Live Roundups Editor's Desk Insights Executive Ops Weather About 🔍
Home › Technology › The first rival Android app store just arrived in the US...
Technology

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

The first rival Android app store just arrived in the US Play Store
The Verge Monday 10 August 2026, 11:30 UTC By Dominic Preston 1 min read
Key Points

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.

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 specialized 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.

Android (ORG) the US Play Store Google (EVENT) Google Play (ORG) Aptoide (PERSON) Google (ORG) Epic (ORG) US Android (ORG) the Amazon Appstore (ORG) Samsung (ORG) Galaxy Store (ORG) the Play Store (LOCATION)
Originally published by The Verge Read original →

Related Stories

US does its robotics industry no favours by fencing it off from China

Concession speeches follow a formula: the vocabulary of defiance, thanks to the faithful, a promise that the fight goes on. Last month, Brendan Carr, chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), essentially delivered one on behalf of American robotics. Acting on findings from a White House task force, Carr added new foreign-made humanoid robots, quadrupeds and power inverters to the agency’s Covered List, denying them the authorisation nearly every electronic device requires...

South China Morning Post 4m ago

Meta to open source its most powerful AI model as it takes swipe at OpenAI, Anthropic

Meta said it would open source its most powerful AI models and launch new ones designed for consumer devices, as it looks to rival leading labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. In an Instagram video posted Monday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would open the weights for its latest AI model Muse Spark 1.2, meaning it can be downloaded and used by the public. Weights refer to the calculations and rules that determine how the AI works and behaves.

CNBC 11m ago

What happens when medical students rely on AI – and never develop their own judgment? | Simar Bajaj and Joseph Sakran

AI’s danger isn’t just in experts losing the ability to reason. It’s that trainees may never learn how to do so in the first placeIn healthcare, there’s growing concern over doctors becoming less clinically adept as they increasingly rely on AI tools. But what about the trainees – medical students, residents and fellows – who are using these tools before they’ve built their own clinical judgment?

The Guardian Tech 33m ago

The Outlaw Chemist Teaching People How to Make Drugs From Scratch

“This is probably the most important video I have ever done,” William “Willy” Myco tells his nearly 2,500 paying Patreon subscribers. The video, posted on Halloween 2024, offers viewers step-by-step instructions on how to produce what he claimed is “100 percent pure LSD.” Wearing a baseball cap that said “Mycelium Familia” over his shaved head with his brown beard peeking out from beneath his mask, he declares his tutorial on synthesizing the psychedelic over the course of three days to be...

Wired 34m ago