Apple WWDC 17 New App Store

If you didn’t watch Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, we’ve got you covered. We’re here to give you the key takeaways from the conference and how it’s relevant to you. Apple announced a number of extremely impressive hardware improvements, SDKs, developer tools and new technologies. But we’re most excited about the App Store stats that Apple shared, in addition to a major redesign of the App Store, with all new tabs, features and more!

App Store Stats

Apple shared that the App Store attracts over 500 million weekly visitors, has achieved 180 billion app downloads, and paid out $70 billion to developers (30% of which was paid out in the last year alone)! These numbers are incredibly impressive and from an ASO standpoint, really highlight the need for a strong organic presence. Apple previously revealed that 65% of app installs come from Search and with 500 million weekly visitors, that’s a lot of searches!

App Store Changes

Because we’re an ASO agency, we were most excited about Apple’s announcement of an App Store refresh. The App Store has needed a refresh for a while now, i.e. to make apps more visible, separate games, app highlights, etc. And our wish has come true in a lot of aspects! Apple has re-designed the bottom tabs of the App Store to better highlight apps and games, in addition to giving users a better experience and opportunity to discover new apps.

Today Tab

Apple has totally redesigned the first page of the App Store and now calls it “Today”. Keeping with the new “cards” throughout iOS, Apple highlights new apps, new updates and more with large cards that contain what they call “App Stories” — The main app during the WWDC presentation was Monument Valley 2 and the story contained information about the game and developer, gameplay videos and images, along with the option to share and download the app. They mentioned that there will be a new “App of the Day” and “Game of the Day” that updates daily!

Games Tab & Apps Tab

This could be one of the most exciting pieces of news. Apple has [FINALLY] created separate tabs for Games, and a separate tab for non-game Apps. Each section has featured apps, Top Charts and more. Another interesting concept that Apple introduced was “featured in-app purchases” which offers developers the chance to highlight new purchases in their app (subscriptions, new levels, etc.). This is a huge advancement in terms of App Visibility for developers. The Top Charts are generally dominated by Games, and now we’re able to see the top apps for those who are not interested in games, or vice versa.

App Page

As we all know, conversions are an enormous part of App Store Optimization, and in the quick demonstration Apple provided, the app page is dramatically changed. At first glance, it may not seem like a large change, but taking a deeper look, you can see that the app preview video auto plays, and reviews have taken a much larger stage with the star rating (i.e.: 4.5) is displayed in large text just below the description. This makes it even more of a requirement to create the ideal page elements including your video, screenshots and content.

Check out the full details on Apple’s new App Store website.