iOS 13 did away with the old Updates tab in the App Store, and replaced it with Apple Arcade. That’s pretty bad news if you don’t want to use Apple Arcade. But on the plus side, you can access your app updates from the Home screen using 3D Touch. And the good news is that, in iOS 13, you can also use this trick on the iPad.
3D Touch, Haptic Touch, long-press
Photo: Cult of Mac
Instead of opening the App Store, and then tapping your little account avatar to see a list of pending updates, you can just use the App Store’s Home screen icon. Whether it’s a 3D Touch, a haptic touch, a hard press or a long press, the result is the same on any device running iOS 13. You’ll get a pop-over menu with a list of options:
- Purchased.
- Updates.
- Redeem.
- Search.
All of those are useful, but for today, we’re interested in the second item on the list — Updates. Tap that, and the App Store app will open directly into the new floating account panel, which includes all your App Store info, access to subscriptions, a list of pending and/or recent updates, and even lets you delete apps without having to search your Home screen for them
Auto-updates
I keep automatic updates switched on (and have for years), but even so, most apps are never automatically updated. So just pull on this screen to refresh, and hit Update All to do just that. It behaves just the same as the old pre-iOS 13 Updates tab, only it’s more cramped and harder to use. Seriously, Apple, couldn’t you have made the panel bigger on the 13-inch iPad?
This new addition to the iPad is enough to make up for the relegation of my favorite App Store tab to a hidden panel. And — bonus — this new panel actually checks for updates way faster than the old one.
