The App Store in iOS 11 has changed a lot. What impact does it have on us?

After WWDC 17 ended, many people focused their attention on HomePod and the new 10-inch iPad Pro. As app developers and promoters , the most important thing for us is of course how the major revision of the App Store will affect the ecosystem!

This article will walk you through all the iOS 11 App Store changes, explaining the changes and what to watch out for.

If you don’t have time, here are the main points of the iOS 11 App Store changes and the key points of this article:

• Optimization of information architecture
• Apps and Games are completely separated
• The editing part is more important
• Search and Preview Video functions are more complete
• More visual stimulation points to attract users
• The display of text is limited, so more refined use of words is required
• Rankings take a back seat, user experience takes a front seat

1. iOS 11 App Store Information Architecture

1. New tab page

Before iOS 10, the five items on the tab were "Featured Items, Categories, Rankings, Search, and Updates", while in iOS 11 App Store they became "Today, Games, Apps, Updates, and Search".

In addition to the search and update items that are still retained, the featured items have been changed to Games and Apps, which are displayed separately, and the rankings have disappeared.

The newly added Today adds more editing and media features. The overall presentation has been made more "humane". When users open the first three pages of the App Store (Today, Games, and Apps), what they see are all recommended items screened by App Store editors.

A more humane App Store, with more Apps and Games recommendations selected by editors and a more curated experience.

2. Complete separation of Apps and Games

Games was originally just a category of Apps, but in iOS 11, Games has become a new category equal to Apps:

Different featured pages, different rankings. App developers in the tool or lifestyle categories no longer have to compete with huge games on the leaderboards, and have more opportunities to stand out and get a better ranking on the leaderboards.

In terms of user experience, users will also know in advance whether they have selected the Apps or Games category, which means that the positioning of the product when it is released is clearer , and users will not happen to see your game when looking for an app, and vice versa.

In the featured items, the recommended combination that was originally mixed with Apps and Games is now presented completely separately on two different pages.

Apps no longer have to be lumped together with Games, now you are completely different categories!

3. Goodbye to the bestseller list

The best-selling ranking list has disappeared, and we will never see the "total consumer spending ranking list" again! This means that for Apple, how much money users spend is no longer an important indicator for determining whether an app is worth downloading. Instead, it should focus more on the user experience .

With the exception of the best-selling charts, the entire charts tab has been removed from the tabs page. Instead, the top 10 – 15 rankings are presented on the featured pages of Apps and Games respectively .

Browsing the rankings has changed from scrolling down to folding to the right, and no longer will more than 100 rankings be presented at a time and automatically loaded. Instead, users are required to click "more" to query the complete rankings, which means that the exposure of the rankings is greatly reduced.

The ranking list has become smaller, so ranking manipulation should be gone, right?

2. Product Page

1. Bigger App Icons

On the app’s product page, the app icon is displayed 1.44 times larger than it should be. The importance of app icon has increased, and designing an eye-catching app icon has become more important than before .

But even though the app icon has become larger, in addition to designing eye-catching visual patterns, it is still necessary to try to avoid unnecessary details that may cause distraction to users . It would be better to focus on how to let users see the purpose of the app at a glance.

2. App title with 30 characters remaining

The space that could have been used to fully display the app title can now only display 30 characters, and the remaining part completely disappears from the screen (visible on iPad).

Many apps used to add promotional or explanatory subtitles after their titles, but now these cannot be displayed, so it is more important to come up with a simple, clear and memorable name.

3. The subtitle is here!

Since the app title has a character limit and the subtitle cannot be displayed, the iOS 11 App Store has an additional "Subtitle" option, allowing us to put promotional or explanatory text.

This text will appear on the product page in the place where the "Developer Name" was originally located after a few seconds, and will appear directly below the app title when searching.

Since app titles now have character display limits, how to make the subtitle concise and useful for supplementary explanations has become a new design and promotion issue .

Through the subtitle, you can use a simple and clear slogan or promotional copy to supplement your app. For example, "Build your empire" in Clash of Clans and "It's about time" in Plants vs. Zombies both have the meaning of call-to-action.

Use Call-to-action to increase users' willingness to download!

4. Auto-play and more complete Preview Video

Preview Video now plays automatically! The human eye is naturally attracted to moving things, and the moving Preview Video can easily draw the viewer’s attention to the video .

Since the default playback of Preview Video is silent playback, when making Preview Video. Pay special attention to the first few seconds of the picture and make sure it has enough visual appeal to effectively attract the user's attention and click on it to continue watching.

In addition, iOS 10 originally only allowed uploading one Preview Video, but now it is possible to upload three . And originally it was possible to upload Preview Video in one language (English), but now it is possible to upload files in multiple languages. This can completely solve the problem that the original Chinese-speaking users are disgusted by the English-language preview video, which causes the conversion rate to drop.

Since a Preview Video is limited to 30 seconds, you should not include brand images, meaningless cutscenes, opening logos, etc. when making it. You should try to give users a real "experience of using the app" as directly as possible to increase their willingness to download the app.

Preview Video is used to let users "experience" the app in advance. Don't put too many meaningless brand images or logo images in it.

5. More important user ratings

The stars and scores of user ratings have been enlarged by more than 30 times, and a "score" that was not originally there has been added to the front, making the user ratings, which already have an impact on download conversion rates, even more important.

In addition, the original rating system, which would be cleared every time a version was updated (this really bothered developers, as they worked hard to accumulate 1,000 five-stars, but would have to re-upgrade them because of a version that fixed bugs), now allows developers to choose whether to reset the rating each time a new version is submitted .

This way, we only need to reset ratings for major updates, while bug-fix releases can keep their ratings. Let's say goodbye to the trouble of not daring to update in order to maintain the rating~

Developers should return to their core business and focus on improving the essence of the app, improving user ratings, and further increasing downloads.

By the way, although the information structure reduces the importance of rankings. But the newly added ranking on the right side of the evaluation is also a new user download indicator.

6. Description and 170-character limit for promotional text

Before iOS 10, the app description could be freely updated after passing the review, but now it cannot be updated instantly! This is because the app description will be added to the index of the App Store search function , so the app description can only be modified when an updated version is uploaded.

Without entering any promotional text, the description is reduced from the original 5 lines to only 3 lines , and the number of words is even smaller. Writing long promotional copy is no longer effective now, as only a very small number of users will click the More button to read more information.

Therefore, you should promote the features and functions of the app in 3 lines or less, so that potential users can understand the features of the app and what attracts them .

If there is an award record, new app information, time-sensitive or promotional copy. The new promotional text added to the iOS 11 App Store allows us to add and modify it instantly without the need for review. But it has a 170 character limit and still only displays the first 3 lines.

Fewer words can be displayed, which means that the words used are more precise, explaining the features of the app and why it attracts users.

7. More important updates than app descriptions

In the old version of the App Store, the update item (What's New) was displayed at the bottom of the entire app product page.

In the new version of the App Store, if you have already installed the app, the update item will appear at the top, indicating that the description of the update item is easier for users to see than the promotional copy and app description (but there is still a limit of 3 lines).

8. Product Page Summary

Overall, the most important aspects of product pages are that the visual part has become more important (Icon, Preview Video), the use of text has become more refined (Description, Promotional Text, What's New), the importance of user reviews has increased, and allowing users to experience the product in advance (Preview Video).

3. Search

1. Screenshot

The old version of the App Store only showed two screenshots at a time when searching, but the new version shows three , giving us the opportunity to present more information at the same time.

But overall, the proportion of the screen that can be displayed has become smaller, which means that the graphic design should be clearer, easier to identify, and the description content can be seen at a glance.

2. Combination of title and subtitle

App titles can only display 19 half-width characters (less than the app product page), but subtitles can also be displayed on the search page. It seems that the combination of "title + subtitle" and creative thinking will be the focus of copywriting creativity .

3. Eye-catching Preview Video

Preview Video: As long as you slide in, it will start playing automatically. Apps with Preview Video are indeed more popular on the search page and more eye-catching.

4. A more in-depth search system

In the old version of App Store, the search system was only based on app titles, keywords, and developer names. In the new version of iOS 11 App Store, the search system can be established based on app description, developer name, in-app purchases, categories, editorial stories and even collections.

Corresponding to the in-depth search system, the new version of iOS 11 App Store can only update app descriptions when the version is updated. The keyword system will automatically handle singular and plural forms (not sure how Chinese will handle this!), repeated words, and names that are the same as categories (such as Products and Apps, etc.).

According to a survey conducted by MobileDevHQ, 47% of users find the apps they want to download by simply searching the App Store (more than being featured, which only accounts for 9%).

Originally, we could only establish search targets through app titles and keywords. Now, we also need to rethink whether the app description is relevant to the topic and whether it accurately describes what users are looking for! (You can find detailed instructions on how to optimize search on the Apple Developer website: Optimizing for App Store Search)

The combination of title, description, and keywords should accurately describe the user experience and content of the app, and the words used should also be more precise!

4. App Store Editorial Room

1. Media-based editorial daily stories

The App Store originally only featured editorial selections (Editor's Choice), homepage selections (Features) and selection combinations (Collections), and there were very few text-based or even content-based editorial stories.

In the new version of App Store, Stories that appear on the far left of the tab have added a lot of human touch! Now the App Store editors will teach us how to take better photos with the VSCO camera, explain why the story of Monument Valley 2 is so fascinating (there is even an interview with Ustwo, the production team of Monument Valley), and tell you why the updated content of Causality is so interesting in an editorial tone.

As a user, I look forward to opening the App Store every day to see what the story is and what interesting apps or games are available for download; as a developer, I also look forward to seeing the development stories and ideas of other teams every day.

This new daily Stories feature feels like the final piece of the App Store puzzle, making the entire ecosystem more complete. (Oops! Isn’t this bullying a lot of review websites that introduce apps?)

2. Easier to understand collection recommendations

The original App Store's Collection was more like an app combination under an information framework. In comparison, the iOS 11 App Store's Collection combined with daily stories looks more humane.

A brief description plus why the editors find the new combination interesting. The Perfect Coffee Break (Collection) combination tells you that the App Store editors recommend you to play these during your coffee time!

5. Other new features: Display internal purchases on product pages

Now you can also display In-app Purchases on your product pages ! If there are any attractive extended contents, such as books, music, new levels, dictionary font cards, they can now be displayed in the App Store (and most importantly, they can be searched).

In this way, users can know which projects attract them on the product page.

Conclusion

The App Store in iOS 11 is a brand new experience, with optimized information structure, complete separation of Apps and Games, more emphasis on editing, more complete search and preview video functions, more visual stimulation to attract users, limited text display so more refined use of text, and rankings taking a back seat to let the user experience move forward.

We can probably imagine together that when autumn comes in September, it will probably be another tough battle of development and promotion! Why not take advantage of these few months to study how to deal with it.