The first rival Android app store just arrived in the US Play Store

Screenshot of Aptoide Games as seen on the Play Store website

Google appears to have prepared a dedicated section for third-party app stores within Google Play, and Aptoide is just the first. | Screenshot: Google Play Store

Following the latest twist in Google’s legal battles with Epic, US Android users are now able to open Google’s Play Store and download a third-party digital store with its own selection of apps. Aptoide, a store specializing in mobile games, is the first to become available.

Third-party app stores have always been available on Android, which is a more open platform than iOS in that respect. However, until now they’ve only been available if pre-installed on a device – as with the Amazon Appstore on Fire tablets or Samsung’s Galaxy Store – or installed via sideloading. Listing rival storefronts within the Play Store makes them much easier for …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Read more @ TheVerge

Latest posts

OpenAI’s rogue AI model incident was worse than we thought

OpenAI released a report breaking down how people use ChatGPT and who they are. | Image: The Verge In July, an unreleased OpenAI model broke...

Nvidia is about to be a hundred-billion-dollar-a-quarter company

Nvidia's predicting it will pull in $108 billion in revenue within just a few months. It wouldn't be the first company to rake in...

The ‘cheap smartphone era is over’ and price hikes are ‘permanent,’ bleak forecast reveals

According to the latest analyst forecasts, higher smartphone prices won’t be changing anytime soon amid a record-setting drop in shipments. Read more @ 9to5google

Review: Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold just barely keeps up

The foldable market has been moving fast, with hardware and software we saw just a few years ago having been completely rethought and drastically...

Google Keep for Android rolls out ‘Find in note’ search

The last big update to Google Keep was at the start of this year with the reminders-Tasks migration. Google has now updated Keep for...

Google’s new AI transcription edits out your ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’

Google has updated Gemini Audio with new transcription capabilities that automatically detect specialized jargon and more than 85 languages. Gemini 3.5 Transcribe is a...

Apple Maps has ads now

Ads have started popping up in Apple Maps, following Apple's announcement in March that it would let businesses pay for top spots. They're appearing...

The Switch 2’s $50 price increase is happening next week

This is a friendly reminder that the Nintendo Switch 2 will jump in price by $50 starting on September 1st. That’s next Tuesday! The...

Being a mom is hard — the heat is making it harder

It's 8:52 AM and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) where I live in Southern California. My husband just came back from a morning outing...

Amazon knocks $150 off Pixel 11 phones, with up to $200 in gift cards

The Pixel 11 in hibiscus. | Image: The Verge If you’ve been on the fence about Google’s latest Pixel phones, this might be your best...