Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple’s App Store got out of the wrong side of bed this morning

Christian de Looper
By

ipad ios app store
bloomua/123rf
Hoping to download Spotify to your iPhone? Is Angry Birds good enough? Apple’s App Store was down for around six hours this morning with an interesting problem — searching for an app returned completely unrelated results.

Apple Offer: Trade up to a new iPhone for as low as $10 a month

Recommended Videos

The issue has been confirmed by Apple’s System Status website, which mentions that there was an issue in which “all users were affected.” The issue has since been resolved, and everything seems to be up and running now.

It’s important to mention that not all searches were affected — for example, while it seems as though searching for Spotify returned unrelated results, searching for Facebook and Twitter did not seem to do so. Still, it was enough to send Twitter into an outrage.

Just when I need updates, @AppStore is down :( #itunesdown #appstoredown @AppleOfficial

— pwiksell (@pwiksell) November 18, 2015

The App Store is failing in several countries. Search functionality gone down the tubes in UK. C'mon @AppStore get it fixed.

— Gareth Morgan (@Gareth_D_Morgan) May 5, 2016

In addition to the issues with the App Store search results, users found that App Store links also weren’t working — when a user clicked on a link to an app, it would instead lead to a page with an error message.

The whole debacle is unusual for Apple — sure, the company has had issues with the App Store in the past, but to have such widespread problems that affect so many people isn’t something that often happens for the firm. And while this issue probably isn’t that important, especially considering the fact that it has been resolved, problems like this certainly aren’t good for customer satisfaction or the firm’s image.

Developers have separately expressed dissatisfaction with the App Store in the past, saying that its design makes it too hard for customers to find their desired apps. Not only that, but it seems as though Apple lets developers pay for top spots in search results, meaning that developers who have more money can pay to get seen by more people, and that small developers can rarely find a large customer base.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper
Contributor
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Our 5 favorite iPhone and Android apps by Black developers
An iPhone with apps from Black developers downloaded on it.

As we wrap up the celebration of 2023's Black History Month, it remains important to recognize and appreciate the contributions that Black people have made in various fields, including technology and the smartphone apps we use every day. From social media platforms to productivity tools, Black developers and other people of color have worked hard to create innovative, useful, and just plain fun apps.

Here, we're focusing on five helpful apps developed by Black people that you should check out. These iPhone and Android apps range from ones that help you discover and support Black-owned businesses to ones that provide legal assistance in case of an emergency to ones that curate and highlight sources of news and entertainment by Black creators.
We Read Too

Read more
Why the Tesla Phone is probably never going to happen
An iPhone 14 Pro with a Tesla logo Photoshopped on the back of it.

After purchasing Twitter and appointing himself CEO, Elon Musk made some (what can generously be called) controversial changes to the site and its rules. He's aiming to make Twitter a place where his ideas of free speech can be allowed, which has ultimately resulted in providing “amnesty” to previously banned accounts from white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other people who were in violation of Twitter’s old terms of service.

Musk claimed in a tweet that Apple has “threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store” but didn’t tell him why. The Twitter CEO also claimed that Apple has “mostly stopped advertising” on the social media site, but also can’t seem to figure out why. Apparently, the world’s richest man is unable to understand why a company like Apple would want to take some cautionary steps away from the gasoline he’s pouring on Twitter.

Read more
The EU is preparing an App Store change that Apple won’t like
App Store displayed on an iPhone 14 Pro against a pink background

The EU is narrowing its focus on Apple's App Store, a new report says. Coming from the Financial Times, which cites three sources familiar with the matter, the body now plans to focus on Apple's ban against linking to subscriptions off the App Store. The EU confirmed this report in an update to its statement of objections shared on Tuesday morning.

Where this policy might have been merely annoying at first, the color of it changed once Apple began offering competitors to rival services it had banned from advertising in the store.

Read more