How to Download an App using only your iPhone – no iTunes store required!

On your iPhone you will find a button that says “App Store”. It should be on your first screen unless you’ve added and rearranged your apps. If you touch this button it takes you directly to….you guessed it…the App Store. Here you can browse apps directly, without having to go through the iTunes store. I’ll admit that the iTunes store is one of my least favorite things about the iPhone experience. It’s always slow on my computer and then I get impatient and click things and it gets slower and I click more things. It’s a vicious cycle.

Once you’ve opened up the App Store you’ll see a row of buttons on the bottom of your screen. I’ll explain each one.

Featured- This gives you a list of all the apps Apple wants to feature. Touch the “New” button at the top of the screen and you can see all the newest featured apps. Touch “What’s Hot” and you’ll see a current list of the most popular featured ones.

Categories- Gives you a list of all the different app categories. Touch one and you’ll find a list of twenty-five apps in that category. Along the top you’ll see “Top Paid”, “Top Free” and “Release Date”. Top Paid gives you the top twenty-five paid apps in that category. Top Free gives you the top (you guessed it) free apps. Release Dte gives you the twenty-five most recently released apps. If you can’t find what you want among those twenty-five you can touch “twenty-five more” at the bottom and so on. To get back to the main list of categories you’ll just need to touch the categories button at the top left of your screen.

Top 25 – This brings up the top twenty-five most popular apps. Not enough for you? Touch “Show Top 50” at the bottom of your screen. When you’re on this screen you’ll see two buttons that say “Top Paid” and “Top Free”. Touch them and you get exactly what they tell you.

Search – This button allows you to type in the name of an app or the name of an app seller. It’ll pull up a list of the apps that match your search.

Updates – More about this button in my “How to Update an App from my iPhone post”.

 

Once you’ve found an app that you’re interested in select it from your list. This brings up more information on the app including a description, screen shots and reviews. You’ll see a rectangle with the app price or “free” written inside it. It’ll be on the top right side of your screen. If this is the app that you absolutely must have then touch this rectangle- it’ll turn green and now say “Install”. To go through with your purchase touch the rectangle again. A pop-up will appear asking you to enter your iTunes password. Do this and touch ok.

The app store will shut now (don’t freak out) and you’ll be taken to one of your iPhone screens where you’ll see the new app icon. Underneath it will be a blue status bar and the words “loading”. The bar will fill and soon your app will be loaded on your phone, ready to go!

Many apps suggest that you restart your iPhone before opening the new app for the first time. In my experience this has been an excellent suggestion.

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