Stop by the Snap Store website today and you’ll notice it has undergone a revamp – the second redesign of the online storefront in the past 12 months, and more substantive than the first.
The search bar has now been condensed and integrated into the header section, which has also gotten rid of the “Search thousands of snaps used by millions of people across 41 Linux distributions” strapline that it has displayed since the year 2019.
The “Featured snaps” section retains its position at the top of the content area, but now it’s not led by a featured banner graphic. The icon, title, uploader, and description for each of the featured snaps are now housed within a card/box, instead of appearing free-floating as they were previously.
A new categories sidebar has been introduced. This is a navigational difference to before where categories were surfaced as sections on the homepage requiring scrolling (each section highlighted featured apps within its grouping + link to ‘see more’).
Only one section is shown on the new Snap Store homepage: ‘Featured snaps’. This should lessen the cognitive load allowing visitor focus to fall firmly on the featured picks, rather than them having to compete for attention with multiple categories highlights too.
Web Store, Snap Store, What?
Most of us open the desktop App Center (or Ubuntu Software in 23.10 and below) when we need to search, browse, and install snap packages on our systems.
The web-based store makes it possible to sift through the entire catalogue of snaps using any browser on any OS — handy if you want to check something is available while on your phone, for example.
But as snap apps run on most Linux distributions (even if those Linux distributions don’t support snap as part of its default install) the web-based Snap Store has a dual role: promoting the packaging format’s cross-distro support.
Performing an online search for “install {app} on Linux” often yields a Snap Store link amongst the top results (occasionally as the top result), indicating that this redesign will attract considerable attention.
I’m refraining from providing my own opinions on this redesign because I’ve recognized that any criticism or conjecture (no matter how constructive or well-intended) about snaps is usually greeted with fierce backlash from the format’s enthusiastic supporters.
I’m leaving the heated discussions to you all in the comments section, as all my fire-resistant undies are currently in laundry. I’m curious about your thoughts on how this redesign weighs up against the recently refreshed Flathub site…
Appreciation to Chardinson