AltStore 2.0b6 - A Magical Browsing Experience

Happy Holidays Patrons 🎁

As we go into the holidays and finish out 2023, we're also finally finishing development on AltStore 2.0. But before we release 2.0 for everyone, we have a few more very exciting updates to share :)

First, we are introducing a completely redesigned Browse tab with 3 main sections:

✨ New & Updated: See what apps were recently updated from any of your sources, allowing you to see the latest changes at a glance.

🏷️ Categories: Apps can now be sorted into one of 8 categories for easier navigation - it's like we're a real app store now!

🏆 Featured: Scroll through to quickly see what are the top apps from all your sources, or tap 'See All' to view a complete list

Along with this comes a new sorting button in the top right when you view all apps for either a Category or Source. We hope this new browsing experience makes it easier to keep up with the apps you love as well as discover new experiences as you add more apps to your store.

We’ve also added an important security feature: AltStore will now ask you to review permissions when downloading an app. This new ‘Review Permissions’ screen will list all entitlements required by the app along with descriptions of what they do so you know exactly what you’re installing. Plus, when you're updating an app, you'll be asked to review all added entitlements since the previous version.

Most of all, we're excited to add full Patreon integration for developers! Now developers can distribute exclusive apps to their Patrons through AltStore,  which means you will now be able to donate to your favorite developers and download their apps all within AltStore. It should be noted that we take no percentage of any sales, so the full donation amounts go directly to developers.

We're so happy that all developers will now have the opportunity to distribute apps with Patreon like we do, and if you want to learn more about how to do this, we've added documentation to our FAQ: https://faq.altstore.io/distribute-your-apps/patreon-integration

Lastly, we have a minor update for AltServer that should fix any AltJIT issues with the latest version of pymobiledevice3. You can update to the latest version of pymobiledevice3 by using this command:

python3 -m pip install -U pymobiledevice3

We're aiming to release 2.0 early next year, and we can't thank you enough for helping us reach this point. We hope you all have a wonderful end to your year and get 2024 started off right!

Riley + Shane

Installation Instructions

If you’re already using the AltStore beta, you can update to this version from the My Apps tab.

If you're installing the beta for the first time, make sure to first link your Patreon account in the Settings tab by following these instructions: https://faq.altstore.io/patreon/altstore-beta

Release Notes

NEW

Redesigned Browse Tab

• View most recently updated apps at a glance
• Browse apps by source or by 8 new categories
• Scroll through featured apps from each source
• Change sort order of apps when browsing by source or category
• Tap category name to easily switch between categories when browsing

Patreon Integration

• Developers can now distribute Patreon-exclusive apps to their patrons
• Donate to developers' Patreons and download Patreon-exclusive apps all within AltStore
• Shows required pledge amount for Patreon apps (if provided)

Review Permissions Screen

• Asks user to review permissions when installing and updating apps
• When installing a new app, all entitlements will be shown
• When updating an app, only added entitlements will be shown

IMPROVED

News Tab

• Changed image aspect ratio to 3:2
• Updated font to use dynamic text styles

Image Caching

• Increased cache limit to reduce how often AltStore refetches images
• Clear image cache with “Clear Cache…” option in Settings

FIXED

• Fixed app sometimes freezing when installing/refreshing apps
• Fixed accidentally saving "Operation Cancelled" errors to Error Log
• Fixed squished banners on App IDs screen
• Fixed resigning apps with non-English alphanumeric characters in name
• Fixed various issues resigning certain apps
• Fixed button titles flashing when scrolling into view
• Fixed not showing build version in Settings for BETA builds