App Store In-App Events: How Small Apps Can Use Them for Visibility

App Store in-app events are timely things happening inside your app (a challenge, a live session, a content premiere, a major update) that you can publish as event cards on the App Store. They appear on your product page, in search results, and can be picked for the Today, Games and Apps tabs and personalized recommendations, all without paying for ads.

For a small app, an in-app event is one of the few free ways to get an extra, fresh-looking card in front of people searching and browsing. You can have up to 10 events published at once, each lasting up to 31 days, and promote each one up to 14 days before it starts. This guide covers the limits, the metadata and media specs, and event ideas that work for apps without a live-ops team.

Where do App Store in-app events appear?

According to Apple’s in-app events overview, events can show up in four places:

• Your product page. All currently published events appear there, ordered by start time, with high-priority events ahead of normal ones.
• Search results. For people who already have your app, the event card can appear in place of screenshots in your search result. For people who don’t, your screenshots show as usual. Events can also be found by searching for the event itself.
• Editorial placements on the Today, Games and Apps tabs, if Apple’s editors pick them.
• Personalized recommendations, which use the event’s purpose (new, active or lapsed users) to decide who sees it.

From the event card or details page, people can ask the App Store to notify them when the event starts, and share it. The search placement matters most for small apps: it is mainly a re-engagement surface, putting something new in front of people who installed you and drifted away.

In-app event limits and specs

Regional availability is optional, and you can set dates and times per location. Videos autoplay and loop, so they should loop cleanly.

Event badges

Every event gets one of seven badges, which tells people what kind of event it is:

• Challenge: a goal to reach before the event ends.
• Competition: users compete for a top ranking or rewards.
• Live Event: a real-time experience everyone shares at the same time.
• Major Update: significant new features, content or experiences, not minor UI changes or bug fixes.
• New Season: new content or storylines building on what exists.
• Premiere: new content or media introduced for the first time.
• Special Event: limited-time events that don’t fit the other badges.

What makes a good in-app event (and what gets rejected)

Apple is fairly explicit. Good candidates are challenges, competitions and special content launches. Poor candidates are repetitive daily tasks or rewards, price promotions with no new content, and general app awareness promotions. A few metadata rules trip people up:

• No specific prices in event text; Apple says this leads to rejection.
• No all caps, no “!!”, no unverifiable claims like “the best” or “#1.”
• No filler like “game event” in the name. Names should be specific: Apple’s example is “June Leaderboard Climb.”
• Avoid text and logos in event media, and don’t add borders or gradients; Apple crops and applies gradients itself.
• Keep the card and details media visually related (similar colours or illustration style).

Some of these rules overlap with screenshot review rules; our article on why Apple rejects App Store screenshots covers the claims and trademark issues in more depth.

How small apps can use in-app events

You don’t need a live-ops team. You need something that is genuinely time-bound and genuinely in the app. Some formats that fit small teams:

Write the short description for the card

The 50-character short description is what most people read. Write it as the reason to tap: “Walk 100K steps and earn the winter badge” (41 characters) does more than “Join our exciting new challenge.” The 120-character long description on the details page can add who it’s for and what you get.

Set the purpose honestly

Apple asks whether an event is for all users, new users, active users or lapsed users. This isn’t shown to people, but it is used for recommendations. A “bring back lapsed users” challenge is usually the most natural fit for a small app with an installed base.

Add a deep link

When someone taps Open on an event, they should land on the event, not your home screen. Apple recommends universal links, warns against URL shorteners and redirects, and suggests a landing screen if the event hasn’t started yet. New users may need onboarding first, so make sure there’s a path back into the main app.

Line events up with your listing

If you’re running a seasonal event, a matching custom product page and promotional text make the story consistent for people who arrive from links or ads. We covered those levers in seasonal App Store screenshots and the custom product pages guide.

Submitting an in-app event for review

You create events in App Store Connect under your app’s In-App Events section and submit them to App Review. Events are reviewed independently of app versions, and Apple’s October 2025 update lets you submit them separately even while an app version is under review. The content has to exist in the live app when the event starts, so if the event depends on new code, ship the update first.

Apple’s App Review page says it typically reviews 90% of submissions in under 48 hours, but leave margin: with the 14-day promotion window, submitting about three weeks before the start date lets the card appear early. If an event requires a particular In-App Purchase, you declare it; subscription apps only need to when there’s an extra event-specific cost.

How to measure in-app events in App Analytics

App Store Connect Analytics reports, per event: event impressions, event details page views, app opens, downloads (filterable by event), acquisition sources, and how many people opted in to start notifications. Apple’s metric definitions note that in-app event metrics appear only after the app gets five first-time downloads from at least one event, so a small app may see opens and impressions before it sees download numbers.

For most small apps, the useful questions are:

• Opens: did the event bring existing users back? This is usually where events earn their keep.
• Downloads attributed to the event: did anyone new install because of it?
• Notification opt-ins: did the pre-start promotion window do anything?
• Overall conversion: did your product page conversion change while the event was live? Read it by source type, as explained in our App Store conversion rate guide.

Run the same format more than once before judging it. A monthly challenge with a consistent name and look gives you comparable numbers; a one-off tells you very little.

Google Play’s equivalent: promotional content

Google Play’s closest equivalent is promotional content (formerly LiveOps). It covers offers, time-limited events and major updates, and appears on the Apps or Games tab, in search results and on your store listing; the Events tab is for games in select regions. It’s available for all games and for apps that meet Google’s eligibility criteria for premium growth tools. Per Play Console help, events can last up to four weeks, you can submit up to 60 days before the start date, approval can take up to four days, and featuring requests need at least 14 days’ notice. Unlike Apple, Google allows offers such as discounts as a content type.

Checklist for your first in-app event

• Pick something time-bound that really happens in the app: a challenge, premiere, live session or major update.
• Choose the badge that matches, and set the purpose (often lapsed users).
• Name ≤ 30 characters, short description ≤ 50, long description ≤ 120. No prices, no all caps, no “#1.”
• Make 16:9 card media (≥ 1920 × 1080) and 9:16 details media (≥ 1080 × 1920) without text or logos.
• Add a tested universal link that lands on the event.
• Submit about three weeks ahead to use the 14-day promotion window.
• Check opens, event downloads and opt-ins afterwards, and repeat the format before judging it.

If your event announces a big feature, it is also a natural moment to look at whether your screenshots still show the app as it is; we covered that in when to update your App Store screenshots.