As a user, I'm still baffled that the interface to view and manage the apps I have installed on the system - which is 90 out of 100 times why I'm opening the play store - is tucked away in some obscure corner of the app.

The other 10 times, it's because I want to install some specific app that I already know and I just want to get to the page of that exact app - either through a direct link or through the store's search.

There were exactly zero times where I opened the store with the motivation "gee, I really feel like installing a new app, but I have no idea what it should be... Let's check out the recommendations!"

Yet this seems to be what the entire UI is optimized for.

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array_key_first 26 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> As a user, I'm still baffled that the interface to view and manage the apps I have installed on the system - which is 90 out of 100 times why I'm opening the play store - is tucked away in some obscure corner of the app.

Analytics driven development.

They realized that doing it this way leads to greater ad clicks and time spent on the app.

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jobigoud an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the interface to view and manage the apps I have installed on the system

Why do you go to the play store to view and manage installed apps? If you swipe up from home screen you should get to the app drawer. Or Settings > Apps.

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oersted an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's simply optimized to upsell you on other apps when you are there for a different purpose.

Just how supermarkets are designed, IKEA is the most egregious, they try to force you to look at and tempt you with a whole load of other products on your way to getting what you came for.

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close04 39 minutes ago | parent [-]

But you go to IKEA for IKEA and get IKEA. With the phone stores or search engines you go to them for $result and you get $something_else.

It's similar but not quite the same. Even the parallel with the physical world fails us here, IKEA can't put everyone's desired product at the entrance. Google can.

	▲	buellerbueller 10 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		When I go to IKEA for a desk chair, I have to walk though many other unrelated things to see the desk chairs. The difference is that IKEA sells IKEA only.

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buellerbueller 11 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am not baffled, because managing and viewing your already-installed apps is almost certainly lower marginal revenue than showing new apps, for the bulk of app store users.

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amelius 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As an aside, am I the only one who has problems finding the Play Store icon amidst the various Google tools? All these icons look the same. They're basically all red/green/yellow/blue.

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cryptoz 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Opening the App Store to download a bunch of apps - in general - is probably the #1 thing people are doing when they open the App Store. Of course, installing a specific app is a top use case. But I think you're just not the average user. Lots of people open the App Store frequently to just check out what's available.

~10 years ago I would do this all the time. It's fun, kind of like surfin' the net was back in the old days, but in a walled garden of applications.

	▲	frbr 11 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It seems plausible that casual browsing and downloading remains a significant use case. Apple surely wouldn't design the App Store focusing on discovery this way otherwise. Not sure about the #1 activity hypothesis. What I'm certain about though is that the App Store is deeply broken and they've started rushing down the path of platform "enshittification" (real thing) where online platforms become less useful, less enjoyable, or less user-friendly.
	▲	y0eswddl an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		is there actually any data to back up the claim that the "#1 thing people do" is open the app store to see what's available besides your singular story about what you used to do a decade ago when all of this was much more novel in general?
	▲	soco an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I'm surprised to hear this, as I am in the same boat as the other poster. Of course it makes sense, they wouldn't build that junk if there weren't junk consumers on the market. But I still can't grasp the concept of "just installing apps".