How can I browse or search the iOS app store from my desktop?

Now that iTunes no longer lists apps in the iTunes store, the only way I can find to browse or search the iOS app store is on an iOS device itself. This is rather inconvenient when, say, I'm trying to do research on which of several related apps to get - or even if I just want to look up info on an app while I'm at my computer and my iPad isn't nearby.

Is there any official way to browse iOS apps from a desktop computer?

Solution 1:

Apple have very quietly released iTunes 12.6.3 - compatible with iOS 11 & still containing the App Store.

Apple KB: Deploy apps in a business environment with iTunes

You need the direct link, it apparently does not appear as an update.
Mac link.
Windows 32 bit link.
Windows 64-bit Link.

If you've already been using 12.7 you may have luck importing your 12.7 lib to a clean 12.6.3 Library, as outlined on MacRumors, but I had no joy.

I ended up restoring a backup of my Library [just the catalog not all the tunes] from a time before i updated to 12.7.

Solution 2:

I couldn't find an Apple site where you can search the iTunes store online.

That said, many other features are available online from Apple, and there are third-party search options.

You can access top charts and featured stuff here: https://www.apple.com/itunes/charts/ (Trying to click the Shop the iTunes Store now button on that page just opens iTunes, which can't access the iOS App Store anymore.)

I accidentally stumbled upon this page with the Categories, so you can browse apps by category alphabetically or by what's popular: https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios/id36?mt=8. This looks like an old page, and the interface isn't great.

Some unofficial search workarounds might be Googling the app name and adding site:itunes.apple.com/us/app/ to your query, or using http://appshopper.com/.

Hope this helps.

Solution 3:

To supplement the other responses, some quick Googling led me to fnd, a website that lets you search the app store. Here's a 2014 review of it on Cult of Mac, so it's been around and working for some time.

Solution 4:

Apple maintains public-facing webpages for all apps in the App Store at itunes.apple.com. If you use Google or an equivalent search engine and limit the results to that domain, you can effectively search the App Store from any web browser.

For example, if you search the itunes.apple.com domain for "to do", you'll get results for Microsoft To-Do, Wunderlist, Do!, etc. Click any of those links and you'll get effectively the same listing page as what you would get in the App Store app on iOS devices.