Tuesday, June 20, 2017

App Store Editorial Comes Out of the Shadows

Jason Snell:

In the redesigned App Store app in iOS 11, app highlights go way beyond buttons that would present an app’s App Store page when you tapped. The new Today tab is populated with full-fledged feature articles, with screen shots, videos, animations, pull quotes, and real writing. There are app spotlights, curated best-in-category collections, and even how-to articles.

No, this isn’t independent journalism—it’s curation and marketing. But it’s a sign that Apple sees the value in telling the stories of the apps it’s seen fit to highlight.

No word on whether this will make it into the Mac App Store.

See also: An In Depth Look At the New App Store, Information Density and the New App Store Design.

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I'd be surprised if this comes to the Mac App Store this year. They did not bother adding the subtitle field for Mac apps in iTunes Connect, even though adding a subtitle would be an easy change. It makes sense they'd start with the iOS App Store for they changes. Hopefully they'll get to the Mac later.

I believe Schiller hinted at this in his discussion with Gruber on The Talk Show after the WWDC keynote. Not an explicit promise, but more of an acknowledgement that the Mac App Store will also be getting attention.

Looking at the trends under his stewardship of the App Store, it seems likely to me that the Mac will see improvements in time.

@Nigel Yes, Schiller did say something like that. However, there is a long list of features that are not available in the Mac App Store, and so far it seems to be growing longer rather than shorter.

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