Epic Games Wins: Aptoide Games Launches as First Third-Party Store on Google Play in the U.S.
Google complied with the ruling of California judge James Donato, Third-party app stores are coming to Google Play on July 22. The American IT giant allowed developers (currently only in the USA) to open third-party stores within Google Play, without mandatory linkage to its payment system, but with an annual fee for security services.
The first such store has already appeared in Google Play, and it is the Aptoide Games platform, which specializes in the release of mobile games. Previously, they were available only as pre-installed applications or downloaded from third-party platforms, but now American Android device users can easily find Aptoide Games on Google Play and use it as a standalone store.
The CEO and co-founder of Aptoide, Paulo Trezentos, commented on this event:
More than a decade ago, Android users lost the ability to find alternative app stores through Google Play. Today, the situation is changing. Users have more choices, developers have additional distribution opportunities, and Android becomes a more open and competitive ecosystem.
For convenient app store search in Google Play, the company recommends either entering its name or using the general tag "app store".
Aptoide became the first company to take advantage of the rule changes and definitely won't be the last, but, unfortunately, it remains unknown when alternative stores will appear outside the USA.
Source: Engadget
