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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Previously:
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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.
