“The best way to get their attention the editorial team is to build an incredible app have a very high user rating... that is what we look for in featuring because we know that typically is what will actually work really well.”

High App Ratings Are a Hard Prerequisite for Google Play Editorial Featuring

Google's editorial team starts with app quality signals — most importantly, user rating — before considering any app for featuring. Low ratings are a signal of product problems, not just a ranking issue. Reaching out for featuring while sitting at sub-4-star ratings wastes everyone's time; the product work must come first.