Issue #1070
Besides coming up with a good idea and building the app, there are many other things you can do to boost your app’s visibility. I first wrote these notes as a Twitter thread in April 2021, based on Apple’s promote your app guide. A lot has changed since then, so I’ve updated each point and added the tools Apple introduced after 2021.
Apple Human Interface Guidelines
The Human Interface Guidelines give in-depth information and resources to design great apps. You don’t only learn the fundamentals of colors and fonts, you also learn how elements are used in Apple’s own apps as best practices. An app that follows the HIG feels at home on the platform, and that’s the kind of app Apple likes to feature.
Apple Design Awards
My favorite session every WWDC is the Apple Design Awards. You see how great apps show off design, innovation, and technology on Apple platforms, and why Apple decided they deserve the prize. The awards now have categories like Delight and Fun, Inclusivity, Innovation, Interaction, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics, and each one is a good lens to look at your own app through.
Use new APIs and capabilities
BlackBox by Ryan McLeod is a great example of an app that uses most iPhone capabilities to create stunning puzzles.
You don’t have to go that far, but every OS release brings new APIs that make your app feel more native: widgets, Live Activities, App Intents and Shortcuts, Liquid Glass. Supporting them makes your app more useful and gives Apple a reason to show it off.
Marketing resources and identity guidelines
Apple has marketing guidelines on how to use the App Store badge and Apple product images on your website, emails, and social media.
The App Store marketing tools generate short links and embed code for your product page, with your app icon, a QR code, or an App Store badge. The App Store Connect app also can generate marketing assets for your biggest moments, like a launch, a new version, or getting featured, ready to share on social media.
Promo codes
You can give away up to 100 promo codes per app version, per platform, and up to 100 per in-app purchase. They’re great for press and friends to get early access to your app, and for giveaways.
Subscription offers and offer codes
Offer codes for subscriptions arrived in late 2020. They let you provide free or discounted prices for auto-renewable subscriptions, which is great to fight churn and win back subscribers.
Apple has kept adding to this. Subscription offers now include introductory, promotional, offer code, and win-back offers. Offer codes also work beyond subscriptions, so you can give a limited-time free or discounted price for consumable in-app purchases too.
App bundles
App bundles let customers buy up to 10 of your apps or games in a single purchase. If you have one great app, chances are customers want to buy your other apps too, at a discounted bundle price.
Universal purchase
Introduced in March 2020, universal purchase lets customers buy once and use your app across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. It works for in-app purchases too. The platform versions share one app record and the same bundle ID. If you already have separate app records, you can’t merge them: you remove all but one from sale and add the other platforms to the remaining record.
Freemium with in-app purchases
Would you pay upfront for an app without trying it first? I changed my apps from paid to freemium with in-app purchases and saw a surge in downloads. It’s great for visibility, and it brings more reviews because more people can use your app.
In-app purchases on the App Store
People can browse in-app purchases directly on the App Store and start a purchase even before downloading your app. You can promote up to 20 in-app purchases, including subscriptions, on your product page.
Product page on the App Store
Before talking about ASO and how to design intriguing screenshots, read Apple’s simple product page guide. It covers how to make sure your app details look good: icon, name, subtitle, description, keywords, screenshots, and previews.
Product page optimization
With product page optimization, you can A/B test your product page. You test up to three treatments against your original, with different app icons, screenshots, and app previews. A test runs for up to 90 days, and App Store Connect shows which version converts better. If you were guessing which screenshots or icon work best, now you can measure it.
Custom product pages
Also new since 2021. Custom product pages let you publish up to 70 extra versions of your product page, each with its own URL. You can vary screenshots, promotional text, and app previews, and assign keywords to each page. Use them to match a specific audience, then link each one from the matching ad or post.
Smart App Banners
On your website, a Smart App Banner gives a direct link to your app on the App Store, or opens the app if it’s already installed. It takes just one meta tag on your website, and it can pass a URL to your app so the user lands on the same content they were looking at on the web.
App Clip Codes
If your app has an App Clip, an App Clip Code encodes its URL into a visual code, optionally with an NFC tag. People launch the App Clip by scanning the code or holding their iPhone near it. It works well for physical places like a cafe or a parking meter.
Promote your app
When you make great apps, chances are the App Store will find and feature you. If you think your app deserves notice, let the editorial team know. Back in 2021 this was a web form. Now you use Featuring Nominations in App Store Connect to share a new app, a significant update, or an In-App Event.
Apple asks for at least two weeks of notice, and recommends nominating up to three months in advance for wider featuring consideration. Read more in getting featured.
In-App Events
In-App Events came after my thread. They let you show timely events inside your app, like a challenge, a live session, or a new season, on the App Store. An event can last up to 31 days and be promoted up to 14 days before it starts, and you can have up to 10 events published at a time. They’re also something you can nominate for featuring.
Apple Ads
Pay for ads. Apple Search Ads has been renamed to Apple Ads, and it still has two modes: Basic, the simplest way to run ads, and Advanced, where you manage your own campaigns. Eligible new accounts get a 100 USD credit.
You can also run ads on other platforms like X, Product Hunt, Reddit, and Facebook.
Be ready on release day
It takes a few months from when new APIs are introduced at WWDC in June to when the new OS is released in the fall. If you can take advantage of new features on release day, you’re already ahead.
Widgets in iOS 14 were a good example. Apps that had widgets on day one got a lot of attention, both from users looking for something to put on their Home Screen and from Apple. Liquid Glass in iOS 26 is a more recent one.
Pre-orders
What’s better to validate your idea than to show it before the app is launched? With pre-orders, your product page is published on the App Store and customers can order your app before it’s released. You pick a release date between 2 and 180 days in the future, and the app downloads automatically on that day.
App Store support
Your time is limited, so optimize for effort versus gain. Apple’s App Store support page shows iOS usage, which helps you decide which OS versions to support. When I wrote the thread, 86% of devices introduced in the last four years used iOS 14. As of June 2026, 86% of devices introduced in the last four years use iOS 26. Adoption is fast, so you can usually drop old versions sooner than you think.
The same page links to the review guidelines and technical notes about App Store submission.
Accessibility
Reach a wider audience by providing better accessibility support. iOS has built-in accessibility features and many accessibility APIs you can use. It may be a bit more work, but your users will treasure you forever.
Accessibility is now also visible on your product page. With Accessibility Nutrition Labels, you declare in App Store Connect which accessibility features your app supports, so people know whether they can use it before they download. The features you can declare are VoiceOver, Voice Control, Larger Text, Dark Interface, Differentiate Without Color Alone, Sufficient Contrast, Reduced Motion, Captions, and Audio Descriptions. You answer per device, and only for the features that apply to it.
Dark mode, which I had as its own point in the thread, is now one of these labels. A lot of people prefer it, and since iOS 13 and macOS Mojave it’s system-wide, so an app that stays bright white at night stands out in a bad way.
Providing the labels is voluntary for now, but Apple says it will become required for new apps and updates over time. If you don’t fill them in, your product page shows that you haven’t indicated support yet. Read the overview of Accessibility Nutrition Labels.
Multiple platforms
Handoff since iOS 8, Universal Clipboard since iOS 10, and Mac Catalyst since iOS 13 are some of the features that make a seamless experience across devices. Today your iPhone and iPad app can also run on Apple silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro. Your app has a better chance to reach more users if it’s available on more platforms.
Ask for rating
Good reviews boost your app’s ranking by quite a lot. StoreKit lets you prompt for a rating at the appropriate time with a single call. When I wrote the thread, the API was SKStoreReviewController, available since iOS 10.3. It’s now deprecated in favor of RequestReviewAction, available from iOS 16 and macOS 13.
The system decides whether the prompt actually appears, and shows it at most three times in a 365-day period. Ask after the user finishes something that went well, not on first launch, and don’t call it from a button tap. For a permanent “Rate this app” button, link to your product page with action=write-review appended to the URL.
Be sure to also respond to user feedback. You can reply to reviews in App Store Connect. Read more in ratings and reviews.
How Apple thinks
Apple features apps that help it show off its platforms, make Apple look good, and acquire more users. Appfigures has a good guide on how to get featured with this in mind.
Localization
If you have or want to have users in different countries, you should localize your app to speak their language. The App Store is now available in 175 regions and 50 languages, up from 40 languages in 2021. Expand your app to different markets.
Start with your product page: name, subtitle, keywords, and screenshots. Then localize the app itself. String Catalogs in Xcode make it easy to see which strings are missing per language. See Apple’s localization page for tools and tips.
App icon and screenshots
The single most important visual design element of your product are your app icon and screenshots. Make it unique and easy to remember. Shopify has a good article on app icon design.
App analytics
App Store Connect provides decent analytics for many performance metrics, such as product page views, app units, sales, and active devices.
Choose your battles. Find out how customers discover and engage with your app, then spend your time on the part that brings the most.
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