Remember when we said Apple could start displaying ads on your devices? It's happening, the company is rolling out ads to some sections of the App Store.
Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would be removing outdated apps because they were affecting the search results in the App Store. Shortly after this, the company revealed its plans to allow ads in Search.
Image courtesy: Apple
Ads can be beneficial for developers to get more awareness for their apps, more exposure equals more users. The search experience is great for app discovery. Apple will start displaying ads in the main page of its App Store, the Today Tab. The promotions will also appear at the bottom of other app listings, under the "You might also like" section.
This could have a negative impact on developers. Macrumors quotes a tweet from a legal expert who said that this could actually force app developers to buy ads on their own pages, to prevent other apps from luring their users away from their app.
Apple has some guidelines in place that developers will have to follow in order to create Today Tab ads. Once they have created it, they will need to wait for Apple to approve their promotional campaign. The good news is Apple will not allow misleading ads, special pricing, offers in the ads, and any images that are used in the ad should be a screenshot of the app that is being featured.
The App Store ads will start rolling out from October 25th, except in China, where it is not allowed to show ads.
Ads on the Today Tab
I rarely use the iOS App Store on my iPad, I open it once in a while to install app updates. When I need to download apps, I already know which one I'm looking for. The same goes for my Mac, when I see a number badge on the App Store's icon, I know an update is available so I open it to install the update and just close the Store. The fact that I can sideload apps from third party sources on my Mac also plays a major role in this. You can find a ton of apps on GitHub and Homebrew.
Every time I have looked at the Today Tab, which is displayed when you open the App Store, it shows "Apple's picks", or featured apps if you will. The thing is, these promotions sort of looked like ads already. But now, instead of Apple promoting an app, developers will now be able to place their own ads.
The visual experience with the new ads will only be slightly different from the user's perspective, sponsored app placements will be marked as an "Ad" (white text on a blue background).
Image credit: Apple
The real issue here would be the quality of the apps that are featured in the Today tab. The apps could display have their own in-app ads which is not good for user's privacy, or have in-app purchases, recurring subscriptions, etc. These could have their own downsides, especially considering that apps can now charge users without having to warn them about automatic renewals.
There are other ways for one of the world's richest company to make money besides ads. This just cheapens the experience. Did you know that Apple increased the App Store prices in many Countries recently?
Ads ads ads everywhere, wherever we turn we see ads. Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Spotify, Twitter, Facebook, basically every service has ads. This actually makes commercial breaks on TV look better, at least they were non-personalized and didn't pose a privacy risk. Of course, you could pay to get rid of ads on most online platforms. But you can't do this on Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store. Is that where we are heading next, pay to browse the app store without ads?
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