Apex Account And Synced UX Store Update

Since the last update, the work has moved from proving that official UX sync could work into making that system feel more real across the whole platform.

That has meant tightening the shared Apex account story, bringing the UX Store into better alignment across Companion and the website, fixing a Classic publishing problem in Face Studio, and getting both iOS and macOS release delivery into a healthier state.

The common thread in all of it is consistency. The products are starting to feel less like adjacent tools and more like connected surfaces in one system.

The Apex Account Story Is Taking Shape

One of the biggest changes in this stretch is that the shared Apex account is no longer just something that exists in Companion.

It now has a clearer role across the platform. Companion supports the real account flow, the website now has a site-wide sign-in experience in the header, and official UX acquisition is being treated as an account-based action instead of a loose file download.

That is an important product shift. Originally, the goal was to avoid accounts in Companion altogether. That would have been a simpler story if everything remained purely local. But once official UX sync and multi-device library behavior became core platform goals, identity stopped being optional.

The result now is a more coherent model: browse publicly when that makes sense, but use one Apex account when cloud-backed ownership, downloads, and sync actually matter.

The Website Now Behaves More Like A Real Product Surface

This round also pushed the website much closer to the rest of the platform.

The UX Store now understands signed-in state, download rules, and synced library behavior in a more intentional way. Users can browse the catalog openly, but downloading or later purchasing official and creator UX is framed as an account-backed action that belongs to the same ecosystem as Companion and Face Studio.

That sounds like a small wording change, but it matters. It makes the website feel less like a detached marketing surface and more like a real front door to the product.

The web sign-in path also received a substantial amount of hardening. Apple sign-in now completes more reliably, the callback flow is cleaner, the signed-in state persists properly, and the website no longer strands users on a confusing callback page after a successful sign-in.

There is still one visible cleanup left here: Apple web sign-in still inherits Face Studio branding in one part of the flow because the shared Apple web configuration has not been fully migrated yet. But the functional path is now working, which is the more important step.

Official UX Acquisition Feels More Connected

The official UX story is also better than it was a few days ago.

Companion can already browse official UX, download it directly in-app, record it in the synced library, and restore it on another signed-in device. The website is now moving into that same account-based model instead of remaining a disconnected download surface.

That means the UX ecosystem is starting to behave like one system:

• Face Studio publishes official and creator UX
• Companion can acquire and sync it
• the website can present and gate it through the same account model

That is the right direction. It reduces ambiguity about what belongs to the user, what syncs, and which actions are local-only versus cloud-backed.

Face Studio Closed An Important Classic Gap

There was also a meaningful product bug fix in Face Studio during this stretch.

Classic UX publishing had a metadata mismatch that caused publish failures even while Edge publishing worked. That has now been corrected so Classic publishing succeeds on both macOS and iOS as expected.

This matters because the system cannot claim real creator support if one of the core device families still falls out of the publishing path. Fixing that gap makes the official and creator UX pipeline more trustworthy overall.

Apple Delivery Is In Better Shape Too

Another important step in this round was getting the Apple delivery side into a healthier state.

Companion now has a working iOS TestFlight path on Xcode 26, which matters because of Apple's tooling deadlines. The macOS release path also had its signing and provisioning behavior cleaned up enough to upload successfully once the correct manual profile path was in place.

That kind of work is not especially glamorous, but it changes the platform in a practical way. Features are worth less if shipping them remains fragile every time a release is needed.

Where This Leaves The Platform

The overall picture is stronger now than it was at the start of the week.

The Apex account is becoming a real cross-platform identity layer. The website is acting more like a product surface instead of a passive catalog. Official and creator UX acquisition is getting tied to ownership and sync in a more deliberate way. Face Studio's publishing path is more dependable. And the Apple release story is less brittle than it was before.

There is still cleanup left, especially around fully neutralizing the remaining Face Studio branding in Apple web sign-in. But the direction is right.

The platform is starting to feel more unified, and that is the real story in this round of work.