Newsstand was a visual shelf accessible directly on the iOS home screen, similar in style to iBooks.

The Newsstand icon updated with images of the latest front covers, and displayed a notification indicator for new editions.

[2] Newsstand compatibility was determined by the Boolean value "UINewsstandApp" in an app's info.plist file, which could be unauthorizedly edited on jailbroken devices.

Apple expressed the intention to replace the file system with easier forms of knowing where documents are; iCloud is one example.

[7] Apple addressed this with the release of iOS 5.1, which removes this bypass method, so Newsstand was then completely unable to be nested inside other folders.

[2] Many comments on Apple's own forums and many other technology websites showed that users of iOS devices wished that the Newsstand icon could be hidden or removed completely if they never intended to use it.