Google Ordered to Improve Third-Party App Store Experience in Play Store

Google began offering third-party app store downloads in the Play Store earlier this week, but US District Judge James Donato says the company isn’t doing enough. After reviewing the process for accessing the first non-Google store, Donato ruled that Google has added unnecessary “anticompetitive friction,” ordering the company to rectify the issues. While Epic and Google are patching things up with a global partnership agreement, the two are still on opposite sides of the antitrust case in the US. Google lost the case in 2023, and the intervening years have been about determining how to implement remedies to address Google’s anticompetitive behavior. One of the court’s key elements is the requirement that Google include third-party app stores in the Play Store, giving users an easy way to get apps from non-Google sources. Aptoide Games became the first such app store recently. However, Google worked hard to avoid this outcome, attempting to settle with Epic to keep third-party app stores out. When it was forced to admit the Aptoide store under the terms of the ruling, Google didn’t exactly put up a banner welcoming third-party app stores. In fact, Judge Donato found in a Thursday hearing that Google’s implementation was not good enough, according to The Verge. While there is a link to the Play Store’s alternative app store page, it’s buried several levels deep in its confusing menus. Epic lawyer Yonatan Even showed the court that even searching for “app store” and “aptoide” didn’t show the intended results like any other search. Instead, the Play Store shows an “are you looking for” banner that links to the third-party app store page. Google’s lawyers contended in the hearing that Epic had already agreed that app stores are in a special category due to their expanded permissions, so the extra step was appropriate. The court didn’t buy that explanation, though. “That is not acceptable,” said Donato. “That has to be fixed. I want every possible variation that’s even only 70 percent properly phrased.” Another problem is the process of actually installing the store. When you finally get to the page with Aptoide (and eventually other stores), there is no install button, as you’d get with an app or game in the store. A “view” button opens another dialog to actually install. Again, Donato said this additional step was unnecessary and seemed geared toward discouraging users from downloading alternative stores. He said the button must change to “install” instead of “view.” Google’s legal team agreed to make these changes, and Donato gave the company one week, noting they should contact him if there is any problem with that timeline. So we can expect a smoother install experience for alternative app stores very soon. It’s possible that once this process is complete, Epic will finally take advantage of the ruling it worked toward for years and release its own storefront in Google Play. For now, Aptoide stands alone.