Apple’s new web App Store turns apps.apple.com into a real storefront

Apple has turned apps.apple.com from a static marketing page into a fully browsable web front end for the App Store. The new interface mirrors the native App Store experience, with platform specific libraries, the Today tab, charts and rich app pages, all accessible from any modern browser.

What Apple has actually launched

Until now, the web presence for the App Store was minimal. Individual app pages existed, but there was no way to browse categories, see the Today feed or move between platforms. If you wanted to discover apps, you opened the App Store app or you searched through Google.

That model has changed with the new interface at apps.apple.com. The key pieces are:

Platform selector in the top left that lets you switch between iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision, Watch and TV catalogs.
Full Today tab on the web, including editorial collections, feature stories, events and Apple Arcade highlights that previously lived only inside the native app.
Top charts and categories for apps and games, with filters for paid, free and top grossing titles where available.
Search box that finally lets you look up any app directly from the web, without relying on generic search engines.
New app pages that use larger media, new badges for categories, awards and events, and a layout that matches the latest App Store design on iOS.

One important limitation remains. You still cannot install apps directly from the browser. App pages include links that deep link into the App Store on your device, or share links that you can send to someone else, but purchases and installs are still handled entirely by the native stores.

How the new web App Store works in practice

The start page for each platform now behaves like the App Store home screen you see on an iPhone, iPad or Mac.

The hero area is driven by the Today tab, with large tiles for feature stories, curated collections and limited time events.
Scrolling reveals more editorial content, Apple Arcade rows, developer spotlights and themed lists such as “Essential utilities” or “Best new games”.
Top charts get their own sections, making it possible to see what is trending in a given country without touching a device.

The search box in the top right behaves like the search tab on iOS. Queries return a mix of exact app matches and related suggestions, with results pages that can be filtered by platform. For many users who are used to typing “app name + iOS” into a general search engine, this is a more direct and predictable way to find official listings.

When you click into an app, the new product page layout comes into focus:

A larger app icon and clear price or “Get” label.
Big, scrollable screenshots and video trailers that feel more like a gallery and less like a collection of static images.
Badges for categories, age rating, in app purchases, Apple Arcade support and editorial awards.
A breakdown of ratings and reviews, plus the usual version history and compatibility information.

On supported browsers, clicking the main call to action will attempt to launch the native App Store on the associated platform through a deep link. If you are on a non Apple device, you can share or copy the URL instead.

Design language and alignment with Liquid Glass

Visually, the new web interface mirrors Apple’s current system design language. Icons, typography, rounded cards and subtle glass like panels line up with the “Liquid Glass” look that shipped with iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe. That consistency matters, because it makes web App Store pages feel like an extension of the OS rather than an afterthought.

Several details stand out:

Cards and tiles use layered transparency and soft edges similar to the latest iOS home screen and widgets.
Section headers and type weights match the hierarchy users already know from their devices.
Spacing, iconography and the treatment of app icons are in line with Apple’s updated guidelines for 26 era platforms.

For Apple, this is a way to push the same brand language out to the open web. For developers, it reduces the visual disconnect between what a user sees in marketing materials, on the web and in the App Store app itself.

Why this matters for discovery and marketing

From a developer and marketing point of view, the change is more than a coat of paint. It upgrades the App Store’s web footprint from “linkable reference” to “usable storefront”.

There are several immediate benefits:

Better shareable pages
App pages now look respectable when shared on social networks, in newsletters or on press sites. They carry more context, media and clear calls to action.
Stronger SEO surface
Because users can now navigate around the App Store on the web, Apple and developers both gain from more meaningful internal linking and richer content that search engines can index.
Cross device research
People often research from a laptop before installing on a phone, watch or Vision headset. A full web interface fits that behaviour better than one app page at a time.

For smaller developers, the Today tab and curated lists gaining a web home is also important. Editorial placements that were previously only visible inside the App Store app can now be linked in reviews and blogs. That extends the lifespan and reach of each feature slot.

Limits and missing features

The most obvious missing piece is direct web based installation. Even with the new interface, the App Store on the web is still a discovery and linking surface, not a full distribution channel.

There are other constraints worth noting:

No purchases in the browser
All payments are still handled through native App Store flows, with the same regional availability and account restrictions as before.
Account views are limited
The web site exposes public facing content. It does not mirror the full “Account” tab with subscriptions, purchase history or family sharing controls.
Device context is limited
While platform filters help, the web interface cannot know all your devices and their OS versions with the same confidence as native apps. Compatibility indicators are still based on general requirements rather than your exact hardware.

Those trade offs look deliberate. Apple gets to say it has made App Store content more accessible on the web without turning the browser into another installation path that would raise harder questions about payments, on device enforcement and alternative stores.

Regulatory and competitive context

The timing of the new web App Store sits against a background of regulatory pressure and competitive benchmarks.

Regulators in the European Union and elsewhere have spent the last several years probing App Store rules around discovery, payments and alternative distribution channels. Apple has already been forced to open some doors to third party stores and side loading in specific regions. A richer web interface gives the company a way to show progress on “accessibility and openness” while keeping the core purchase and installation flows under its control.

On the competitive side, Google Play and several other app ecosystems have offered full web stores for years. Users could browse, buy and even queue installations from a desktop browser. Apple’s previous web story, built around thin app pages and marketing copy, looked dated in comparison.

The new design closes at least part of that gap. It is still more conservative than the Google Play web experience, because you cannot send an install to a device from the browser, but it removes the most obvious pain points that reviewers and developers have been complaining about for a long time.

What it means for different users

The usefulness of the new web App Store varies depending on how you already use Apple devices.

Existing Apple owners
If you already live inside the App Store app, the main gain is better cross device browsing. You can sit at a Mac or even a Windows PC, plan a set of iPhone and Vision Pro installs, and then trigger them later from your devices.
People on non Apple hardware
Friends and colleagues on Android or Windows can now explore app catalogs and share links with you without fighting through bare bones pages. That is useful for cross platform teams and families.
Enterprises and education
IT admins and teachers can research apps and pull links for documentation, training and procurement workflows from the browser they already use all day.

For many users, the new interface will simply become the default way to look up an app on a bigger screen. Instead of hunting through device settings or opening the App Store app, typing apps.apple.com into a browser tab will be enough.

How this will likely evolve

Apple rarely ships a new web surface and then leaves it alone. The first release already includes the core browsing features that people expected. Over time, several improvements would make sense:

More granular filters for categories, pricing and device capabilities.
Richer integration with Apple Arcade, including playlists and editorial collections that can be bookmarked from the web.
Better cross linking between app families, such as related iPhone and Mac variants, subscription bundles and companion apps.
Regionalised Today content that is easier to explore from outside the target country, which would help press and developers understand localized editorial choices.

Whether Apple will ever allow direct installation or purchase from the web is a separate question. That would have deeper implications for App Store governance and alternative distribution models. For now, the company has drawn a line: discovery can move to the browser, but the act of installing remains inside its native stores.

Editor’s take

Apple’s new App Store web interface is not revolutionary. It does not break the walled garden or let you install apps from Chrome on a random laptop. What it does do is fix an obvious gap by giving Apple’s most important digital storefront a modern, shareable, fully browsable presence on the web.

For developers, that is a straightforward win: better landing pages, better editorial visibility outside the app, better links for marketing. For users, it finally aligns the everyday “look up this app” workflow with how people actually use browsers in 2025.

The interesting question is not why Apple did this, but why it took so long. With the basics now in place, the next step is to watch how far the company is willing to go in turning a polished web catalog into something closer to a true web store. That will depend less on technical capability and more on how comfortable Apple is loosening its grip on App Store distribution.