App Store Editorial Stories Are Now Available on the Web

Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:

Apple has recently updated its App Store Preview pages for stories to allow users to view the full content of stories from inside their desktop web browser. App Store stories have always been shareable as links, but the web version was just a title and a navigation link to ‘open this story in the App Store’.

Between August 9th and August 11th, Apple has upgraded the experience and now includes full imagery, app lists and paragraphs copy in the web version. This means you can access the same content online as you would be ale to find in the native App Store experience.

Apple has put together a great editorial staff for the App Store, and works with many talented freelance writers and artists, so it’s great that their work can now be seen on the regular web. I have many times decided against linking to App Store articles simply because the stories weren’t on the web — prior to this, the only way to read them was using a recent version of iOS or MacOS. I get that these stories are intended to drive engagement with the App Store, but it just seemed spiteful not to put them on the open web.

Here, for example, is a nice write-up about Yoink, one of my very favorite Mac utilities.

Update: Mayo, on Twitter, points to one significant shortcoming of these articles on the web — they don’t include video.

★ Thursday, 15 August 2019