Third-party app stores have been part of the Android experience since literally its earliest days, with the SlideME store predating Google’s official Android Market by several months. Since then we’ve seen plenty of other third-party stores rise up, but they’ve always required extra hoops on the user’s end, like sideloading. That’s no longer the case, as Google Play recently added its very first officially authorized third-party store.
This is a major shift in Google’s behavior, but it didn’t come from kindness. Epic Games spent years fighting a legal and PR battle against Apple’s and Google’s app store monopolies. The effort paid off, as it led to several changes, including the passing of anti-monopoly laws like Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). These laws require Google to open up the platform to allow competing storefronts.
