What you need to know
- App Store editorials can be read in-browser.
- Links still open in the App Store on iPhone and iPad.
- You still can't download apps from a browser.
Until recently anyone clicking a link to an App Store editorial on a non-Apple device would only see a short description and a link to open it in the App Store. Of course, that wasn't much use on devices that didn't have an App Store to open those links in.
As 9to5Mac notes, this all changed between August 9th and August 11th. Now, anyone clicking an App Store editorial link will see the full story inside a web browser. All images and copy are included and the layout maintained.
Anyone clicking a link on iPhone or iPad will continue to be redirected to the App Store automatically. But those on a Mac will see the web version open in Safari just as those on non-Apple devices will.
Despite this improvement the experience is still lacking when it comes to downloading the apps that the editorial promotes. Apple doesn't allow the downloading of apps to be initiated from a web browser. Instead, users must find the app in the App Store for themselves and then download it from there.
This move will definitely improve the visibility of App Store editorials. Apple's content team has been crushing it and by making their work more easily accessible more people will see it. If that then turns into more app downloads, developers win, too.
This isn't the first time Apple has improved the experience for those accessing information on the web. It also recently revamped the web interface for podcast listings, too. This saw web-based playback and dedicated pages for individual podcast episodes brought to the web for the first time.
