, or low-quality renders signal that the developer did not invest in their presentation, which raises questions about the app itself. Professional, polished screenshots signal that the developer cares about every detail, including the ones users see before they install.

When Apple features an app, they often use the app's existing screenshots in the feature placement. Sometimes the editorial team creates custom artwork, but more frequently they work with the developer's existing assets. If your screenshots are not high quality, Apple may skip your app even if the app itself is excellent, because the feature placement would not look good with subpar screenshots. Think of your screenshots as your feature application. They need to be good enough that Apple would be proud to showcase them.

The technical quality of your screenshots matters too. Apple expects sharp, high-resolution images at the exact required dimensions. Compressed artifacts, upscaled images, or screenshots taken from simulators rather than real devices can disqualify an otherwise excellent app. Use device frames that match the current iPhone lineup. Include text overlays that are grammatically correct and free of typos. Ensure color accuracy across all screenshots. These seem like obvious requirements, but the editorial team reviews thousands of apps and eliminates many for basic quality issues.

You can proactively pitch your app to Apple's editorial team rather than waiting to be discovered. Apple provides an official channel for this, and using it correctly significantly improves your chances.

The Apple Developer app (available on iPhone and iPad) includes a "Promote Your App" section where you can submit your app for editorial consideration. You can also reach the editorial team through the Apple Developer website's contact form. When submitting, include a clear description of what makes your app unique, what new technologies or features you have recently added, and any upcoming major updates or launches. Time your submission 2-3 weeks before a major update or version launch, because the editorial team plans features in advance.

Your pitch should be concise and specific. Do not write a generic description of your app. Instead, focus on the story that makes your app feature-worthy. Explain what problem you solve differently than anyone else, what new Apple technology you have adopted and how it improves the user experience, or what cultural moment or seasonal relevance makes now the right time to feature your app. Apple features apps around themes like "Apps for the New Year," "Back to School," and "Apps We Love Right Now." Aligning your pitch with these seasonal patterns increases relevance.

Include specific metrics if they are impressive. Number of active users, retention rate, user ratings, and growth trajectory can support your case. But do not lead with metrics. Lead with the story and the design quality, then support it with data. Apple features apps because they are excellent, not because they are popular. Some of the most memorable App Store features have been for small indie apps that the editorial team fell in love with.

Studying real examples of featured apps reveals patterns in what works and provides realistic expectations for the impact of a feature placement.

Apps that received "App of the Day" placement typically see a 10x to 50x spike in daily downloads during the feature period, which usually lasts 24-48 hours. The download spike itself is valuable, but the lasting benefit is the organic ranking boost. The surge in downloads improves your position in category rankings and search results, which continues driving incremental installs long after the feature ends. Apps that maintain a strong retention rate after being featured tend to hold their improved ranking position for weeks or months.

Indie developers often see the largest relative impact from features. An app going from 50 downloads per day to 5,000 is a 100x increase, even though the absolute numbers are modest by enterprise standards. For indie developers, a feature can be transformational. It provides validation, press attention, and a user base that would have taken months or years to build organically. Several well-known indie apps including Overcast, Bear, and Halide credit their early App Store features as pivotal moments in their growth trajectories.

Not every feature has the same impact. Placement in a thematic collection ("Great Apps for Photography") drives fewer downloads than "App of the Day" or a banner placement on the Today tab. Regional features (being featured in a single country) drive less traffic than global features. The editorial team makes these placement decisions based on their own criteria, and you generally cannot request a specific placement type. Focus on making your app and listing as strong as possible, and let the editorial team decide the appropriate level of promotion.

One critical lesson from featured apps is the importance of retention after the feature. Apple tracks what happens to users who download apps from feature placements. If users install your app from a feature and then uninstall it quickly, this negative signal can actually hurt your organic ranking and reduce your chances of future features. Make sure your onboarding flow, first-run experience, and core value delivery are optimized before you pursue a feature placement. The worst outcome is being featured before your app is ready, because you get one shot at each user's first impression.