Apple‘s App Store, a place to go when you’re looking to install new apps on your iOS device, isn’t exactly the place where you’d expect to be bombarded with ads. It already features some ads, but soon it will have even more.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple’s App Store will soon start featuring ads on its Today tab, which functions as the App Store’s homepage — it’s the first thing you see when you fire it up. The ads will show in the second slot, so they’ll be immediately visible when you open the App Store.
Additionally, ads are coming to product pages. App developers will be able to buy advertising slots on the bottom of other Apps’ pages. They won’t be able to target specific products directly, but the ads will show up on relevant product pages. This might lead to some confusion, for example when a direct competitor shows up as an ad in another app’s product page.
These new ads are on top of the ads that already show up in App Store, namely in the Search tab, and on top of Search results. The ads aren’t easy to spot if you’re not actively looking for them; they’re identifiable by slightly lighter background and a small badge saying “Ad” just beneath the app’s description.
When you search for Lightroom, the first thing that shows up is an ad. Adobe’s Lightroom app gets the slot beneath the ad.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Apple
“Apple Search Ads provides opportunities for developers of all sizes to grow their business. Like our other advertising offerings, these new ad placements are built upon the same foundation—they will only contain content from apps’ approved App Store product pages, and will adhere to the same rigorous privacy standards,” Apple told 9to5Mac in a statement.
The report says that the new ads will start showing as a test “soon,” but there’s no word on when they’ll be enabled for all users.
Given Apple’s fairly strict privacy rules, the new ads will never be targeted at individuals or small groups, and users’ personally identifiable information will not be shared with third parties. If you want Apple to use even less personal data to serve you ads, go to Settings – Privacy & Security – Apple Advertising and turn off Personalized Ads.
