Apple unveiled the all-new App Store, designed from the ground up to make discovering apps and games easier. The redesigned App Store is packed with original stories and editorial, updated daily in a new Today tab, as well as new Games and Apps tabs.
App Store customers have now downloaded more than 180 billion apps and Apple has paid out over $70 billion to developers since the store launched in 2008.
“Together with our incredible developer community, we’ve made the App Store the best app platform in the world, and more than 500 million unique customers visit it every week,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now, we are taking everything we’ve learned from the App Store over the past nine years and putting it into a stunning new design. Every element of the new App Store is richer, more beautiful and more engaging.”
It all starts with the Today tab, a daily destination all about games, apps and app culture. Through features and interviews filled with artwork and videos, the App Store’s global team of editors will share the stories behind the apps and games. Today will feature exclusive premieres, new releases and a fresh look at favorites, as well as recommended tips and how-to guides to help customers use apps.
Games is the most popular category on the App Store, and with the new design there will now be a dedicated home just for games. It will feature recommendations of new releases and updates, videos, top charts just for games and hand-picked collections.
Apps will also have its own tab. Just like the Games tab, the Apps tab will have recommendations, videos and hand-picked collections across 24 categories, as well as its own app charts.
The Updates tab will allow customers to see what has changed in their favorite apps and games with the latest update, and Search has been enhanced to include the editorial content found in Today, Games and Apps.
The home for every app on the store is its app product page. Apple has redesigned the experience so that all developers can spotlight their apps with more engaging content, putting the most important information front and center for the customer making a download decision. Developers can submit up to three video app previews and five screenshots, which can now be localized so a customer in any country can have a customized version of the video. Accolades including Editors’ Choice and chart position will be highlighted, as will in-app purchases and customer ratings and reviews.
Apple is also making in-app purchases more discoverable on the App Store. In-app purchases will show up on an app product page and in search results, and editors can feature them in Today, Games and Apps. Customers can now start their in-app purchases on the App Store and be taken directly into a developer’s app or game to complete the purchase.
The all-new App Store will be included with iOS 11.
