Written by: Dom Jackson
From time to time, we get questions from our Developer community wanting to know how they can get their app featured on the BlackBerry World carousel.
We understand why: with a global presence and millions of views every day, a spot on our carousel is valuable real estate, helping you grow your reputation and your bottom line!
How we select which apps are featured
There are a lot of different factors that we consider when deciding which apps to feature, and here are some of them:
- Top New Releases. New releases keep apps fresh and interesting, and take advantage of new OS features and new devices. Keeping your app current is a definite plus in helping you get featured.
- Local Apps. While a huge advantage of BlackBerry World is its global audience, there is certainly opportunity to cater to more local interests. In fact, in some regions, customers might be more interested in downloading an app they feel was designed specifically for them.
- Events and Holidays. When we’re celebrating major holidays in various parts of the world, lifestyle events such as summer holidays, or major sporting events such as the Olympics, the BlackBerry World team wants to feature apps that fit with these themes.
That said, there is judgement that needs to be applied to ensure that featured apps are balanced across geographies, categories and OS’s.
What you can do to improve your chances of being chosen as a featured app
There are several things that you can do when developing your app that would improve your chances of being featured. Here are the main ones:
- Deliver an excellent user experience. Read what users are saying and address any less than positive reviews. If people are telling you about things that are an issue, fix them. With so many people looking at the apps featured on our carousel, we don’t want to recommend apps that have significant flaws and/or which are consistently poorly rated.
- Develop original content. We want to feature apps that have broad appeal, but that are distinctive as well. If your app is very similar to a dozen others on the store, your chances of being featured will be less than an app that stands out as being unique.
- Make it appropriate for all audiences. Generally speaking, apps that are rated Adult or that deal with risqué content will not be featured on the carousel.
- Looks are important. Ensure your feature image and screenshots are sharp, of good quality and resolution, and provide a prospective customer with a good idea of what they can expect from your app.
(Feature image courtesy of QuickPost)
(Screenshot courtesy of QuickPost)
(Screenshot courtesy of S4BB)
- Broad device support. If you’ve built your app for BlackBerry 10, for example, ensure that your app functions well on all of our BlackBerry 10 devices.
How to nominate your application to be featured
If you feel that your app meets the above, you can certainly nominate it to be featured by sending an email to blackberryappworldmarketing@blackberry.com and include the following information:
- Vendor name
- Application name
- Target region for content (e.g. Global, North America, APAC, etc.)
- Feature Image (attached to email)
- Short Description (attached to email)
Our BlackBerry World Developer site has a wealth of information to help you manage your account, your apps and much more. Be sure to visit it today!