Getting featured on the App Store starts with a single step: submitting a self-nomination through Apple’s official developer portal. Apple’s editorial team handpicks every featured app, but they actively invite developers to pitch themselves. There’s no fee, no secret contact, and no requirement that you already have millions of downloads. What matters is the quality of your app, the strength of your pitch, and your timing.
How Apple Chooses Featured Apps
Apple employs a worldwide team of editors who curate featured selections for each platform: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. These editors look for apps and games that demonstrate impeccable design, innovative functionality, and an enjoyable user experience. The highest honor, Editors’ Choice, goes to apps they consider best-in-class.
Editors don’t just feature brand-new releases. They also spotlight apps with significant updates, special in-app events, seasonal relevance, and exclusive content. An app that ties into a cultural moment, like a fitness app launching a New Year’s challenge or a cooking app releasing holiday recipes, has a natural hook that editors look for.
One factor many developers overlook is storytelling. Apple’s editorial team actively seeks out unique narratives behind an app. Maybe you built a tool that changed how an industry operates, or your app helped a community solve a problem no one else was addressing. If there’s a compelling human story behind your product, that narrative can be just as important as the app itself in catching an editor’s attention.
Submit a Feature Nomination
Apple provides an official nomination form through the Apple Developer website. You’ll need an active Apple Developer Program membership to access it. The form asks you to describe your app, explain what makes it noteworthy, and share your planned launch or update date.
Timing matters. Apple asks for a minimum of two weeks’ notice before your launch or major update, but that’s the bare minimum. For wider featuring consideration, Apple recommends submitting your nomination up to three months in advance. A separate Apple guideline suggests six to eight weeks of lead time for new apps or significant updates. The takeaway: the earlier you reach out, the better your chances. Editors plan their featured selections well ahead of time, and a last-minute submission may simply arrive too late for the editorial calendar.
When filling out the nomination, treat it like a pitch. Explain what’s new or different about your app, why users would care, and what story sits behind it. Generic descriptions like “we built a great productivity app” won’t stand out. Specifics will: what problem you solved, what technology you used in a creative way, or what user feedback drove your latest update.
Design Standards That Editors Expect
Apple’s editors evaluate apps against a high bar for design and user experience. Your app should feel native to the Apple ecosystem, following Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for layout, typography, navigation, and interaction patterns. Apps that look and feel like they belong on iOS have a significant advantage over those that feel like cross-platform ports.
Several specific criteria come into play:
- Visual polish: Clean layouts, consistent iconography, smooth animations, and attention to detail in every screen.
- Performance: Fast load times, no crashes, and responsive interactions. Technical stability is a baseline requirement, not a bonus.
- Accessibility: Support for Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and other accessibility features signals that you’ve built your app thoughtfully.
- Localization: High-quality support for multiple languages with culturally appropriate content. An app available in several languages has more featuring opportunities because editors curate selections for each regional storefront.
- Platform features: Adopting the latest Apple technologies, such as widgets, Live Activities, or SharePlay, shows editors that your app takes full advantage of the platform.
Games face additional scrutiny. Apple’s editors evaluate gameplay design, art and animation quality, controls, story and characters, replayability, sound design and music, technical performance, and overall value. If you’re submitting a game, every one of these dimensions should feel polished and intentional.
Optimize Your App Store Product Page
Even if your app is beautifully designed, editors will look at your App Store listing before making a decision. A weak product page can undermine an otherwise strong nomination. Apple specifically calls out several elements: compelling screenshots, engaging app previews (short videos), clear descriptions, and positive ratings and reviews.
Your screenshots should tell a visual story about what the app does, not just show static screens. Use captions to highlight key features. If you can create an app preview video, do it. A well-produced 15- to 30-second clip gives editors (and potential users) an immediate sense of the experience. Your description should lead with the most important benefit, not a wall of feature bullet points.
Ratings and reviews also matter. An app with a 4.5-star average and hundreds of genuine reviews sends a strong signal. If your app is newer, focus on building a solid rating before submitting your nomination. Prompting users for reviews at natural moments in the app (after a positive experience, not immediately on launch) is the most effective way to build this up organically.
Leverage Updates and Events
You don’t need a brand-new app to get featured. Apple regularly highlights existing apps that ship significant updates, introduce in-app events, or offer exclusive content. If you’re planning a major redesign, adding a highly requested feature, or running a limited-time event, that’s a valid reason to submit a new nomination.
In-app events, which are time-limited experiences like challenges, competitions, live streams, or new content drops, appear directly on the App Store and give editors another reason to surface your app. Tying an event to a seasonal moment or cultural event increases its relevance to the editorial calendar.
Each time you have something genuinely new to share, submit another nomination. There’s no penalty for multiple submissions over time, as long as each one has a real hook.
What Happens After You’re Featured
If Apple’s editors select your app, you’ll typically hear from the team ahead of the feature going live. They may request custom artwork or promotional assets for the App Store’s Today tab or category pages. Have high-resolution creative assets ready to go so you can respond quickly.
A feature can drive a dramatic spike in downloads, sometimes tens of thousands in a single day depending on the placement. Make sure your app can handle increased server load and that your onboarding experience is polished for the wave of new users. A feature that drives downloads but leads to a flood of one-star reviews from confused or frustrated users will hurt more than it helps in the long run.
Being featured once also makes future features more likely. Editors remember developers who deliver quality consistently, so treat every update as an opportunity to reinforce that reputation.