Introducing Facades 2
Explore store history, share visit receipts, create custom lists, and more.
Today I’m launching a major update to Facades, the field guide to Apple Retail Stores. I’ve added detailed timelines filled with store history, new ways to track and share your store visits, custom lists, and much more. This update is the product of feedback from readers like you, and I hope you’ll enjoy what I’ve made.
You can download the update now on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Timeline
Facades represents every store in its current form, but many stores also have a rich past. Tap on the Timeline button on any store’s detail page to explore its history and grand opening. You’ll see the earliest available photo of the store’s appearance, its initial location and name, and significant events like moves, reopenings, major renovations, renames, and anniversaries. There are links to Apple press releases, images of grand opening art, and official photo galleries, many of which have been offline for years. I’ve created more than 600 images representing every single known gift distributed at a store opening/reopening.
Visit receipts
Now, every time you add a store visit, you’ll receive a “receipt” to mark the occasion, complete with a fun printing animation. Visit receipts are designed to match the date of your visit. There are four distinct eras: 2001–2005, 2006–2012, 2013–2017, and 2018–present. You can save any receipt as an image to the Photos app or share a summary of all of your visits. For travelers, this update also includes support for adding multiple visits at the same store.
Custom lists
In addition to bookmarks, favorites, and a wish list, you can now create custom store lists and view all the stores on any list in a dedicated map. This is a handy tool for trip planning or research. Lists can be shared as images or a CSV file that can be edited in Numbers.
Search filters
Power users will appreciate the ability to build advanced search filters on the main store list. For example, with just a few taps you can find every store that opened in January in the United States or every store with a Forum that was also renamed.
Shortcuts
Quickly view a list of nearby stores or search for any location using new app shortcuts accessible from Spotlight. You can even assign these shortcuts to the Action button on iPhone 15 Pro.
And more
More people use Facades in mainland China than anywhere else in the world. I’ve put extra effort into ensuring that the app is accessible to all users. Thanks to the help of a very dedicated friend, Facades is fully localized in Chinese.
Unbelievably detailed documentation from @MojavePanda was instrumental in confirming the opening day gifts for many locations. A big thank you is also owed to my brother Robert, Junyi, Filip, and the amazing group of friends on TestFlight who so willingly offered feedback and provided design suggestions.
Facades 2 is free, but hundreds of hours of research went into its development. If you’d like to support my work, the best way to do so is by paying for this newsletter. You can also buy me a coffee or send a tip on Venmo.
There are many more details in this update not mentioned here. Have fun exploring.
Featured image
Apple 福岡
Photo via @so__la_01.
Thank you, Michael!
This update is insane, in the best way possible! I cannot imagine how much work went into this.