This should make it easier for people working or studying in businesses and education organisations, respectively, to access iOS app that aren’t necessarily design for the general public. Unlisted apps are those that, According to Apple, not “suited for public distribution” would fall into the “unlisted” category. These include apps for private events, research studies, or employee resources. As such, unlisted apps won’t appear in any App Store categories, as well as recommendations, charts and search results; users could still access them through Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager. But with the ability to access unlisted apps in the App Store via a distributed link, this should make it easer for app developers to share their apps and for users to access them. Developers still need to go through the process of submitting an request to get a link to an unlisted app, but once that’s done access to the app can be easily provided to the relevant people through a link; this could be shared via email or in corporate messaging channels. While this move is very much a tool for developers, having easier access to unlisted apps could simply make life easier for iPhone and iPad users working for an organization that’s rather Apple product centric. This approach could also be applied to iOS game developers, who could more easily share their early access games to a limited amount of testers.
