How to Get Your App Featured on Apple's App Store

To give your app a realistic chance of being featured, build a high-quality experience, identify a specific launch, update, event, or story worth highlighting, and submit a Featuring Nomination through App Store Connect well before it goes live.

Apple says its editors consider user experience, interface design, innovation, uniqueness, accessibility, localization, product-page quality, ratings, and reviews. There is no checklist that guarantees selection.

The nomination is your chance to show Apple’s editorial team what's new, why it matters, when it'll be available, and which countries, platforms, and audiences it's relevant to.

This guide walks through the current process.

What App Store Featuring Means

“Featured” doesn't mean one specific placement.

Apple highlights apps, games, developers, and in-app content in several ways, including:

• Editorial stories and themed collections
• App of the Day and Game of the Day
• Lists built around a category, need, season, or theme
• In-App Events
• Pre-orders
• Personalized recommendations
• Editors’ Choice recognition

Placements vary by device, platform, country, language, and storefront. Apple says featured selections are localized and regionally curated, so an app may be relevant in one market without receiving the same placement everywhere.

All apps and games are eligible for App of the Day or Game of the Day, whether they are new or established. A brand-new launch is therefore not your only opportunity. A meaningful update, timely event, strong developer story, or major expansion can also give editors a reason to take another look.

What Apple Considers When Choosing Apps to Feature

Apple states that there is no guaranteed checklist, but it publishes the factors its editorial team considers.

User Experience

The app should provide useful, efficient, and cohesive functionality. Core tasks should be easy to understand and complete.

This is broader than visual polish. Broken flows, confusing navigation, aggressive interruptions, and an unclear reason to use the app make the overall experience weaker.

Interface Design

Apple looks for usability, appeal, and quality. The design should suit the supported Apple platforms and make good use of their interaction patterns.

Following Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines can help, but copying a standard interface won't earn you a feature. The design still needs a clear identity and a thoughtful fit with the product.

Innovation

Innovation can mean using new technology to solve a problem in a better way. It doesn't mean adding AI, augmented reality, a watch app, or another Apple framework just to attract attention.

Use technology when it improves the user’s experience, and make that improvement easy to demonstrate.

Uniqueness

The app may offer a fresh approach to a familiar category or define a new kind of experience.

Be specific about what is distinctive. “Fast and easy to use” could describe almost any app. A new interaction, underserved audience, unusual content model, or genuinely different solution gives an editor a clearer story.

Accessibility

Apple considers whether the experience works well for a broad range of users and whether accessibility features are meaningfully integrated.

That can include support for VoiceOver, Larger Text, Voice Control, captions, sufficient contrast, and alternatives to gestures or sensory cues where appropriate.

Accessibility should be tested across core tasks. A feature list is less convincing than an experience people can use successfully.

Localization

High-quality localization helps an app feel relevant in different languages and cultures.

This goes beyond translating interface labels. Consider screenshots, store copy, content, date and currency formats, local expectations, and whether the highlighted feature is available in the nominated markets.

App Store Product Page

Apple looks for compelling screenshots, app previews, descriptions, positive ratings, and reviews.

The page needs to make the app’s value clear and accurately represent the current experience. Strong product-page assets also give the editorial team confidence that users who encounter a feature will understand what they are being invited to download.

Apple doesn't publish a required star rating such as 4.5. Quality and user sentiment matter, but there's no official threshold that guarantees or rules out featuring.

Give Apple a Specific Reason to Feature the App Now

A good app is the starting point. A good nomination also needs a moment.

Apple accepts three nomination types:

1. App Launch: A new app launch or pre-order.
2. App Enhancements: A significant new feature, capability, redesign, or other major update.
3. New Content: New content, an offer, or an event inside an existing app or game.

Choose the type that matches the story. A routine maintenance release isn't a major enhancement.

Feature-worthy moments may include:

• A new app solving a clear, timely problem
• A major redesign that materially improves the experience
• A new accessibility capability
• Expansion into important languages or regions
• A substantial feature built around a new Apple platform capability
• A cultural, seasonal, sporting, or community event
• Original content with a defined release date
• A meaningful company, creator, or community story behind the app

The strongest angle connects the product change to something users will care about now.

How to Submit a Featuring Nomination in App Store Connect

Apple now provides a formal nomination process in App Store Connect.

You need the Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing role. Then:

1. Open the app in App Store Connect.
2. Select Nominations under Featuring.
3. Click the plus button and choose Create Nomination.
4. Give the nomination an internal name.
5. Choose New Content, App Enhancements, or App Launch.
6. Write a detailed description of what is changing and why it matters.
7. Choose the intended publication date or date range.
8. Add the relevant platforms, countries or regions, localizations, related apps, In-App Events, supplemental links, and helpful details.
9. Save as a draft or submit the nomination.

Apple also provides a CSV workflow for teams submitting multiple nominations.

Its public featuring page asks for at least two weeks’ notice and recommends up to three months for wider consideration. The App Store Connect nomination instructions recommend a minimum of three weeks. In practice, treat three weeks as the minimum and submit earlier when the launch plan is firm.

See Apple’s current instructions for submitting a Featuring Nomination.

How to Write a Strong Featuring Nomination

The nomination description is limited, so focus on the editorial case rather than repeating the product page.

Lead With What's New

Open with the specific launch, content, or enhancement.

Weak:

Our app is the best way to shop our products and has many useful features.

Stronger:

On October 15, Trend & Co is launching an app-wide adaptive sizing experience that helps shoppers compare garment measurements with items they already own.

The second version gives the editor a date, a feature, and a user benefit.

Explain Why It Matters

Describe the problem and the change in the user experience.

What can people do now that they couldn't do before? Who benefits? Why is the timing relevant?

Use concrete language. If early testing showed a real improvement, include the result and explain how you measured it. Leave out invented forecasts and vanity metrics.

Make the Editorial Angle Easy to See

An editor may be considering themes such as accessibility, local creators, a cultural moment, a new platform, a seasonal event, or an unusual solution to a common problem.

State the connection when it's genuine. Don't force a topical hook that has little to do with the product.

Include Helpful Context About the Team

Apple’s nomination form invites details about accessibility, inclusivity, unique aspects of the app, and the people behind it.

A founder story, independent team, community partnership, local expertise, or unusual development process can strengthen the editorial narrative when it's relevant to the app.

Add Useful Supplemental Material

You can provide up to five URLs with supporting material, including documents, art assets, and TestFlight public links.

Useful supporting links may include:

• A short product demonstration
• A media or launch brief
• TestFlight access
• High-quality artwork
• Accessibility documentation
• Research or evidence behind the feature
• A concise founder or creator story

Don't send a folder full of generic marketing assets. Each link should help the editor understand or evaluate the nomination.

Featuring Nomination Example

Here is a fictional example for an ecommerce app enhancement.

Nomination type: App Enhancements

Description: On October 15, Trend & Co will launch Adaptive Fit, a new sizing experience that lets shoppers compare product measurements with garments they already own. The feature is designed to reduce uncertainty for customers shopping across international size systems. It includes localized measurement guidance for the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan, supports Larger Text and VoiceOver across the full comparison flow, and is available on iPhone and iPad. Our supplemental materials include a TestFlight link, a 30-second demonstration, accessibility test notes, and localized product-page assets.

The example is specific. It explains the new experience, user problem, launch timing, localization, supported platforms, and accessibility work without claiming that the feature will transform the business.

Prepare the Product Page and App for Editorial Attention

The nomination can't make up for an unfinished app or unclear product page.

Before the nominated date:

• Check that the relevant build and backend are stable.
• Update screenshots and preview video to show the nominated feature.
• Explain the feature clearly in the description and “What’s New” text.
• Localize the assets for the markets included in the nomination.
• Check ratings and recent reviews for recurring issues.
• Check that support, privacy, accessibility, and account flows are current.
• Confirm the editor can access the feature through TestFlight or the released app.

If the nomination relates to an In-App Event, attach the approved or published event as early as possible.

Apple may request promotional artwork if the app is under consideration. Keep the App Store Connect contact details for Admin, App Manager, and Marketing users current so the request reaches the right person.

Common Featuring Mistakes

Avoid these common problems:

• Waiting until launch week to submit
• Describing the entire app instead of the nominated moment
• Treating a minor bug-fix release as a significant enhancement
• Using broad claims without evidence
• Adding an Apple technology that doesn't improve the experience
• Sending stale screenshots or a product page that doesn't show the update
• Nominating countries where the feature or localization isn't ready
• Assuming ratings alone determine selection
• Repeatedly submitting the same generic pitch
• Building the app around what you think Apple wants rather than what users need

What Happens After You Submit

A nomination is a request for consideration, not a booking.

Apple reviews the information and may contact the email address provided if the app is a fit. If promotional artwork is needed, team members with relevant App Store Connect roles may receive a request.

You may not get detailed feedback if the app isn't selected. Keep improving the product and submit a new nomination when there's a genuinely new launch, enhancement, content release, event, or story.

If the app receives selected Today-tab featuring, Apple may notify you through the App Store Connect app and provide assets you can share on social media.

The Bottom Line

You can't guarantee App Store featuring, but you can make a much stronger case for it.

Build an app that delivers a high-quality, distinctive experience. Choose a specific moment worth highlighting. Submit a clear Featuring Nomination early, with the right markets, localizations, timing, and supporting material. Then check that the live product page and app deliver exactly what the nomination promises.

For ecommerce brands launching through MobiLoud, our team manages the App Store submission and helps prepare the listing assets and launch information. Featuring remains Apple’s editorial decision, but a well-run launch gives the app a credible foundation for consideration.

If you're planning an ecommerce app, book a consultation to see how the process works.