Overview
Featured Timeline helps you understand how your app is featured in app stores around the world. Stores have teams of editors who decide which apps to promote on the main store pages in order to draw users' attention. Find more information on this in our blog: What are featured apps and why is it good to be featured?
The app stores pick up apps and games that will be most popular among users. Both the App Store and Google Play Store have certain guidelines to follow if you want your app to get featured. This article will help you get your app into the spotlight in the app stores and boost app downloads.
We show when your app was featured on different graphs in AppFollow (e.g. Reviews Chart).
You can find it in the left-hand panel → ASO → ASO & keywords → Featured timeline:
We only show non-personalized public data. More details down below.
How Do Stores Feature Apps?
App stores have teams of editors who decide which apps to promote on the main store pages in order to draw users' attention. Their main goal is to pick up apps and games that will be most popular among users. Both the App Store and Google Play Store have certain guidelines to follow if you want your app to get featured.
How to Get Featured on The App Store
On the App Store, promoted apps and games appear for end-users in different sections of the store:
- Today : this section shows the best apps and games of the day, developers' stories, and thematic collections picked by editors. This tab is the same for iPhones and iPads.
2. Games, Apps, and Arcade: these sections promote apps and games differently, based on Apple's internal algorithms.
In-app purchases can be featured here as well. Users can make a purchase even without launching the app or before the download is complete (*available on devices starting from iOS 11).
To get featured, you need to fill out a public application form. If Apple selects your app or game for featuring, you will receive a happy email. Within the limited time period, you’ll need to prepare the required banners in PSD format. We also recommend adopting the latest iOS features and following Apple’s guidelines for developers (for example, using Apple ARKit). Here's some helpful information from Apple:
Google Play Store
Google Play separates apps into 2 main sections: Games and Apps. They contain multiple different subcategories with apps, for example:
- For you
- Top charts: featured apps with the highest ranking per categories
- Kids: apps approved by teachers and tutors
- Events
- Premium: apps with the highest ranking available for download after purchase
- Categories: ranking as per categories
- Editors' Choice: games and applications selected by Play Market editors manually
- New and updated games: updated or uploaded to Google Play less than 30 days ago.
Google Play also offers a public application form to get featured. It needs to be filled out with all relevant information.
How We Collect Data
Most Featured Apps in the stores are shown to end-users with the help of ad personalization. In AppFollow, we go to the public app pages in the store in each country and collect non-personalized data only (if you disable all the personalization options in your phone, you will be able to see the same results). We update the Featured timeline page once a day around midnight (GMT).