lowMacRumorsยทApril 17, 2026

Apple Quietly Tweaked the iOS App Store App โ€“ Here's What's Changed

No, you aren't going crazy โ€“ Apple has quietly made a backend change to the App Store app in iOS that switches the location of the Updates tab and renames it to make it more prominent.

In the App Store app, you can see the change by tapping your profile picture in the top-right corner. The "Apps & Purchase History" tab used to be at the top the list, but it has switched places with "Updates," which is now called "App Updates."

The change was made by Apple without issuing a software update and is evident on both iOS 26.4.1 and the iOS 26.5 beta.

There's actually a faster way to access the App Updates page in iOS 26.4 that was recently highlighted by Daring Fireball's John Gruber: Simply long-press on the App Store app on your Home Screen and you can jump straight to it from the contextual menu. Tag: App Store

This article, "Apple Quietly Tweaked the iOS App Store App โ€“ Here's What's Changed" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Key Insights

1

Apple is prioritizing app updates visibility in the UI, potentially to increase user engagement with update discovery

2

Backend changes without software updates allow Apple to test and deploy UI changes more flexibly

Apple Quietly Tweaked the iOS App Store App โ€“ Here's What's | ASO News