iPhone and iPad owners may soon be able to find apps somewhere other than Apple’s App Store.
The world is changing, and mobile app stores are changing with them. In fact, depending on where you are in the world, you may already have access to an alternative to Apple’s App Store on your iPhone and iPad.
If you’re in Europe, you may actually be able to access a different place to get your iPhone apps from, thanks in part to an EU regulation, the Digital Markets Act. The regulation covers quite a bit, but one of the aspects is to force operating system makers to support alternative app marketplaces, a situation that means developers can release things and circumvent the App Store normally required for iPhone and iPad app distribution.
Apple has previously noted alternative app marketplaces can open an iPhone to more risks due to a lack of protection. Simply put, other app stores may not have the same rigorous checks apps made available on the official Apple App Store are supposed to go through.
That means an app you might get through a different app marketplace could open your phone to problems, particularly if the app hasn’t been checked. It could also be totally fine, but when you’re developing an app for iPhone, development is only one part of the journey. Getting it approved for release is another.
Alternative app stores don’t typically have the same requirement, which can be good and bad. However, alternative app stores do come with their own feature: they may support apps Apple doesn’t approve or allow.
And one of those alternative app stores could be coming to Australia, it seems.
The first of the alternatives, “AltStore” is apparently on the way to Australia with an expected launch by the end of this year, delivering its App Store alternative as a feature originally introduced in iOS 17 when people in Europe got to try the alternative app marketplace feature on their iPhones first.
We weren’t aware this was active in Australia, but based on AltStore’s announcement, it seems like an alternative app store could be on the way in the near future, and could end up being the first of many.
Android users have long had alternative app stores, such as Samsung’s own Galaxy-based store, Huawei’s App Gallery, and the Amazon store for Android apps, making this nothing new on that ecosystem. However, an alternative to the Apple App Store is definitely new for Australians, and may mean a release of apps Apple won’t allow.
Initially, that included game system and computer emulators, but since then, Apple’s App Store has opened up to those apps, making them work on their platform.
Not everything might get approved there, though, so if you’re curious as to what those apps could look like, that could be coming, it seems.
