Apple's App Store ads make finding the app you want frustrating

Old timers always seem to be able to hark back to a time when things were better. Well, since I’m about to do this myself, it’s probably time to admit that I have become an old timer.

So, what am I complaining about? I’m complaining about those pesky ads that Apple has been pushing into the App Store.

Must read: iOS 12.3: How to keep your iPhone safe from hackers and snoopers

As a rule, I don’t have problems with ads. Unless something catches my eye, I’m not usually distracted by them. My eye can normally home in on what I’m after and they don’t get in the way of my workflow that much.

But I find the ads that Apple is injecting into the App Store particularly frustrating.

Let me show you what I mean. Here I am searching for a very specific app – in this case the Spotify app – and the top result is not only an ad, but an ad for something both completely unrelated, and an app I already have installed on my device.

I get it that ads in the App Store are a revenue stream for Apple – and you’re going to see more of them in future – but it feels sort of weird and very un-Apple for the ads to be so poorly targeted. In fact, as far as ad targeting goes, this feels as dumb as a bag of rocks.

It’s the sort of mindless targeting that I’d expect from pretty much any tech company other than Apple.

And yet here we are.

What are your thoughts about Apple’s App Store? Let me know!

See also: