App Store’s Featured section will soon stop showing apps you already have installed

App Store Feaetured tab teaser 001

Beyond Search Ads and a bunch of new options for In-App Subscriptions, Apple is making  a few subtler changes to how the App Store’s storefront apps function in the hope of improving app discovery.

As per SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, who also manages App Stores and Apple’s relations with developers, the store’s Featured tab will soon filter any apps you already have installed on your device, so that you’re only looking at new apps.

A smarter Featured tab

“We want our customers to have a reason to come to the App Store every day,” Schiller told The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple yesterday.

I’ve always wondered why the Featured tab insists on showing me apps I already have installed on my device. With that in mind, I’m happy Apple is going to do something about that.

I’m also curious to learn whether the Featured tab will hide only apps that I have downloaded via an Apple ID that I’m currently signed in or those that I’ve downloaded via other Apple IDs as well.

It’s already happening on tvOS App Store

We recently saw this playing out on the fourth-generation Apple TV, with the tvOS App Store charts now hiding apps users already have installed on their set-top box.

Now, that’s not exactly the same as hiding installed apps in the App Store’s Featured section so it’ll be interesting seeing whether this feature might be in tow for the iOS App Store as well.

The app review process, however, is here to stay, said Schiller.

Source: The Loop