ASO
LaunchApp Store Optimization: improving an app’s visibility and conversion inside the App Store and Google Play through metadata, creative assets, ratings and update recency.
Launch
App store featuring
Editorial selection by Apple or Google for placement on a store’s curated surfaces, awards or collections. Not purchasable, and driven by craft rather than downloads.
Also called featured on the App Store, Editors Choice, Google Play featuring
App store featuring is placement chosen by a store’s human editorial team: Apple’s Today tab and Editors’ Choice, Google Play’s curated collections and its annual awards. It cannot be bought, and it is not a function of download volume.
What editors reward is craft: design quality, platform-idiomatic behavior, accessibility work, thoughtful use of recent platform capabilities, and a clear story about who the app is for. Both stores publish nomination routes, and both weight apps that adopt new platform features close to release.
The awards are the visible end of it. Focus Friend, built by a single indie developer, won Google Play’s Best App of 2025 overall and an Apple App Store Cultural Impact award in the same year after reaching number one free on the App Store. Tiimo, from a small Copenhagen team, was named Apple’s 2025 iPhone App of the Year and carries Editors’ Choice with a 4.6 rating across 20,000 ratings.
Neither of those outcomes had a budget behind it, which is the point worth taking from the category: featuring is the one distribution channel in mobile where being small is not a disadvantage.
Last reviewed .
See also
Editor's pick
DirectoryA listing selected by a directory’s editorial team rather than by community voting, usually carrying placement, a badge, and any benefits that votes would otherwise unlock.
App launch
LaunchThe dated moment an app is publicly released or presented to a new audience, together with the coordinated activity around it. An event, not a piece of software.