Web Version of the App Store
Apple launched a new App Store on the web today, allowing users to browse through and search for apps across all of its platforms.
[…]
There is a search interface for looking up a specific app, and clicking on “View” on any app in the store provides screenshots and information optimized for a web view. The design mirrors the App Store on each of Apple’s platforms, but it has a much friendlier web interface.
[…]
Prior to now, Apple provided webpages for each app in the App Store , but there was no central site for content discovery.
Finally. But sadly, just like in the App Store app, Apple prevents you from selecting any of the text. I don’t understand why Apple insists on making its stores user-hostile in this way. However, unlike in the App Store app, you can find within the page using the browser’s built-in search feature. You can also fix text selection using StopTheMadness Pro’s “Protect text selection” feature.
What you can’t do is install or update those apps on your devices. At least some of that is because there’s no link to your Apple account: instead, this is really just a catalog. If you’re browsing the App Store for the device you’re on, you can easily jump to the app you’re looking at in the actual App Store app. In other cases, the usual “Get” or “Buy” link has been replaced with a Share button.
As someone who’s written about apps for years, this does get rid of one longstanding frustration where you would put a link to an app in your story, but it would force you to open the App Store app to see all the details of the program.
Previously:
- The Negative Impact of Mobile-First Web Design on Desktop
- App Store Editorial Stories on the Web
- Redesigned Web Versions of App Stores
Update (2025-11-04): John Voorhees:
I really don’t get it. At least on the Mac, there’s a button to open an app in the Mac App Store, but the same isn’t true on the iPhone and iPad.
[…]
Sure, you can always share an app to yourself on a device where you can buy it. But shouldn’t the point of a web store be to allow you to make purchases when you’re not on an Apple device or, for example, to buy a Mac app on your iPhone and have it waiting for you when you return to your Mac?
The new apps.apple.com apparently renders my app Stop The Mac App Store obsolete, because the web page no longer automatically opens the App Store app.
I hoped one thing this store might correct — finally — is that app links opened from Safari would no longer automatically open the App Store app. Sadly, in my testing, app links continue to behave as they previously did. That is, if you visit an app listing’s URL directly or from within the App Store on the web, your experience will remain in the browser, but if you click on an app link from a third-party website, the App Store app will be opened.
I can’t open apps.apple.com in Safari on iOS 18
I can’t, either. It just redirects to the App Store app.
“User-hostile” is exactly the right phrase—the same I used to describe this scourge in 2024 after I was prevented from copying text from the USPS Postal Store. I shared then a method for restoring the ability to copy text for Safari users, which I’ll share again: a custom style sheet to override the
user-selectCSS property many sites use to prevent content selection[…]
ednl:
Regarding the screenshots in the web app store; they are shown on the webpage in a frame of 496x310 but they’re actually just 313x196, so they look really bad. And they aren’t clickable to enlarge them, but the larger versions ARE there!
Previously:
Update (2025-11-05): Adam Engst:
You can’t copy the URL directly from the share sheet, but you can grab it from your browser’s address bar.
Searches are limited to one store at a time, but if you switch stores while viewing results, the site automatically re-runs your search for the new store.
The rumors of the demise of Stop The Mac App Store are greatly exaggerated.
Update (2025-11-06): rxliuli (Hacker News):
The App Store appears to have been rebuilt using Svelte, but they forgot to remove the sourcemap configuration in production, resulting in the complete exposure of the source code.
Update (2025-11-10): Craig Grannell:
The web version of the App Store is a major improvement in terms of search and accessibility – Apple on Mac flipping to the Mac App Store caused a massive vestibular trigger that was never fixed. But why can’t I buy and install from the web? Google Play has allowed this for years!
8 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Which text? App descriptions? I have no problem selecting and copying text from an app description page.
The screenshots can't be enlarged, that's a real shame. Also, the pixel size of the images is smaller than the displayed size, so they look bad.
@Kevin All text: app name, description, IAP and privacy info, reviews. Maybe you have a browser extension that’s undoing the restriction?
I was just thinking about text selection. For all the great tools iOS has for working with selected text, Apple also seems to hate making text selectable. I don’t get it.
Is this for SEO/discoverability? I just don't see what the point of this is.
Microsoft has a similar feature, but their use-case is much better; there is the option in some Windows SKUs to get rid of the Store app, but they don't want to disable installing software, so you can install from the browser by deeplinking into the system service that installs stuff behind the scenes.
Given how bad the macOS version of the store app has been for years now, I think I'd prefer web + install URL scheme. But otherwise, what is the point?
Clicking a “Download on the Mac App Store” button and being greeted with a web page that looks like a decent web page was actually delightful. It’s a big improvement despite the janky scrolling and non-enlargeable screenshots (I didn’t organically try selecting text in this real-world use).
