Google allows rival app store Aptoide Games onto the Play Store in the US

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TL;DR

Aptoide Games is coming to Google Play in the US, letting Android users install a competing app store without sideloading an APK.

The move follows years of legal pressure from Epic Games and Google’s recent changes allowing qualifying third-party app stores onto the US Play Store.

This could make alternative Android app stores more accessible, giving users new ways to discover apps and developers more options for distributing them.

Google Play is about to do something that would have sounded pretty strange not too long ago: let you download another app store from inside Google’s own app store. Aptoide has announced that Aptoide Games, its gaming-focused Android marketplace, is coming to Google Play in the US. That means you’ll be able to search for Aptoide Games on the Play Store, hit install, and end up with an entirely separate place to find and download games on your phone.

It’s one of the clearest signs yet that Google’s grip on Android app distribution is starting to loosen, and the long-running Epic Games fight has a lot to do with how we got here. Android has always been more open than an iPhone. You can install apps from outside Google Play, and alternative stores have existed for years. The problem is that the process still isn’t something the average person is likely to feel particularly comfortable with.