Get Featured on the App Store: 2026 Nominations Guide

Get featured on the App Store by submitting a Featuring Nominations form in App Store Connect at least three weeks before your launch, app update, or in-app event [2]. Apple's editorial team scores your submission on seven criteria: user experience, UI design, innovation, uniqueness, accessibility, localization, and product page quality [1]. The form is the only formal channel, and most indie devs have never opened it.

Featuring Nominations went live in November 2024 [3]. Before that, getting featured was effectively a lottery: ship something good, hope an Apple editor noticed, and wait. The form turned a passive process into an active one. You still need a strong app, but now you can put it directly in front of the editorial team on the date you choose.

This guide walks through how to use the form, what Apple actually scores, and the small set of mistakes that knock indie submissions out before they're read.

TL;DR:

• The Featuring Nominations form in App Store Connect is the only formal channel to apply for editorial featuring. Submit at least 3 weeks ahead, ideally up to 3 months for wider consideration [1].
• Apple weighs 7 criteria. Your product page (screenshots, previews, descriptions, ratings) is one of them [1].
• Three nomination types: App Launch, App Enhancements, New Content. Pick the one that matches your moment, not the one that sounds biggest.
• The form requires Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing role [2]. Developer-only roles can't see it.
• Most indie devs never submit. Treating featuring as luck is the mistake. The form is the lever.

Table of Contents

1. What is the App Store Featuring Nominations form?
2. What are the 7 criteria Apple's editorial team scores?
3. How do you submit a Featuring Nomination in App Store Connect?
4. How far in advance should indie devs submit?
5. What kind of submission gets featured?
6. What happens after Apple features your app?
7. Why most indie devs never get featured
8. Submit, don't wait

What is the App Store Featuring Nominations form?

Featuring Nominations is a form inside App Store Connect that lets developers proactively tell Apple's editorial team about a launch, an update, or new in-app content [3]. Apple announced it in June 2024 [4] and rolled it out alongside the November 12, 2024 enhancements to the featuring process [3]. Before the form existed, you had two options: ship and hope, or know someone at Apple. Now you have a third.

The form lives in your app's sidebar in App Store Connect, under Featuring. You'll see Nominations as a menu item. Click the "+" to start one. The form supports three nomination types: App Launch, App Enhancements, and New Content [2]. You can submit nominations one at a time through the UI, or upload many at once via a CSV template if you're managing a portfolio [2].

What the form is not: a guarantee, a queue you can pay to skip, or a checklist where ticking boxes earns featuring. It's a way to get a real human editor to look at your app on a date you specify. The bar is the same. The access is new.

What are the 7 criteria Apple's editorial team scores?

Apple publishes the criteria its editorial team weighs when evaluating apps for featuring [1]. There's no public scorecard, but the criteria are concrete enough to use as a self-audit before you submit.

• User experience. Cohesive, efficient, and valuable functionality that's helpful and easy to use [1]. The test: can a new user understand what your app does and finish their first task without help.
• UI design. Great usability, appeal, and overall quality, including beautiful visuals and intuitive gestures and controls [1]. Editors notice polish in motion, not just static screens.
• Innovation. New technologies that solve a unique problem and provide an enhanced user experience [1]. Using a new iOS API in a meaningful way is a fast track here.
• Uniqueness. A fresh approach to a familiar category, or a new genre entirely [1]. The "yet another to-do app" pattern fails this criterion by default.
• Accessibility. A great experience for a broad range of users, with well-integrated features [1]. VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, color contrast, and reduced motion support all count.
• Localization. High-quality support for multiple languages with culturally relevant content [1]. Machine-translated copy is visible and works against you. The App Store localization guide covers what "high quality" means here.
• App Store product page. Compelling screenshots, app previews, and descriptions, plus positive ratings and reviews [1]. This is the only criterion you can fix in an afternoon, and it's the one indie devs most often submit weak.

Games get evaluated on additional criteria too: gameplay design, art and animation, controls, story and characters, replayability, sound design and music, technical performance, and overall value [1]. The principle is the same: every category has its own bar, and the editorial team knows what good looks like in your category better than you do.

How do you submit a Featuring Nomination in App Store Connect?

The submission flow is short. Apple's documentation lists 10 numbered steps [2], but most of them are clicks. The actual work happens in the description field.

1. Open App Store Connect and select your app under Apps.
2. Click Nominations in the sidebar under Featuring. You need Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, or Marketing role to see it [2].
3. Click the "+" next to Nominations and select Create Nomination.
4. Name your nomination something memorable (this is internal, not public).
5. Pick your nomination type: App Launch, App Enhancements, or New Content [2].
6. Write the description. This is the entire submission. Tell the editorial team what's changing, why it matters, and what's notable about how you built it.
7. Pick a publication date or window. A specific day or a range. This is the date you want to be featured.
8. Add optional information: related apps from your developer account (up to 10), platforms, target countries or regions, In-App Events, and supplemental URLs (up to 5) [2].
9. Review the Additional Information section for completeness.
10. Click Submit Nomination in the top right and confirm.

Two things developers miss. First, individual nominations can be saved as drafts and edited before submission, but CSV imports are submitted automatically and can't be drafted [2]. If you're using CSV for a portfolio, your draft tooling is your spreadsheet, not App Store Connect. Second, the supplemental URLs slot (up to 5 links) is the place to drop your launch trailer, a press kit, or a one-page deck. Editors don't have time to dig, but they will click a clearly labeled link.

How far in advance should indie devs submit?

Apple publishes two different lead times depending on which page you read.

The Getting Featured page recommends a minimum of two weeks notice, and "up to three months in advance" for wider featuring consideration [1]. The Nominate your app for featuring help page says "submit and finalize your plan at least three weeks in advance" for operational efficiency [2]. Treat three weeks as the floor and three months as the ceiling.

The practical answer for indie devs:

• App Launch: Submit six to eight weeks before App Store release date. This gives editors time to plan a Today tab story, a category placement, or both. It also gives you time to fix anything in the product page that the submission process surfaces.
• App Enhancements: Submit three to four weeks before the new version goes live. Update the description with what shipped, not what you're hoping to ship. Editors don't feature roadmaps.
• New Content: Submit three weeks ahead of the content drop or in-app event. Time-bound nominations (a holiday update, a tournament, a seasonal mode) compete for limited editorial slots, so longer lead times help.

The mistake that kills last-minute submissions: thinking that a Tuesday submission for a Friday launch will get reviewed in time. It won't. The editorial team operates on a content calendar, and the calendar fills weeks ahead. Submit late and you're in the queue for the next window, not this one.

What kind of submission gets featured?

The criteria are public. The pattern is harder to see. After looking at the Today tab over the last year, the indie apps that get featured tend to share three traits.

One signature thing. Featured apps usually have one capability that's hard to describe in a sentence and obvious to see in a 30-second demo. A new gesture, a new way to organize information, a use of an iOS API that nobody else has tried. Editors latch onto the signature thing because that's what makes the Today tab story writable. Apps with five "good" features and no signature thing are harder to write about than apps with one strong one.

A product page that matches the story. Apple lists "App Store product page" as a featuring criterion [1] not because they're checking your conversion rate, but because the product page is what their editorial team sees first. If your screenshots don't show the signature thing, the submission gets weaker. Run your set through an ASO audit before submitting, and read the screenshot best practices guide if your set was last touched a year ago.

A timing hook the editorial team can use. A version number isn't a hook. A new iOS API support, a holiday tie-in, a seasonal moment, an Apple platform launch (Vision Pro, watchOS major version, iPad multitasking changes), or an in-app event with a specific date all give editors a reason to publish on a specific day. The seasonal screenshot guide covers the predictable windows where editorial slots open up.

What does not get featured: a competent v1 that does what the description says, a 1.4.2 bug fix, or a UI refresh with no functional change. None of those are bad. They're just not stories an editor can write.

What happens after Apple features your app?

If your app gets a Today tab placement (App of the Day, Game of the Day, or a story slot), you'll get a notification through the App Store Connect app on your phone [1]. The notification includes promotional assets generated by Apple's design team that you can share to your social channels with one tap [3]. You don't have to design anything.

The traffic spike from a featured day is real but not always enormous for indies. App of the Day for a niche productivity tool might bring 5,000 to 20,000 new downloads in 24 hours, depending on category and country mix. A category placement (top of Productivity or Lifestyle for a week) usually compounds better than a single day on the Today tab, because the surface stays live longer. The combined effect of "featured by Apple" social proof on the rest of your funnel can outlast the featuring window itself.

What you don't get: any guarantee about retention. Featured downloads behave like any other top-of-funnel traffic. The 60% of users Apple's editorial team has already filtered for at least somewhat care about your category, but D1 retention will still depend on whether your onboarding does its job. Plan the post-featuring week as carefully as you plan the submission. The indie developer launch checklist covers the launch-week mechanics that turn a featuring spike into compounding installs.

Why most indie devs never get featured

The form is six clicks. The criteria are public. The lead times are documented. So why is the indie share of Today tab placements still small?

Three reasons that come up over and over.

They never submit. This is the largest one. Featuring Nominations has been live for almost 18 months. Most solo devs still treat featuring as something that happens to other people. The form turned the process from a lottery into a queue, but you have to join the queue to be in it. Submit one nomination per major release, even if you're not sure it's strong enough. Editors are better at filtering than you are at self-rejecting.

Their product page undersells the app. The submission text might be strong, but Apple's editors look at the product page next. If your screenshots are from your dev build, your captions are generic, or your first frame doesn't show the signature thing, the submission gets weaker. The product page is the only criterion you can fix in an afternoon. The 2026 captions guide walks through why caption text now feeds search ranking too, which means stale captions cost you twice.

They submit too late. A Tuesday submission for a Friday launch isn't a submission, it's a notification. The editorial team works on a content calendar and that calendar fills weeks in advance. Three weeks is the documented floor [2]. Six to eight weeks for an app launch is realistic. If you're ten days from release with no nomination filed, file one anyway, but plan for the next eligible window, not this one.

A subtler reason: indie submissions often pitch the version, not the story. "We shipped 2.0 with a redesign" doesn't write itself into a Today tab story. "We rebuilt our app around the new iOS Live Activities API so users can track their workouts from the lock screen" does. The editorial team writes stories. Give them one.

Submit, don't wait

The Featuring Nominations form changed the math. Featuring is no longer a lottery you enter by accident. It's a queue you join by clicking submit. The work is in the description, the lead time, and the quality of the product page Apple sees attached to the submission.

The product page is the lever you fully control. Apple lists "compelling screenshots, app previews, and descriptions" as one of the seven featuring criteria [1], which means a stale or generic set works against your submission whether you realize it or not. Updating the set isn't the design project it used to be.

Try AppScreenshotStudio today for free and ship the rest of your nomination from a stronger position. The form opens to the same six clicks for everyone. The submissions that get read are the ones with a real story, a clean product page, and three weeks of runway behind them.