HACKINTOSH.ORG | Macintosh discussion forums

Apple Removes 11 Categories From the Mac App Store Categories Tab [Update: They're Back]

Apple has slashed the number of app categories listed in the Mac App Store (https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/mac-app-store/)'s Categories tab, an apparently intentional move that may irk Mac users and developers who rely on the tab to aid app discoverability.





<img src="(http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2018/11/mac-app-store-categories-removed-1-800x405.jpg)" alt="" width="800" height="405" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-664097" />


The tab now lists just 10 categories, down from the 21 it had listed since the revamped <!---->Mac App Store<!----> debuted with the launch of macOS Mojave (https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/macos-10-14/) in September. The missing categories include Finance, Lifestyle, Sports, Weather, Medical, Travel, Education, Reference, Entertainment, Health & Fitness, and News. That leaves the following 10 categories that users can still browse individually:


<div style="float: left; width: 50%;"><ul><li>Business</l>


<li>Developer Tools</li>


<li>Games </li>


<li>Graphics & Design</li>


<li>Music </li></ul> </div><div style="float: right; width: 50%;"><ul><li> Photography </li>


<li> Productivity </li>


<li>Social Networking</li>


<li>Utilities </li>


<li>Video</li>


<li></li></ul></div>



When a developer submits their app to Apple for inclusion on the <!---->Mac App Store<!---->, they can assign the app a primary category and a secondary category. The primary category is particularly important for discoverability, as this is the one in which the app appears when users browse the <!---->Mac App Store<!----> or filter search results. Up until yesterday, it also determined the app's placement among the 21 categories listed in the Categories tab.





<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">@AppleSupport (https://twitter.com/AppleSupport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) <!---->Mac App Store<!----> is no longer showing all categories, missing Finance, Medical and other categories. Reproducible on different Macs. pic.twitter.com/PUtN95GxdN (https://t.co/PUtN95GxdN)</p>&mdash; Debit &amp; Credit (@DebitCreditApp) November 1, 2018 (https://twitter.com/DebitCreditApp/status/1058076692097298432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">OK, thanks. As it turns out, what you are noticing is expected behavior. We always appreciate hearing customer feedback. You can leave your thoughts here: https://t.co/eTPVYVFyd8 (https://t.co/eTPVYVFyd8)</p>&mdash; Apple Support (@AppleSupport) November 1, 2018 (https://twitter.com/AppleSupport/status/1058099610194006017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


</center>It's unclear at present why Apple has decided to hamstring the Categories tab, as the categories that are missing are still being used to classify apps in the <!---->Mac App Store<!---->, and Apple's documentation for developers on choosing a category for their Mac app (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/categories/) hasn't changed. Currently, iPhone and iPad (https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/ipad/) users remain able to browse all 21 iOS app categories individually in the iOS App Store (https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/app-store/) app.





We've reached out to Apple for comment regarding the change to the <!---->Mac App Store<!----> and will update this article if we learn more.





<strong>Update: </strong>Apple brought back the 11 missing categories in the Categories tab as of Saturday morning. Why they were removed in the first place remains a mystery.

<div class="linkback">Related Roundup: macOS Mojave (https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/macos-10-14/)</div><div class="linkback">Tag: Mac App Store (https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/mac-app-store/)</div>
Discuss this article (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-removes-categories-from-app-store.2151799/) in our forums

<div class="feedflare">
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MacRumors-Front?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img> (http://feeds.macrumors.com/~ff/MacRumors-Front?a=ZdZXbgXHXzo:UVdyKMUkgfk:yIl2AUoC8zA) <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MacRumors-Front?d=6W8y8wAjSf4" border="0"></img> (http://feeds.macrumors.com/~ff/MacRumors-Front?a=ZdZXbgXHXzo:UVdyKMUkgfk:6W8y8wAjSf4) <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/MacRumors-Front?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img> (http://feeds.macrumors.com/~ff/MacRumors-Front?a=ZdZXbgXHXzo:UVdyKMUkgfk:qj6IDK7rITs)
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MacRumors-Front/~4/ZdZXbgXHXzo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>

Source: Apple Removes 11 Categories From the Mac App Store Categories Tab [Update: They're Back] (https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/02/apple-removes-categories-from-app-store/)