It ’s no enigma that Apple’sApp Storehas its problem , but it generally works pretty well . Yet there ’s one thing about it that just feels perfectly useless : the review section .
Apple highlights a few followup on each app ’s page , but infuriatingly , they ’re often from many years ago . It ’s not rare to see reviews complaining about return that have long - since been fix , yet they still get highlight . When your initial opinion is base on entirely inappropriate entropy , it makes the review section borderline useless and is a terrible way to sum up entropy about an app .
plunk into an app ’s reappraisal section and you get to see the full detail of exploiter evaluation . When you do this , you ’ll usually see that Apple has sorted the recapitulation by “ most helpful . ” But how can a reassessment be view as “ most helpful ” if it ’s from half a decade ago and is no longer relevant ?
In other words , the App Store ’s review section needs a serious revamp . Browsing apps on my Mac , it ’s far too vulgar for me to see unhelpful reviews being touted as the most appropriate estimate of an app or game . Nine sentence out of ten , it ’s plain to see that that ’s far from the truth .
A potential gamechanger
Now , it looks like a pickle is on the way : contrived intelligence ( AI ) summaries . News outletMacworldrecently discovered that Apple is testing this alteration in iOS 18.4 beta 2 , which you candownload nowif you have a developer account ( it ’s obscure if they ’re available onmacOSyet ) . These AI sum-up wereteased in late 2024 , and are currently appear to users in the US on eligible app and game pages .
They use Apple Intelligence to round up past reviews into a summary that appears under the app ’s review grievance . In Macworld ’s example , an AI summary forChatGPTread : “ Users say the app is helpful and convenient . They apprize its power to reply questions and its riotous reception multiplication . They also praise its advanced interpreter modality . ”
This feature could be a likely gamechanger . It might intend you no longer have to filter through outdated and irrelevant reviews to empathize what people recall of an app or secret plan . Instead , all the central information would be right there on the app ’s principal page , without you take to plunge into the reassessment at all .
If it works , it could put pay to my principal gripe with the App Store . By seeing a summary of brushup instead of a single paragraph , your first feeling of an app will no longer be tainted by whatever disused and unhelpful review Apple ’s unintelligible algorithm decide to serve up first . And that could make App Store pages far more utilitarian than they are right now .
Not a foolproof solution
All that suppose , I ’m not expecting this to be a foolproof solvent . After all , this raw feature of speech swear on Apple Intelligence’ssummarization abilities . As we ’ve study already when itspectacularly go wrong to summarize storiesposted by BBC News , these synopses can be extremely inaccurate and prone to mistakes .
We also need more information on how exactly these summaries will work . How much weightiness will they give to old reviews ? Will they admit review at all if they ’re over a certain eld ? My concern is that summary could comprise complaints that were handle years ago , thereby resurfacing entropy that ends up lead astray readers .
It ’s also important to remember that there are other glaring outcome in the App Store that this AI feature wo n’t be able to fix . Search results often rick up whole unrelated apps and games , or they show ads more prominently above your actual search results , further muddying the waters . The App Store review mental process , meanwhile , has proven to be whimsical and fanatic , and that ’s something that AI sum-up wo n’t put decent .
Still , this move by Apple might be a stair in the right guidance . App Store revue urgently need aid , and it ’s adept that Apple is focusing its eye on them . clock time will tell if Apple Intelligence is the right agency to fix this problem .
