15 Tips to Feature your Apps in App Store's Editor's Choice Section

I am pretty sure this is every App Developers dream to get their Apps or Games featured atleast once on the most coveted place in the app ecosystem: The Editor's Choice. But what does it take to feature your app in "The Editor's Choice", be it Apple App Store or Google Play? Well, let's find it out....

Below I have listed out some tips after extensive research on the Internet

Useful Tips to Feature your App in App Store:

1) Develop a Universal App.

By Universal, I mean that developers should craft their apps for all Apple Products: iPhone, iPad and Mac. If your app is multi-linguistic, you will increase your chances of getting featured on App Store in most of the countries.

2) Develop Apps only for Apple

Makes Sense? Apple App Store features long list of categories for Apps and Games that you won't find on any other App Store. So, it is a wise decision to develop apps only for the App Store. Your goal should be to make people want to buy an iPhone in order to use your app.

3) Create an excellent App, let Apple Come to You

If you build an excellent App, then Apple will surely contact you to feature your app.

4) Create a Unique App

Create an app that is unique and interesting enough for Apple to feature it.

5) Create an app that solves a problem in a better way

App Developers must think of an existing problem faced by App Users and then develop a strategy to provide a better solution which makes the life of app users very easy.

6) Remake Famous Games from the past

Games like Flappy Bird and Swing Copters were inspired from Copters played in the Y2K Era. Not only Apple featured both of these games, but even Google created a doodle of Flappy Bird on the last day of 2014.

7) Strong Relationship with Apple Employees

Do you need more evidence after reading this? Then see the entire discussion and revelations from App Developers below as seen on Quora.

"When working with ANY app store, building a great app helps, but building a great relationship with the app store's manager is a huge help if you're trying to get your app featured.

When I was working at Lookout Mobile Security, we consistently saw that getting on the Shelf (which is basically "Featured", but can also apply to carrier-specific Android Market apps) gave us 3x or 4x our organic traffic. We were constantly trying to juggle our app back into as many Shelves as possible. The key to consistent Shelf placement was the relationships we built to support the great app that our engineers had created.

My biggest tip for getting Featured is to submit your app and then build a relationship with the App Store representative that you end up talking to. Even if you get rejected, you can start a conversation around the following topics:

• What do you look for in a Featured app?
• What could I change about my app that would make it more valuable to users?
• Could I get my fans to request that you Feature my app?
• What can I change about my Featured app submission to increase its chances of success?

Not only does the ensuing conversation give you valuable advice, it also gives you a rapport with the representative so that next time you submit, they will recognize you and the improvements you've made. This makes it much more likely that they will accept your app for the Featured list, especially if you submit directly to the rep instead of through the usual channels.

That said, the tricky part of this is definitely getting an email back at all. While I joined Lookout after a lot of the initial conversations, but I did initiate a couple of new ones and I think there's a couple tips I can give you:

1. Have an app that they are interested in, and they will make sure they find time for you (this is the "make a good app and you'll get featured!" tip)
2. Keep the email VERY concise. Pick one of the above questions and ask it. No fluff.
3. Be persistent. Even if you ping them and they don't respond, they remember you."

By the way, read the entire discussion on Quora to get in-depth knowledge on how to build relations with employees of App Store and Google Play that may help you to feature your App.

8)  Make Use of Latest Technology Used By Apple

If you incorporate new technologies like Apple Pay and Metal Technology in your apps and games, you have more chances of getting your apps and games featured in the Editor's Choice shelf on the App Store.

9) Popular and Most Downloaded App

Why would you want your app to be featured in Editor's choice when your app is already popular and downloaded a million times? If your app gets featured in Editor's choice, it will definitely give a boost to your app download rate and also give you a personal satisfaction for all the hard work that went into creating a masterpiece and widely popular app.

10) Apple-Like App Design

With Apple, your app design is the best and free source of marketing. Making your app look more like the apps designed by Apple can surely attract the attention of Apple App Store Editors.

11) Famous App Developer Advantage

 Famous App Developers have more chances of getting their apps featured in the Editor's Choice Section. If you are a famous app developer, you need not read this. Instead, you may contribute  to this article to help other App Developers.

12) Releasing App on Wednesday

Every week on Thursday afternoon (Cupertino time), Apple's team of editors choose two apps to feature as Editors' Choice. Sometimes selected apps are featured on each App Store around the globe, but often each local App Store selects its own apps for this honour.

Editors' Choice selected apps are given significant prominence in the App Store app. With this developers can be guaranteed significant downloads (hopefully providing significant revenue). Further advantages include obtaining a reserved slot in the Editors' Choice App Store category for all eternity and consideration for the 'Best of' app of the year.

It has been noticed by people in the app development industry that there doesn't seem to be anything particularly special that developers need to do to have an app selected as Editors' Choice. It seems we simply need to build a kick ass app and hope the editors notice it during the review process - sounds easy enough!

The version history of the app "Repix" was updated 2 days before it was featured on the App Store. There is no doubt that Apple Editors work with Famous App Developers to target a release date inline with the Editor's Choice Selection.

13) Understand Apple's Editorial Calendar

It is very important to understand Apple's Editorial Calendar. Apple's Editorial team releases certain types of apps based on the occasion and important events. For Example, if there is a major event happening worldwide like Football World Cup or Olympics, then create your app related to these events.

If it’s September – most likely Apple will push their “Back to School campaign” featuring apps for students (to-dos, writing, PDF readers, note-takers, etc). Try to anticipate future events and develop your entire app marketing strategy to reap maximum benefits.

14) App Creates a lot of Buzz

App review team at Apple are constantly looking for apps that creates a lot of online buzz. You can pay top Apple websites to review your app or target Facebook Ads in Cupertino and San Francisco to get your app easily noticed by Apple Employees.

15) Attend Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developer's Conference)

WWDC is a great event to dive into Apple community. You can meet iTunes team, or Apple evangelists who might further introduce you to App Store editorial team. Having a personal connection with someone at Apple might help you to create your own fortune.

Phew! After a lot of research, I have finally managed to cover the most important aspects which increases the chances of your app getting noticed by the Editorial Team at Apple.

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