How to Cite a Mobile App in APA
More students than ever rely on mobile apps to complete assignments and research paper topics. Below are some tips on how to cite a mobile app in APA format, 7th edition.
Structure:
Author Last Name, First Initial OR *Rights holder. (Year Published). App title (Version #) [Mobile app]. Publisher/App Store. URL
*Note that the rights holder may be an individual but is often a group or company, and that the date reflects the year the version you used was released, even though previous versions may have been released in different years. An easy way to find the rights holder is to look for the copyright symbol ( © ).
The rights holder is the person or group that owns the right to distribute the app itself; most often this is the “seller.” The author is the person who built the app or maintains it over time. Unless the individual author is clearly available, citing the rights holder is preferred.
Example:
Thomson Reuters Corporation. (2017). Reuters (Version 3.2.1) [Mobile app]. App Store. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reuters/id602660809?mt=8
- How do I cite a mobile app in APA?
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To cite a mobile app, you need to know some basic information such as the name of the author/rights holder, year, title of the mobile app, version number, source of download, and URL. The below examples show you how to provide in-text citations and reference list entries for mobile apps with templates and examples.
In-text citation template and example:
Narrative:
Name of group (Published Year)
3D Brain (2017)
Parenthetical:
(Name of group, Published Year)
(3D Brain, 2017)
Reference list entry template and example:
Name of Group/Author. (Year). Title of the mobile app (Version #) [Mobile app]. App Store. URL
3D Brain. (2017). 3D Brain education reference (Version 1.0.3) [Mobile app]. Google Play Store. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dnalc.threedbrain&hl=en_US&gl=US
The mobile app title is italicized and is in sentence case. Include the version number in parentheses. The phrase “Mobile app” is placed inside brackets after the version number.
- Should mobile apps be italicized in APA?
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When mobile app titles appear in the text of a paper, do not italicize them. Do italicize mobile app titles when they appear in reference list entries (as shown in the examples for the above FAQ).
In an in-text citation, the author of the app is not italicized (Zuckerberg, 2021); however, if there is no author and the app is therefore cited by its title, the title is italicized in both the in-text citation and the reference list entry (Facebook Messenger, 2021).